Betty Beaverton riffs off Beavertown’s Black Betty (Black IPA, 7.4% abv) like Logan Plant in the footsteps of his father. The immense Led Zeppelin frontman’s son toured as a rocker across the US with Sons of Albion, but beer is where he found his groove. My take on Black Betty (forget obvious pop references about ramming lambs) is a bigger version of this wonderful beer and brewed stateside in Beaverton, Oregon. A larger bill of the same grains was used and followed by an aggressive hop regime using the same varietals. The result is a solid beer brewed with a dark, robust malt structure of which my London counterparts would be proud.
As much as it grieves me that Beavertown would accept money from big, multi-national beverage producers, until recently largely disinterested in high quality or tasty beer, their control of tap lines means that if Black Betty replaced a mediocre lager, it would be a win for good beer. Big isn’t always bad, but when it comes to beer (and a great many other things), ownership by international corporations is very rarely good news for the product or people who drink it. But maybe a new brewery could only be paid for by a huge conglomerate. Only time will tell if the soul of Beavertown will live on and whether those who love their beer will continue to do so now that Heineken is under its skin. It may infect everything or a beautiful hybrid strain may emerge. It will certainly not remain the same but such is life my friends. I guess record companies always held sway over the manufacturing of music and so I wonder if brewing beer is really much different.
For the love of beer,
brewgodly
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