Services

Vrai Amour Wines
Value Wines & Specialty/Craft Beers

Your Subtitle text

Beer List

Bell's Clothing
&
Glassware!

Cheers! Prost! Sláinte! Salute!

NEW BEERS!

Ayinger Oktober Fest-Marzen (Aying, Ger.)

Ayinger Oktober Fest Märzen has a deep golden color tinted with amber. It is lightly sweet with a malty nose balanced with floral hops. Its medium to big body and alcohol is not overpowering. The soft dryness comes from long maturation. "Bottle pours amber color with off white head. Aroma is malty, yeasty (somewhat), and a little floral. Medium mouthfeel. Flavor has that beautiful german malt flavor, the water is german, with the german hops and yeast. This brew takes me back to Munich at the end of September for Octoberfest. It really did. Great stuff."

Dark Horse Crooked Tree IPA (Marshall, MI.)

It’s not as heavy bodied and malty as many IPA’s, in contrast the palate is more crisp and dry. If you consider yourself a "hop-head" you owe it to yourself to grab this beer. "Bottle. Amber colour, fairly large, off-white head. Aroma has a LOT of dry hops, providing much citrus, pine, grass and lime. Also a little alcohol, yeast and elderflower. Taste is quite big with a massive bitterness, balanced by a medium malt sweetness. Very dry and hoppy in the finish. Also lots of caramel and a little sugar. Nicely hardcore on the hops!"

Great Lakes Oktoberfest (Cleveland, OH.)

Amber smooth yet rich lager with a malty flavor balanced with low hopping rates makes this a very easy drinking beer. "Clear burnt orange with a small off-white head, fading to a thick ring before long. Aroma of Caramel toasty malts with a bit of earthy hop bitterness, even a bit of biscuity malts after the initial smell. Medium, creamy, light hop body with decent finish / Light flavors of caramel malt, with undertones of pine hop. Very drinkable....as most Marzens are."

Lagunitas A Little Sumpin' Sumpin' Ale (Petaluma, CA.)

Way smooth and silky with a nice wheaty-esque-ish-ness. Just the little sumpin’ sumpin’ we all need to kick Summer into full swing! Ingredients: Hops, Malt, Hops, Hops, Yeast, Hops, Water, and Hops.

Lagunitas Hop Stoopid IPA (Petaluma, CA.)

For those mornings when you have to cut right to the chase, this is the one. Sure to blast through just about anything still lingering from the night before, this mouthful of Hops and huge rich Malt has a gaurantee built right into the name! "Bomber; pours a very nice clear copper gold with medium head that subsides quickly leaving good lacing. Aroma is a fruity, floral, piney definitely spot on. Taste follows the aroma, a perfect balance of hops and malt that represents the style. Full bodied, smooth finish, just the right amount of carbonation, and no overpowering aftertaste. Good Stuff!"

Left Hand Imperial Stout (Longmont, CO.)

Imperial Stout is a silky smooth, very flavorful black brew. It is a traditional style of strong stout originally brewed in Britain for export to St. Petersburg, Russia. The malty sweetness of the beer is tempered by a medley of roasted malt and the aggressive use of hops. A long conditioning time gives the brew time to mellow and mature. The beer is not filtered, allowing every subtlety and nuance to be enjoyed.

Left Hand Milk Stout (Longmont, CO.)

This English style of beer, also known as Sweet Stout or Cream Stout, first appeared in London in the late 1800’s. The early brewers touted the health benefits of the milk sugar in this beer which today relates mainly to the increased amount of calories(no real health benefits…sorry). The milk sugar adds a well rounded sweetness to this dark beer and makes it an outstanding, year ‘round stout.

Vrai Amour Beer List

Vrai Amour Beer Newsletter

Volume I, Issue I September 2010

Vrai Amour Wines & Craft Beers

What started out as general chit chat in the car during a long drive from northern Michigan, turned into more than just a conversation a couple months later. After both agreeing to go forward with a plan on a piece of paper, Dave and Matt Somsky began looking for a store front. 953 W. Webster was not the first choice for location, but in the end it turned out to be a true blessing. Vrai Amour moved in during the beginning of October 2007 and after completing their build out and receiving their licenses, doors opened March 29, 2008. Having a focus on value wines and craft/microbrews from around the world, Dave and Matt take pride in providing their customers with the utmost satisfaction in product and service. With a growing selection of unique beers, Dave and Matt offer the choice to customers that they build their own 6-pack; helping them learn and expand their horizons in an ever-changing industry is what it is all about. Customers are invited to the many wine tastings that are held free of charge to help them learn about the vast range of amazing wines that are available at value prices. Vrai Amour, French for True Love, has a friendly, warm atmosphere where neighbors become friends.

