– Review – Kuhnhenn Brewing Company / Fourth Dementia Old Ale – By DJ Adams
Just over one week to go before Christmas, and the shoppers in Manchester are in full swing, dashing round town, bags in hands, pensive thoughts on faces. A few spouses are holed up here at Port Street Beer House enjoying some peace and quiet, and some great beers. A lot of darkness in glasses, the cold weather is properly upon us. Dark nights, dark ales. Heavy beers to warm us slowly from our core outwards. And with that context in mind, I’m about to have my personal and loose definition of ‘beer’ stretched a little bit.
Nestling at the bottom of one of the fridges behind the bar is a brown bottle with a black label and, with that label announcing “Kuhnhenn Brewing Company, 4th D Olde Ale, 13.5% ABV, aged for 9 months”, quite possibly dark secrets. Sitting down at the table, I’m taken completely off track, although not unexpectedly. This old ale sits in the glass like liquid mahogany, barely a trace of head, and what head there was after pouring has quickly dissipated and become a tan ring round the glass. Before I even get the brew to my lips, my nose is hit by the heady raisin, rum and bourbon tones which are as sweet as they are boozy. This is very clearly a sipping beer – hardly any carbonation, and very heavy. So I ready myself for the first sip … and it’s like a Cadbury’s Caramel heavily diluted with bourbon and black cherry liqueur. Gosh. The mouthfeel is just the same, a syrupy malt lacing that fades delightfully turning from obvious sweet to muscovado.
This Old Ale, properly called “Fourth Dementia Olde Ale”, is from the Kuhnhenn microbrewery, in Warren, Michigan, a town due north of Detroit. Looking at the beers on offer, this dark, strong malty and caramel ale fits right in, with Imperial Creme Brulee Java Stout, Bourbon Barrel Barley Wine, Sticke Alt and Hairy Cherry coming from the same stable. That stable was originally a family run hardware store, and when faced with the prospect of losing out to a larger hardware chain that had moved into the area, the Kuhnhenn family, specifically two brothers Bret and Eric, decided to turn their home brewing know-how into a brewery business and reinvent themselves. It wasn’t as unusual a transition as you might expect: Eric had been bitten by the home brewing bug at college, and selling home brewing supplies had eventually become a significant part of their hardware business. Having made the transition to a full brewing business, Kuhnhenn’s is now a highly industrious eight barrel microbrewery.
The folks at Port Street Beer House have a knack for sourcing beer from passionate brewers, and this is no exception. If you’re passing by, or wanting an escape from the cold outside (or the heat and chaos inside the myriad shopping areas) come in and spend a half hour getting to know this old and dark ale. You won’t regret it. And you’ll leave with a warm glow from within, like so many Ready-Brek kids of yore, but with a smile on your face.
Brewer: Kuhnhenn Brewing Company
Brew: Fourth Dementia Ole Ale
Style: Old Ale
ABV: 13.5%
Words by DJ Adams www.pipetree.com/qmacro/
– Festive opening hours
Seasonal greetings to you all!
Hope the year 2012 has treated you well? The past twelve months have been pretty great round these parts, we will be publishing our end of year review next week, alongside a collection of ‘Top Ten beer lists’ – collated from our faithful customers and some of our favourite breweries.
Meanwhile, here are our opening / closing hours for the next couple of weeks :
Tuesday 18th / 4pm – 12am
Wednesday 19th / 4pm – 12am
Thursday 20th / 2pm – 12am
Friday 21st / 2pm – 12am
Saturday 22nd / 12pm – 1am
Sunday 23rd / 12pm – 12am
Monday 24th / CLOSED
Tuesday 25th / CLOSED
Wednesday 26th – CLOSED
Thursday 27th / 2pm – 12am
Friday 28th / 2pm – 12am
Saturday 29th / 12pm – 1am
Sunday 30th / 12pm – 12am
Monday 31st / 4pm – 1am (pre book tables in the saloon from 8pm – more info here)
Tuesday 1st Jan – CLOSED
Wednesday 2nd Jan / 4pm – 12am
Then we are back to our normal opening hours.
Hope this finds you well… All the best for the festive seasons – from all at Port Street Beer House
– Brewers Group / November review and dates for 2013
Had a great turnout at November’s Brewers’ group where James Campbell gave us some excellent tips and wisdom on brewing high-gravity beers. For those of you who couldn’t make it, here are just a few of the things we discussed:
First of all, for high gravity brewing, make a highly fermentable wort so mash at a low temperature (around 64 degrees) for a VERY long time (3-4 hours) and make sure you’re getting the right Ph in the mash (around 5.3). Fermentability can also be enhanced with enzymes such as amyloglucosidase, although this will impact on flavour and mouthfeel.
The other key point is to pitch healthy yeast so you get good attenuation. Pitch slightly more yeast than you would normally (1 million per ml per degree Plato is the general rule), add yeast nutrient to get a vigorous fermentation and oxygenate well to promote yeast growth. After fermentation the yeast are done for so throw them away rather than storing for re-pitching. Conditioning should be for a long time and maybe even shake the bottle every now and then to re-suspend the yeast; the story goes that Marble’s Decadence gets ‘taken for a walk’ periodically during its maturation!
…and after all that talk of beer we cracked open some really good quality homebrew, followed up by a fair bit of tasting downstairs at the bar. Great night! Thanks to everyone who came and a special thanks to everyone who brought along some homebrew.
We’re taking a break for Christmas now so next Brewer’s group will be on Tuesday 29th January 2013 at 7pm, when we plan to get a yeast expert to give us some tips on yeast management. Hope to see you there.
– Hampers for sale
Searching for that perfect festive gift? Maybe for a loved one or perhaps a treat for yourself! Port Street Beer House may have the answer, we are offering a special hamper, comprising of SIX bottles for £17.50 from the finest brewers around.
They are available to purchase direct from the bar. Bob in at your convenience and choose from the following bottles* :
/ RedWillow
Smokeless
Sleepless
Fathomless
Wreckless
/ Summer Wine
Diablo
Rouge Hop
Barista
Dr Paracelsus
Calico Jack
/ Magic Rock
Human Cannonball
* please note, hampers need to be of mixed bottles.