European Brews Steeped in Tradition

Most of this country's 1,400-odd breweries are mere babes. If they were human beings, they wouldn't legally be able to drink their own beer.

Only a few of our specialty brands come from old-time regional breweries with roots deep in the 19th century. D.G. Yuengling & Son in Pottsville, Pa., the nation's oldest beermaker, was founded in 1829, the first year of Andrew Jackson's presidency.

Compared with Europe's oldest brewers, however, Yuengling is exactly what its name means in German: a "young man." The Het Anker brewery in Mechelen, Belgium, traces its history to 1369, when records of the local brewers guild show the receipt of a penny in dues from a Jan in den Anker. The company managed to survive the major conflagrations of the 20th century, although German occupiers melted down part of the brewing equipment during World War I, and grain rationing forced it to produce a tepid, barely alcoholic brew during World War II.

Maybe it's the memory of those deprivations that inspires Het Anker to make such strong, hearty ales today. Its Gouden Carolus Classic takes its name from a gold coin that circulated during the reign of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (crowned 1530), but the brand dates only from about 1960. This rich brown ale (8.5 percent alcohol by volume) has a toffeelike, softly fruity flavor and a sugary finish.

Het Anker also markets the spiced golden ale Gouden Carolus Triple, the amber Gouden Carolus Ambrio and the formidable (10 percent alcohol by volume) and complex Cuvee van de Keizer, brewed once a year on Feb. 24 (Emperor Charles V's birthday). It soon will introduce Gouden Carolus Hopsinjoor to the American market. The Hopsinjoor has a palate-tingling bitterness (unusual in a Belgian beer) that derives from a blend of Belgian, German, French and Czech hops.

Like many European specialty breweries, Het Anker relies heavily on the export market. Of its 12,000-barrel annual output, U.S. importer Martin Wetten of Sterling will receive about 3,000 barrels.

Wetten also has exclusive rights to import the beers of Castle Eggenberg in the Austrian Alps near Salzburg. Brewing has taken place there since at least the 14th century; managing partner Karl Stohr says his great-great-great-grandfather acquired the business in 1804.

Eggenberg makes a refreshingly dry, herbal pilsner called Hopfen Koenig, but the brewery is most famous for its bock beers. In ascending order of strength, they are Doppelbock Dunkel (8.5 percent alcohol by volume), Urbock 23° (9.6 percent) and Samichlaus (14 percent).

The last, Swiss-German for "Santa Claus," is a brand that Eggenberg acquired from Zurich's Hurlimann brewery, now out of business. Billed as the world's strongest lager, Samichlaus is brewed once a year (on Dec. 6, the feast day of St. Nicholas) and released after 10 months' aging. Nine vintages of this remarkable beer, dating from 1997, were served at a recent beer dinner at Brasserie Beck downtown. After a few years, Samichlaus loses much of its alcoholic bite and develops a honeylike sweetness with nuances of peach and apricot. Stohr says it can be cellared for 15 years before it begins to break down.

Eggenberg has revived a paler variant called Samichlaus Helles, with a touch of hops peeping through enormous quantities of malt.

Half of all the Samichlaus produced goes to the United States, Stohr estimates. "Austrians are very conservative beer drinkers," preferring normal-strength lagers, he says. But even America has its limits: You'll have to travel abroad to find Eggenberg's cannabis- flavored Spirit of Hemp lager.

The Lammsbrau brewery in Neumarkt, Bavaria, dates from at least 1628. Today it claims to be the world's largest 100 percent organic brewery. This environmentally friendly company buys its barley and hops from local farmers and operates a small fleet of delivery vans powered by biodiesel fuel made from canola oil. Lammsbrau's products include an unusually hoppy pilsner (Bavarian golden lagers tend to be malt-accented), a dunkel (dark lager) with notes of chocolate caramel and molasses, and a light lager with a pleasant, grainy flavor.

Most interesting is the Organic Low-Alcohol Premium Bavarian Lager, which at 2.4 percent alcohol by volume is only half as potent as a typical American beer. This half-strength brew, what the Germans call Schankbier, is a style almost unrepresented in this country. It acquits itself well, with a sweet caramel flavor upfront and a toasty finish.

In a land so steeped in beer and tradition, Lammsbrau does not have seniority. The oldest continuously operating brewery in Bavaria (and the world) is Weihenstephan in Freising, which began in 1040 as an abbey brewery operated by Benedictine monks. Today it is run by the Bavarian state.

Sipping on a Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier, a wheat ale with a rocky white head and a flavor full of clove, banana and tutti-frutti, you might well ponder: Where will America's breweries be a millennium from now?

Greg Kitsock's Beer column appears every other week. He can be reached atfood@washpost.com.