We thought about doing a beer newsletter because a: we love beer and b: we want to share our passion with our customers, whom without we would not be able to create such an unique experience. This is our inaugural newsletter so we ask that you bare with us while we make it better throughout the brewing process. We hope you enjoy the newsletter, the beer, and the all important company of friends and family. Cheers!

What is Beer?

As one said once, “Simply put, beer is fermented, hop flavored, malt sugared, liquid.” The four main ingredients of beer are: water, malted barley, hops, and yeast. Water makes up approximately 90% of beer; the roasting of the barley determines the color of the beer and also impacts the flavor; hops bring the bitterness and floral aroma while also acting as a natural preservative; and the yeast is used to convert the sugar from the malted barley into alcohol. If only it was that simple; water flavor depends on the region, there are 3 major types of barley (2, 4, and 6 rows), don’t forget about the 42 types of hops that are out there, and then you have the most important aspect known as this unicellular fungi known as yeast.

All the ingredients play a huge role in the style, taste, color, etc. The key is getting the right yeast as each variety has its own distinctive effect on the beer. Enjoying beer depends on serving it at the correct temperature (most Americans drink their beer too cold), properly pouring it in a clean glass, and drinking the beer as fresh as possible. Granted there are beers that can be cellared, in which case one does not need to drink as fresh as possible, but for the most part the fresher the better.

How to Taste Beer

Open, pour, gulp, taste, right? Well, not exactly. Granted it’s not rocket science, but there is a little more to the art of tasting what’s in your glass. Tasting beer is the same as tasting wine; you look at the contents, you swirl and smell, you taste (not drink), you swirl in your mouth to get the full mouthfeel, and you enjoy. Lets break it down.

Look

Take look at the beer, but do not hold it to direct light, and notice the color, head and consistency, clarity, and carbonization. Lighter or darker? How thick is the head? A two finger head is a pretty good pour. Does the beer’s head cling (lacing) to the glass? Lacing indicates a beer’s ability to maintain its head. Is it a clean color, cloudy, or pitch black? And last, do you see lots of bubbles or tiny ones?

Smell

90-95% of what you experience is through your sense of smell. Every variety of yeast, grain, and hop has its own particular aroma. Beer that is too cold will have little aroma, which is why it is better to let a beer open up a little. The great thing about smell is that perception of aromas is very subjective; you may smell something different than someone else and that’s okay.

Taste

Let the beer wander and explore your entire palate. Let your taste buds speak. Hold the beer in your mouth. Pay attention to the different flavors on your tongue. Good beer is complex and has multiple flavors. Different regions on your tongue pick up different tastes: sweet at the tip, bitter at the back, and salty and sour on the sides. Notice the balance of sweetness and bitterness.

Mouthfeel

How does the beer feel in your mouth? Is it full-bodied and thick or thin and watery? Lighter styles are generally going to be thinner while your heavier beers are going to be thicker. The mouthfeel goes hand-in-hand with the taste. How the carbonization feels on your tongue also contributes to the mouthfeel.

Enjoy

The more you taste the more you learn what you appreciate and more importantly what you don’t like. At Vrai Amour, we encourage our customers to expand their horizons by making their own 6-pack. The best way to learn is to try a bottle here and there that way if you find out you don’t like a certain beer, you’re only out a bottle. “So the next time you drink a beer, don’t just drink it, taste it.”

What’s Brewing?

News from around the kettle…

Founder’s Breakfast Stout should be back in the cooler around the 1^st of September, so we hope. For those Lagunitas fans out there, word is that Little Sumpin’ Sumpin’ is going to be a year-round beer from now on; Chicago was the top selling region for Lagunitas. Watch out Three Floyds! Southern Tier Pumpking will be hitting stores in the late part of August to early September. Bell’s fans… There are some great beers in the making; Hopsoulution, Oktoberfest, and Oarsman should be available in the next couple of weeks. Keep an eye out for Hopsoulution due to its limited availability. Keep stopping in to see what’s new in our cooler.

