Jackson Wills

Preternaturally from the Mind of De Clerck, Part 2: Chimay Blue

by Jackson Wills

It is true that he educated Father Theodore in modern practices, and guided him through the development of the recipes for these world famous beers, but I cannot think of a single element of the taste of this beer that is not determined by a pre-exisitng Belgian cultural force, whether it be a temperance movement, the domestication of microzoa, or the historical influence of Belgian farmers’ sugar making practices. It seems to me that De Clerck used the tools of modern zymurgy to bring Belgian cultural tendencies to a very high expression.

Preternaturally From the Mind Of De Clerck: The Great Beer Theory

by Jackson Wills

The central question of War and Peace is: Did Napoleon cause history, or did history cause Napoleon? The central question of Belgian brewing is: Did Jean De Clerck create the landscape of modern Belgian beer or was he simply a particularly active and efficacious function of pre-existing social patterns, namely folk brewing practices and modern science in the wake of Pasteur?

Eating the Woods Part 3: Among the Pines

by Jackson Wills

First you gather your materials: the stones you will burn, the juniper branches and berries, the barley and rye, the wood for the fire, and some food and drink as you know this will take all day in the sauna.

Eating the Woods Part 2: Mam’zelle

by Jackson Wills

Don’t let your uncle tell you how he misses old fashioned beers like Bud Light. A pilsener is newfangled nonsense. These sour, dark, smokey, high alcohol, spicy, herbally bitter, witchy, healthful brews were the original beers. They were called gruits.

The Syrup Koan Part 3: Life & Limb

by Jackson Wills

We get the essence of the taste of the tree without the tannins of the wood itself, and the bigness of the beer without the oiliness of a huge grain bill. We’re back to a syrup koan: the essence of the birch is kept, but the tricky business of the body is excluded.

The Syrup Koan Part 2: Brunch Punch

by Jackson Wills

The radical difference of flavor comes from the peculiar combination of honeys and the yeast used, both of which collaborate to produce the strange “quoted” sensation of the fruitiness.