Odell 90 Shilling Scotch Ale ( and thoughts on session styles and the Minnesota market)

What's with all the Founders and Odell beers lately? Sale at Zipp's, stocking up! Gives me a chance to revisit these beers I first tried from trades so many years ago, that have finally been made available locally in the past 2 or three years. And looking back on my notes on 90 Shilling got me thinking. And here's what I thought about.

In Colorado, 90 Shilling is the flagship beer for Odell, their main seller. Now, I don't have facts and figures to back it up, but that's not the case here, the IPA is definitely their best seller in Minnesota, and the beer geeks are clamoring for the special releases. But, clearly, 90 Shilling is not a beer geek's beer, it's a beer drinker's beer, a session ale for craft beer enthusiasts. Elsewhere in Colorado, ambers and browns are big sellers. New Belgium's flagship ale is an amber, Fat Tire, and they only started making an IPA recently, in the past couple of years. Consider also Bell's Brewery, where the flagship brew in Michigan is still the Amber Ale, yet here in Minnesota we outsell their home state when it comes to Two Hearted Ale, the IPA. I've met folks who don't know they even make an amber ale.
Looking at the Minnesota market, I can't imagine a scotch ale or an amber or anything like it, anything more on the malty side, making a real impact.

What it seems to me is that the evolution of the craft beer has skipped a step somewhere, and part of the cause of that belongs to Summit EPA. That hoppy version of an English pale ale was released in 1986, along with the Great Northern Porter, and that Extra Pale Ale became the breakout of the two, reigning as Minnesota's craft beer choice for two decades. Nothing else that came along since made as strong an impact, ...until Surly in 2006. Two beers released at once, again, one hoppy, one malty, and the leader of these two has clearly been Furious. It's not my sole observation, I can't take credit for this thought entirely, but it seems that Summit Extra Pale Ale trained the Minnesota tastebuds for hops and bitterness and paved the way on the palate for Furious. Could it be possible that another style, a brown ale, an amber, a scotch or a stout could have possibly held the place Summit EPA has been in for two decades? On the other hand, other markets, your Colorados, your Oregons and Washingtons and Californias, have had longer craft brewing traditions locally, the greater populace accepted small craft brewers sooner and stronger. Ten years ago I was at a wedding in Portland, Oregon, and the rehearsal dinner had two beers available: Deschutes Black Butte Porter, and Bridgeport Blue Heron Pale Ale. No Heineken, no Budweiser, no Corona. Those were the two options, and everyone was happy. Good, solid session ale, nothing too hoppy, nothing too strong.

And here's where I think we've lost something from that leap into all-out hoppiness. There's not much middle ground out there, at least in the activity I observe. Or, perhaps it's my problem in watching the wrong crowd. The beer geeks clamor for more hops, more alcohol, more, more, more. But, the regular beer drinkers are the ones lapping up Furious, too. What I fear is the lack of appreciation for anything milder and mellower. If so many are starting out with a hop attack like Furious, where do we go from here, and is there any turning back? There are people out there who will only choose an Imperial IPA over anything else, others who won't drink anything less than an Imperial Stout, and those who will walk away if not offered a sour ale. But, here I go lumping in the extreme cases, the ultra-geeks, in with everyone else. I think session ales are overdue for a comeback, it may just need the craft beer drinking populace to come to their senses.

Enough of that, let's get look at my notes and I will present them in their entirety, lifted off of BeerAdvocate.com, where I show myself to be just as much a culprit in this as anyone. My first notes were in February 2003, and eight months later, I edited the review, as you will see. Six years later, it entered the market and I forgot that I'd already reviewed. All those words follow these:

Color is on the amber/copper side, under a huge head of foam.

Aroma is on the dry side, soft, herbal, slightly floral, vegetal.

Hops are minimal, malt is huge and thick. Taste is a little mellow for me, and a bit too sweet.
Drinks well, slides easily down the tongue. Full, rich, malty mouthfeel, but a little too low on hops for my taste.
 A fine micro Scottish, but not for me.

10/19/03 tweaked the numbers some, after realizing that I let personal prefererence interfere with a judgement of a perfectly good expression of this style, yet not among my favorites at that time. I'm still growing, folks...

07/30/09

I totally forgot I reviewed this 6 1/2 years ago.

Here's my notes from last night just for fun:

Odell 90 Shilling

Clear, caramel-brown, nice, if small, beige head.

Sweetness in the nose, big malt, lush and lovely.

Tasting it:...sweet and smooth, fine and mellow...a light, easy-drinking scotch-style ale. Very drinkable. Toffee and caramel tones dominate, sweet and tasty reigns supreme. 

I can see this being very popular. On the other hand, it doesn't quite hold enough interest for me. Ah, well.