Brooklyn Local 1

Brooklyn Brewery - Brooklyn, N.Y.

Style: Strong pale ale

Serving temperature: 50˚F

Alcohol content: 9% abv

This uniquely styled ale is almost impossible to classify; it's refreshing and spicy, like a saison, yet its strength and yeast bite will remind you of a Belgian tripel. Its brewer calls it a "Brooklyn original," though he readily acknowledges its character is largely the product of an ancient fermentation process made popular by certain French winemakers.

Start with the ingredients: German malt gives it sweetness, Perle hops from Austria provide snappy bitterness, demerara sugar from Mauritius imparts a creamy mouthfeel and smoothes out the rough edges. The flavors are brought together by a softly tingling, delicately spicy, fruit-like effervescence that can only be described as Champagne-like.

For good reason. This fine beer is entirely re-fermented in the bottle, in the same manner of a fine magnum of Moet. After its initial fermentation, the yeast is filtered out and the beer goes into the bottle completely flat. New yeast is added, along with a dose of sugar, and the beer is re-fermented for several weeks at a relatively warm 77˚F. The bottles are then cold-stored for a few more weeks of further conditioning.

Poured into a goblet, a tight, white head forms above a bubbly golden body. A sweet, herbal aroma rises with just a touch of hops, boosting its subtle flavors of fruit, spice and rum. A slight peppery bite gives way to a smooth dry finish.

Joe Sixpack