MLS Playoff Pints: Real Salt Lake

October 5, 2012 by shanekrause 3 Comments

 Here’s the third instalment of the MLS Playoff Pints series, a beer review for Real Salt Lake, who clinched a playoff berth the same day as the LA Galaxy.  Since then, Sporting Kansas City and Seattle Sounders have clinched playoff berths, with only the 5th and final spot up for grabs in the Western Conference, which is now down to my Vancouver Whitecaps and FC Dallas.  In the Eastern Conference there’s a six-way fight for the four remaining playoff spots (Though The Montreal Impact would have to win every single match between now and the end of the season and Houston Dynamo would have to lose every one for Montreal to qualify).

 

Team: Real Salt Lake
Conference: West
Place: 2nd in the Western Conference, 5th in the League (as of Oct. 4, 2012)
Captain: Kyle Beckerman
Top Scorer: Alvaro Saborio – 17 goals (as
Designated Players: Alvaro Saborio, Javier Morales
Head Coach/GM: Jason Kreis
Main Goalkeeper: Nick Rimando
Oldest Supporter’s Group: The Loyalists
Brewery: Brooklyn Brewery
Beer Name: Sorachi Ace
About the Brewery:
Brooklyn Brewery was started in 1984 by homebrewer and Associated Press correspondent Steve Hindy and his downstairs neighbour, a banker by the name of Tom Potter.  They hired a fourth-generation German-American brewmaster named William M. Moeller to design the recipe for Brooklyn Lager and the renowned graphic designer Milton Glaser (of I ❤ NY fame.) to design their logo and brand design,  and had their first and subsequent batches contract-brewed by FX Matt Brewing in Utica, NY.
In 1994 they hired brewmaster Garrett Oliver to help design their new Brooklyn Plant and take over as brewmaster.  Oliver is a highly respected brewmaster and author, having designed most of the beers currently being brewed by Brooklyn and having authored the Bible of beer and food pairing The Brewmaster’s Table, and edited The Oxford Companion to Beer.  Oliver has collaborated on special with brewers from a number of different brewers around the world, including Schneider-Weisse(Germany), Achouffe(Belgium), Brakspear(England) and Kiuchi(Japan).
Style: American Farmhouse(saison)-style ale with Japanese hops.
Serving: 750mL champagne-style bottle with cork and cage.
ABV: 7.6%
Official description:
“Brooklyn Sorachi Ace is a classic saison, a cracklingly dry, hoppy unfiltered golden farmhouse ale, but featuring the rare Sorachi Ace hop.  Fermented with our special Belgian ale strain, we add more Sorachi Ace hops post-fermentation.  After 100% bottle re-fermentation with Champagne yeast, the ale emerges with a bright spicy lemon zest aroma.  I tastes like sunshine in a glass, and that suits us just fine, especially with seafood dishes and fresh cheeses”
How the beer qualified to be the beer for this team:
As a state where more than 60% of the population is Mormon, Utah is the state with the most prohibitive liquor laws in the United States.  Beers of more than 4% are not allowed to be sold in grocery or convenience stores, or bars, pubs and taverns operating under beer-only licences.  Beers of more than 4% can be sold in specialty liquor stores, or clubs and restaurants that sell hard liquor.  The hours of liquor sale are also tightly controlled.  This all makes for an environment that’s fairly unfavourable to brewers.  There is a small but  healthy craft brewing scene, of which the Wasatch Brew Pub is best known for it’s Polygamy Porter which is a tongue-in-cheek comment on the Mormons’ history of polygamy.  As beers of less than 4% don’t travel or age well, these beers don’t tend to be bottled or exported to other states or countries, so another option was needed, based on where the one of the RSL team members is originally from
Real Salt Lake defender Chris Wingert hails from Babylon, NY, which is on Long Island, not far East of Brooklyn.Review:

Presentation:
Brown glass champagne-style bottle with cork and cage.  Simple, but attractive label with The Brooklyn Brewery “B” logo in the centre of a stylized Ace playing card in cream and metallic red on gold metallic foil paper.  Very classy all around.Appearance:
A murky golden-coloured beer with a thick rocky off-white head.  The head dissipates slowly, leaving thick, blobby lacing on the glass.  Some beers shouldn’t be murky, but there’s nothing wrong with that in a saison.
3/3

Aroma:
A noticeable lemon aroma, a bit of cereal aroma from the malt, bit of leather aroma with some very subtle clove and pepper notes hiding in amongst the stronger aromas.
11/12

Flavour:
The flavours in this beer arrive all at once, as a very strongly unified whole.  Some beers will have different flavours hitting your palate at different times during the mouthful of beer.  Not this one.  It’s a stunningly complete beer, rather than just an enjoyably complimentary collection of flavours.  In that wash of flavour that hits your tongue there’s lemon, straw, flowers, pepper, leather and white wine.   It’s a fairly dry beer with just enough subtle sweetness to hold the beer together.  There’s also a subtle tartness which, along with the dryness, makes for a very refreshing drink.  This will be one that I’ll turn to 3 seasons from now, when the weather gets hot again.
There are some things about this beer which remind me of a Saison Dupont, but with some more of the rustic leather and pepper flavours from the yeast.  A little less refined, which is neither good nor bad.  It just makes it another, different world class saison.  A masterful creation by one of the beer world’s great minds.
19 /20

Mouthfeel:
A light-bodied beer with strong carbonation and a little bit of a silky feel on the tongue.
5/5

General Comments:
I was very happy to find this beer in the liquor store, as the BC Provincial Liquor Stores (which are priced more cheaply than the private ones), rarely have any Brooklyn beers besides the Brooklyn Lager (If you’re lucky).
Garrett Oliver’s reputation is clearly well deserved.  This is a stunning beer, one of those that merits closing your eyes and enjoying with as little distraction as possible.  It’s refreshing, without needing to be overchilled and without being watery.  It’s complex without being complicated or overly challenging.
9/10

Total:48/50 – 96%Match Fit?:  A stunning and graceful bicycle kick into the bottom corner of the net for the win in added time.