Franconian Beer Message Board
Spezial at NERAX North |
| Posted by Mark Andersen on 2008-11-08 09:25:54 |
| We've got a nice little beer event here in Mass. called NERAX that some of you may be familiar with. I know Uncle Jimbo has been there. Anyhow for those of you that don't know it stands for New England Real Ale Exhibition. It is a small, and more relaxed event than the typical beer festival and serves up only British and American cask ales ... well that is until NERAX North this year. So I get there last night at opening and scan the list hanging from the ceiling above the cask and right at the top I see "Fassla Kellerbier". First thing I think to myself is "No that can't be.". I've never heard of Fassla making it to the US and I know they don't brew a Kellerbier nor did I think they put their beer in casks anymore. So I asked one of the bartenders and she had no idea so I ordered one. As it turned out it wasn't Fassla but Spezial Rauchbier instead. That was a nice surprise as far as I was concerned but I was curious how a firkin of Spezial would find it's way to a cask ale event in Haverhill, MASS? So I asked one of the organizers how that happened. The story goes that they showed up at the distributors place of business earlier in the week to pick up some of the firkins and a couple that they ordered were not available so the distributor offered that they take a couple of the German casks that they had on hand as a replacement. The distributor told them that one of the casks was Fassla and the other was something else (I don't remember the name of the other cask - it was vile and resembled nothing German to my taste buds). Some people mentioned to the organizers that the Fassla tasted a bit smokey. So they went online and looked up the Fassla brewery and found out about Spezial across the street and realized that could be what they had. Anyhow, I was definately glad to mix in a couple of Spezial beers in amongst the ales and found the whole thing amusing. |
| Followups: |
 Spezial at NERAX North by Uncle Jimbo on 2008-11-08 09:46:44 |
| Spezial at NERAX North by Uncle Jimbo on 2008-11-08 22:06:01 |