Beer of the Week! 02/21/23

Black Narrows Piney Grove

Regularly $15.99 / Now on Sale for $14.96
IPA with Longleaf Pine Needles

Virginia’s Piney Grove Preserve is a project of the Nature Conservancy. Beginning in 1998, the Conservancy began buying land to preserve Virginia’s endangered lobolly pine and longleaf pine forests. In 2001, it used the preserve to pull the red-cockaded woodpecker back from extinction. Red-cockaded woodpeckers are the only species of woodpecker that makes its nesting cavities exclusively in live pine trees — not a problem until another species (whom we will not name … “ahem” … US! ) sets out to carelessly wipeout pine forests.

In 2019 — before TNC’s woodpecker conservation efforts — Chincoteague’s Black Narrows Brewing spent some time with the Piney Grove Preserve team.

“They care so diligently for the Longleaf forests that were all but extinct in Virginia a short 30 years ago. We took the whole family, even our little one year old who bounced and giggled her way through the forests on an ATV. It was pure magic, kindred in so many ways.” [Sic]

Black Narrows was so moved, they brewed four IPAs in honor of Piney Grove. This IPA with longleaf pine needles foraged from the preserve is the fourth of them, re-brewed for our enjoyment now.

Usually, when we talk about “pine” in IPAs, it’s in the context of Pacific Northwest hops throwing in strong piney notes along with their citrusy bitterness. This beer is not that kind of forest. A subtle grassiness builds as you go through the glass, like a West Coast IPA’s more urbane, VA cousin. It’s so subtle that the Piney Grove is definitely a sipping beer even though it’s light-bodied enough to throw back. In contrast to a heady, careening, bouncy ride in an ATV, the Piney Grove is like a quiet stroll in the woods, the sun shining between the trees and the wind bringing scents of pine and the sounds of woodpeckers. Drink one (or two) while you look up all the great things the Nature Conservancy is doing for you and your children and your children’s children and your children’s children’s …

Bonus Beer of the Week (‘Cause if we had a Bonus Steer of the Week, we’d be up until the cows came home.)

Une Année Tripel

Regularly $12.99 / Now on Sale for $11.96
Abbey Tripel Style Ale

Back in 1995, Jerry Nelson was a Marine stationed in California, homebrewing in the barracks … on a hot plate. You know, he made do with what he had. “… even with a hot plate I don’t think I ever got to a boil. It tasted okay; we had some fun.” Years later, Nelson did a one year (we think) architecture abroad program in Versailles, France. Back in his native Chicago, Nelson would not stay with architecture, but the beer he drank in France stayed with him.

In 2013, Nelson opened Une Année Brewery intending to make Belgian inspired beers á la Allagash and Ommegang. Sadly, that unserved niche in the Chicago beer scene turned about to be due to a lack of demand. Nelson and his brewmaster were putting out good product, but not enough people wanted it. If that situation wasn’t bad enough, Nelson’s distributor was strangling him rather than helping him grow. By 2015, almost bankrupt, Nelson once again made do.

He laid off his brewmaster and adjusted his direction. He moved his operation to the suburbs (cheaper) and opened Hubbard’s Cave, a second brewery that would put out the popular styles (re: IPAs) that Nelson would self-distribute. With Une Année, Nelson turned to fruited sours, which did have a demand. Getting help from volunteers (including his wife and brother), he slowly pulled his ship out of its nosedive.

By 2017, he moved to the Niles suburb of Chicago and built a taproom. By 2020, he’d shrugged off most of his distributor chains and was able to sustain a new taproom despite the beginning of the global pandemic. Today, both Une Année and Hubbard’s Cave continue, and even though Une Année still focuses on sours, they still produce some of their original Belgian beers, like this Tripel.

The Une Année Tripel is a solid American version of an Abbey Tripel, medium-bodied with a Tripel’s tight carbonation. Many American brewers let their Tripels run a little sweet, but Une Année keeps theirs dry. Still, you can catch slight fruit notes coming through. Where Une Année breaks from tradition is by eschewing the traditional European Noble hops for a good old-fashioned American duo. Willamette and Bravo hops provide a cool, bracing bitterness that — unlike Stephanie Meyers’ vampires — sparkles but does not overwhelm.

How is it that a beer like this wasn’t enough pull people to First Phase Une Année? It’s just another example of the cruel truth that what’s good doesn’t always find an audience. (But, sometimes, thank goodness, it finds us.)

Remember!

You can see our entire beer inventory on Untappd.com!