BY WILLIAM DEAN
For Dave Coyne, the art of brewing demands a constant pursuit of perfection.
Perhaps that’s why he enjoys this time of year, when the days grow darker and colder. That’s when he embraces stouts – preferably the barrel-aged variety.
The creamy black beers “feel like they’re warming you up,” the brewer said of the seasonal attraction. “They’re a bit more comforting.”
Coyne, co-founder of Astoria’s Obelisk Beer Co., has been brewing stouts for years, with an emphasis on creativity. Before launching Obelisk, he was at Fort George Brewery, performing wonders with its prized Matryoshka stout and a handful of variants.
During a chat inside his Bond Street taproom, Coyne was sampling a recent release: an imperial stout called Pazuzu. He swirled, sniffed and took a sip.
“I’m pleased with how it turned out,” he declared.
The brew was more complex than most, with the base stout blended with a portion (roughly 25 percent) that had been aged in oak whiskey barrels for 11 months.
The recipe called for conditioning the batch with Madagascar vanilla beans and Brazilian amburana wood, both of which soaked in the fermentation tank in nylon sacks. The wood of the barrels would also lend whiskey and vanilla notes.
The beer turned out smooth, silky and sweet, while still robust at 12.5% ABV.
Barrel-aging aside, Coyne approaches stouts like he does most beers.
“Process-wise, it’s exactly like any other beer,” he said. “It’s very straight-forward.”
Essentially a full-bodied dark ale, stouts are typically made from malt, roasted barley, hops, yeast and water.
It’s the complex layering of malts that sets the beer apart. Coyne has used up to a dozen different malts in a single batch to achieve a desired effect. He typically uses seven or eight.
“I kind of think of it like a big sound-mixing board, where you’re just turning these little knobs up and down,” he said.
A stout’s dark color and rich flavor come from the roasted barley combined with a special “chocolate” malt. Crystal malt is commonly added for sweetness. An English ale yeast is preferred.
Hops take a back seat, however. Just enough are added to control sweetness.
Many people think the chocolate and espresso flavors common to stouts are added ingredients, but they arise naturally in the brewing process, Coyne said.
Stouts originated in London in the 18th century, with the word originally describing a stronger version of porter. In 1759, Arthur Guinness created a unique stout in Dublin. The beer has been a pub mainstay ever since.
Today, most American craft breweries offer creative takes on stouts, adding all sorts of ingredients, from cacao nibs to cherries, coconut to banana puree. Even seaweed and oysters.
In silky oatmeal stouts, roasted oats are used instead of barley. Irish-style dry stouts (think Guinness) are light-bodied and lower in alcohol. Milk stouts are brewed with lactose for added sweetness and a smooth mouthful. Pastry stouts are, well, like having chocolate cake or pecan pie in a glass.
There’s nothing that brings the intriguing variety of stouts home quite like Fort George’s Festival of Dark Arts in February, which offers dozens of the brews on tap. If you can’t make it, head to the downtown Astoria brewery another day. All month long, stouts will be featured.
For Coyne, the pinnacle of stout-making is putting the beer in seasoned barrels and letting it sit for as long as needed. Most of the time, a good beer becomes great. There’s artistry in that.
“A barrel-aged imperial stout is something that’s so unique in the beer world,” he said. “It’s as far from a pale ale or pilsner as you can get.”
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WILLIAM DEAN is a novelist and former investigative journalist who enjoys writing about the art of craft brewing. Astoria Beer Zone is his blog.
This column originally appeared in the Astorian.
