Another new guest author from the south of the border has joined the team, Scott Gordon of Evanston, Illinois near Chicago. He sent me some information about Reconstruction Ale by the Abita Brewing Company from near New Orleans and I thought it would be a good intro to a review of some of the brews of Abita that I got a while back in New York.
Let's see what we had to say...
The Abita Party Pack
Here is what Scott had to say:
After Hurricane Katrina spared its Louisiana brewery, Abita Beer launched a fundraiser featuring hats, t-shirts, commemorative pins, and, of course, a special new brew for the occasion. It's called fleur-de-lis Restoration Ale, and in terms of flavor, it's more FEMA than Category 5.I think that is a fair review in line with my experiences. When I pop open an Abita Light, it doesn't take long to know that this is a light, light take on beer. There is some of the tell tale weird roundness that I suspect is made from seaweed derivatives but there isn't that lip stickiness of brewer's sugar, the bad brewer's cheat. There is, however, a touch of grain that gives me some hope and in the finish a bit of metallic hop. By comparison, TurboDog pours a garnet mahogany with a mocha head resolving to foam. There are some nice raisin and chocolate notes tangling a bit with that same steel hop jag. An interesting but firm take on a richer brown ale. What I don't really care for is the significant hardness of the water. You mouth starts to pucker a bit between sips. For me, this is a harbinger of a hangover and I can already feel the scalp tightening - but I get that from anything with too many sulfates. It also lends a general saltiness to the brew which could act against the all important soft water moreishness we crave in ales as Scott noted.Abita debuted Reconstruction Ale in October and is donating $1 from the sale of each six-pack to the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Fund. It says the beer is made with a mix of English Pale, Lager, Crystal and Cara Pills malted barley. That doesn't surprise me, because this isn't a beer that really hits you with any one flavor. If Reconstruction wasn't called an ale, I wouldn't necessarily know what it was. Sure, it's got strong hints of pale ale. There are also strong hints of a near-tasteless light lager. I started out enjoying it, but for some reason it tasted more and more watery as I went along. In fact, it's hard to describe the flavor in any detail, because it just doesn't assert itself. Maybe it's just ever-so-subtle, but what's subtlety without a little boldness?
Appropriately, I encountered this at Dixie Kitchen, a Cajun restaurant in Evanston, Illinois (just north of Chicago). I sipped it down before a meal of fried chicken and mashed potatoes. Two things about that: First, unlike every other beer I've had just before eating, it didn't really increase my appetite (and no, I wasn't filling up on the free corn cakes). Second, this beer doesn't really seem to complement Cajun food, though I can't think of a beer that would—maybe a rich dark ale like Negra Modelo.
I wouldn't actively avoid Reconstruction, though. It's a good introduction for people who aren't into ales yet. The first few times I had Sierra Nevada and Red Hook, they left this aftertaste, kind of like a big disgusting belch after a Mexican meal. That turned me off of ale for a while. And drinking Goose Island's India Pale Ale, though I like it, gets pretty overwhelming, building up a weird, faintly vomit-like odor as I go along. It gives me the feeling of running up a steep hill while someone at the top sprays tear gas at me. Reconstruction Ale, though, is as inoffensive as a Bill Cosby album - just not necessarily as amusing.
In the end, you have to be frank. This is an old style regional brewery like the good folks at breweries like High Falls in Rochester NY that make Genesee Cream and other good if plainer brews. There is nothing wrong with a simple brew made pretty well. And their work to help the reconstruction of New Orleans is a fine way to use what they can do for the common good. I would imagine the hard salty aspect would work well with seafood. Who knows? Maybe that is the plan.
Comments
Donavan Hall - February 22, 2006 1:55 pm
I wrote back in December about Abita Christmas Ale that I think Abita is moving away from it's roots as a producer of bold beers and going for a more "mainstream" light-lager-ish line up. I miss the days of Abita's XXX-mas Stout. Their Amber and Turbodog have remained a constant over the years. To my taste Turbodog has to be consumed very early. If you buy it right from the brewery, it's great. If you buy it in a six pack on Long Island who knows how many months after bottling, then it's not so special.
Alan - February 22, 2006 2:12 pm
Hi Donavan,
Do you agree with the hard water observation? It's one of the firmest breweries for the water that I can think of having come across.
Donavan Hall - February 25, 2006 9:54 am
They use the water from the spring there in Abita and sure there's plenty of minerals in it. I suppose I'm used to the hardness since I've been drinking Abita all my beer drinking life. Turbodog was one of the first beers that I started drinking regularly. I'll open a Turbodog today and try to form some more informed thoughts about the hardness. I just happen to have a six pack of Turbodog in my beer cooler. Lucky me.
Alan - February 25, 2006 1:42 pm
I have four Abitas in the fridge that I will fob off on family. There is just way too much hardness for me to find it at all enjoyable.
Alan - March 4, 2006 5:41 pm
After the second Golden and Christmas ales went into the marinade, I thought I would give the last one, the Purple Haze, a chance. Nice wheat ale with a light touch of raspberry. The beer pours light amber with a pinky/purple touch. White rim and lacy foam. The beer is grassy, light with a bit of a generic berry flavour. The label says the raspberry is added after filtering so the beer is a bit sucked out from the middle. Still, quaffable and refreshing and no real feel of the hard ale thing that the other Abitas had.
Ken Carman - March 16, 2006 6:51 pm
I used to stop by the brewery all the time before they moved it. Then, when they first opened the old brewery as a brewpub, they did a Christmas Barley Wine that was outstanding. But since then I have found stops there to be far less than exciting, and too often boring. It reminds me a little of Federal Jack's in Kennebunkport. Both came into their regions with brew styles unheard of at the time, and I'll give them credit for that and enriching the marginal (at best) brew scene back then. Hell, Abita alone gave birth to McGuires, which I thank them many times over for. Both Abita and Federal were pretty much the first in their regions. But regional innovative brewers have gone far beyond what they seem to be willing to brew. I believe pushing the envelope is very important, more important than just producing the same aging product line over and over. They need to compete. Time to step up to the vats, or admit to the superior creativeness of their "offspring."
exAbitian - July 5, 2006 2:29 pm
The originals were fantastic. The company had a take-over of sorts and got rid of their original brewmaster, started making a series of compromises to their recipes in order to begin a larger distribution and to increase shelf-life, and quality has been slipping ever since. The Golden, which used to be excellent, is now just another beer. The Light is unremarkable in every way. The best bets are the seasonal beers if you can get them quickly. They make a summer wheat, the above mentioned Christmas Ale, and used to make a Fall Fest although I didn't find any last fall.
Alan - August 4, 2006 5:28 pm
A good story on the state of Abita.
Chi - January 9, 2009 5:38 pm
I moved from Baton Rouge, LA 3 years ago and have not been able to find any distributor in South Florida (Fort Lauderdale, specifically) that sells the seasonal (Spring-Summer) Abita Harvest Strawberry beer. Does anyone know where I can find this beer around here? All the Abita distributors I called only sell Abita Amber, Purple Haze and Turbo Dog throughout the year.