A fine evening at Bailey’s Chocolate Bar

It was a special night at Bailey’s Chocolate Bar last night. Eric Salazar, one of the brewers at New Belgium Brewing was there for part II of a special New Belgium tour of St. Louis (part I was a dinner the previous night at Duff’s which I was not able to attend) with his wife Lauren, also a part of the NBB team.

Eric is famous in beer geek circles for the creation of Eric’s Ale, an experimental brew at New Belgium that has received rave reviews from those fortunate enough to taste it. A keg was tapped at Bailey’s on Monday, and was flowing last night for a really nice turnout of the St. Louis beer scene. Dave Bailey, the proprietor of Bailey’s was there, as were my friends from Beeradvocate (and many other adventures) Carl and Zac, Andy the beer manager of our local Whole Foods, Stephen Hale, the head brewer at Schlafly, Charlie, one of the brewers at O’Fallon, Mike from Stlhops (and his lovely girlfriend “I’m not crazy about beer, but I do drink Two-Hearted” Irene), and a host of others. It was a lively crowd and much St. Louis and general beer talk was had (trivia from Stephen – what is wrong with the label on Schlafly’s Biere de Garde?).

So, how was the famous Eric’s Ale? Simply outstanding. Quite sour, but not pushing Cantillon or even La Folie levels. My analogy was that if La Folie is a punch to the gut, Eric’s Ale was a firm slap to the cheek. There was a wonderful, clean round maltiness to it as well, that gave excellent balance to the beer throughout. There was still a hint of fruit to it, but it was very subtle – more of an echo of peach than anything. I found it very Cantillon in that regard. It was a perilously drinkable beer, with myself putting away four glasses over the course of the evening.

I did have an opportunity to speak with Eric about how he made the beer, and it was a rather fascinating process. It began with two empty La Folie barrels. He wanted to put something in them, so he brewed up a batch that was essentially the recipe for New Belgium’s lost, lamented Biere de Mars (more on this later too), which was his favorite New Belgium beer. This beer was left in barrel for two years. Yes, two years. Eric then brewed up a very strong (he said 17.5 Plato, which I translate to 1.072) Belgian Pale ale using very old hops, which he then blended with the barrel-aged beer, and a peach concentrate. The sugar from the peaches kicked off another fermentation, for which Eric added a lager yeast to finish it off. Wow. Not your everyday single infusion ale. I for one was very glad that he did it, and that New Belgium gives its brewers the support to pursue beers like this.