Heater Allen Abzug in Bottles
McMinnville’s Heater Allen Brewing, with the help of Green Bottling mobile bottling company, has recently bottled up their popular Abzug brew. Dark copper in color yet clear in appearance and with a pillowy white head, this light malty brew offers toasty and caramel, bready malt-forward flavors evened out by a touch of crisp, grassy hops. The commercial description as posted on RateBeer.com reads:
In the mid to late 1800s, Viennese brewers produced a series of amber lager beers. The strongest was what we now call Marzen or Oktoberfest and the middle beer was just called Vienna. The weakest of the three was called Abzug, which means discount or reduction in German. With less lagering time and a much lower original gravity, Abzug lacks some of the smoothness of Bobtoberfest, but it make a very nice session beer. (1.013 BG, 3.80%, 28 IBU, 8 SRM)
About The Author
Angelo
Angelo grew up in Maine and is proud to call New England his original home. Cascadia is now his home. He fell in love with great beer in Oregon, Washington, and Northern California. He has been a correspondent for the Portland Tribune's Guest on Tap column, LivePDX.com, and has been featured in publications such as Beer Northwest and PDX Magazine. Angelo also has a great interest in independent music, and has been a booker and organizer for shows around the Portland under the name Pop Tomorrow! Angelo garnered much knowledge regarding beer from his experiences homebrewing, working at Belmont Station, Pyramid Brewing, Upright Brewing, By the Bottle, Beer Revolution, Olde Depot Public House, Falling Sky Brewing, Cascade Brewing, and from many many knowledgeable, passionate, and loving people along the way. It is Angelo's mission to bring "infotainment" and "edumation" to the readers of this website. If you have any questions or comments, or would like to contribute, please contact me at angelo@brewpublic.com
Interesting to know where the name came from, I thought maybe it was an allusion to The Monkeywrench Gang. Bonnie Abzug is the female character’s name.
I have never seen anyone else measuring their gravity in quite that way. I guess 1.013 is the final gravity? That would put the beginning gravity at 1.042, sounds likely.
Sean,
I think it’s actually “Abbzug” in the book. Nonetheless, I clicked the link out of my feedreader for the same reason! “An Ed Abbey beer? Brilliant!”
A couple comments about Abzug. First the information on the RateBeer site is for the last version of Abzug. This version started at 1.044 (10.8 plato) and finished at 1.011 (2.8 plato). I was shooting for 4% alcohol but ended up getting 4.25% by volume. Color is slightly lighted than the last one, and there are fewer bittering hops but more finishing hops (Czech Saaz & German Hallertauer). I guess it’s time to update the website…
Second, this beer is only available at Market of Choice stores and the brewery for the next couple of weeks. If there is any left (there should be, although we only bottled 60 cases) it will see limited distribution in Portland.