Ales versus Lagers

Ales are fermented between 65°F - 75°F using top-fermenting yeast. The yeast, commonly known as ale yeast, floats at the top of the fermenter, only settling down to the bottom when they go dormant. Though there are a variety of ales, one of their main characteristics is the presence of esters, chemicals that cause fruity tastes. Esters are responsible for the banana flavors in German Hefeweizens, the hints of cherries and dark fruits in many Stouts, and even the vague, non citrus fruitiness in American Pale Ales.

Lagers are fermented generally between 32°F - 50°F using a bottom fermenting yeast. Lager yeast does not float to the top of the fermenter, though it still settles out when it goes dormant. Lagers undergo a longer fermentation than ales due to the lower rate of activity of lager yeast during a cold fermentation. In addition to the long, cold fermentation, lagers sometimes also require a long cold conditioning or lagering period (from the German lagern: to store) in order to clean up the beer, especially since lager yeasts produce sulfur compounds as a byproduct of fermentation. The lagering period allows the yeast to break down these compounds. There are fewer varieties of lagers than there are of ales. There are several reasons for this:

There is less genetic diversity between different strains of lager yeast than there is among ale yeasts and different strains are the source of diversity.
Moreover, the production of lagers is more technically difficult than the production of ales. It is more complicated and expensive to reach and maintain the temperature necessary for fermentation and conditioning.
Recipe creation can be more difficult in lagers as it is more difficult to hide flaws due to the lack of esters and the crispness of the beer.

Hop of the Month

Cascade is a breed of hops developed in the U.S.D.A. breeding program in Oregon and released as a U.S. aroma variety in 1972. It originated from a cross between a female Fuggles hop and a male Fuggles hop with Russian Serebrianker hop percentage. The Cascade hop was named after the Cascade Mountain range that runs through Washington State and Oregon.

Other notes:

Ø The resultant aromas is of medium strength and very distinct

Ø A pleasant, flowery and spicy, citrus-like

Ø The hop is good for flavor and aroma

Ø It can also be used for bittering effectively

Brew News

Boulder, CO (August 2, 2010) - The Brewers Association, the trade association representing the majority of U.S. brewing companies, today released strong mid-year numbers for America's small and independent craft brewers¹. Dollar sales were up 12 percent in the first half of 2010, compared to 9 percent growth during the same period in 2009. Volume of craft brewed beer sold grew 9 percent for the first six months in 2010, compared to 5 percent growth in the first half of 2009.

“While craft brewer sales volume climbed 9 percent in the first half of 2010, overall U.S. beer industry volume sales are down 2.7 percent so far,” noted Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association. “There is a movement by beer lovers to the innovative and flavorful beers created by America’s small and independent craft brewers. More people are starting to think of craft-brewed beer first when they buy in restaurants, bars, and stores.”

“Entrepreneurs across the land are creating jobs by opening new microbreweries and brewpubs, and we are also seeing many homebrewing hobbyists going pro by starting what have been referred to as nanobreweries,” Gatza added. “Super tiny microbreweries or brew pubs, that make beer for a very localized network of taverns and stores, are starting to become a trend, primarily in the states that allow self-distribution as a means of getting beer to market.”

¹ The definition of a craft brewer as stated by the Brewers Association: An American craft brewer is small, independent, and traditional. Small: Annual production of beer less than 2 million barrels. Beer production is attributed to a brewer according to the rules of alternating proprietorships. Flavored malt beverages are not considered beer for purposes of this definition. Independent: Less than 25% of the craft brewery is owned or controlled (or equivalent economic interest) by an alcoholic beverage industry member who is not themselves a craft brewer. Traditional: A brewer who has either an all malt flagship (the beer which represents the greatest volume among that brewers brands) or has at least 50% of its volume in either all malt beers or in beers which use adjuncts to enhance rather than lighten flavor.

Fact

The State of Michigan has 83 breweries, microbreweries, and brewpubs (including 7 in the Upper Peninsula,) which ranks Michigan #6 in the country. Bell’s Brewery, founded in 1985 by Larry Bell, is considered to be the oldest craft brewery in the eastern United States. Interesting enough, Yuengling, out of Pennsylvania, is the oldest brewery in the country since 1829, but is not considered to be a craft brewery.

Helpful Tip

Never wash your beer glass with soapy water.