beerguyjim

I don't believe Anchor makes a smoke beer. Schlenkerla is a well-know Bamberg Rauchbier, and is very smoky. They have a Maerzen, Bock and Weizen. Try one of the first two. Spezial makes a much more delicate Rauchbier. Alaskan Smoked Porter is made with malt smoked over alder wood. Rogue Smoke is made with a combination of Rauchbier malt (beechwood) and alder. Stone in San Marcos, CA produces a nice smoked porter, which IIRC is on the delicate side.

If we are talking about the big lager brands, I would say they're better than American mass-market beer, but unremarkable.

It's called California Common because, as the sole surviving (original) brewer of the style, the Anchor Brewing Co claims trademark protection of the term 'steam beer'.

If you're saying the two beers you had suffered from pasteurization, I would say that it's unlikely that either of them was pasteurized. Very few microbreweries pasteurize. (Anchor is a notable exception.)

There are six Trappist breweries in Belgium: Chimay, Westvleteren, Rochefort, Westmalle, Orval, Achel.

Some posters on the Burgundian Babble Belt are members. Maybe you should ask them.

I believe all the Polish and Russian beers on the US market are lagers. Of particular interest are the porters, such as Okocim Porter, which are rich, strong and coffeeish. Many of these are imported by Chicago-based Stawski Distributing Co.

I would hesitate to call Michael Jackson's list his definitive top ten. I believe he discusses this on his Beer Hunter Web site. Regardless, it's a very nice list! Given the number of regional beers on the list, it won't be a simple matter to try all ten.

I think there is more interest in organic wine, which relates (IMO) more to low sulfite content (which I think is generally true for organic wines, although I don't have data to support this) than organics specifically. Back to organic laws and regs, I believe the US will implement federal organic regs in October, at which time there will be specific penalties for compromising organic standards.

I'm not an expert on organics, but I believe European standards might be more strict than in the US. E.g., they might not allow conventionally-grown ingredients at all. There are private organic certification agencies in the US, but a federal law is in the works that will obviously make for uniform standards. Lamar Street is a private Whole Foods brand made, I think, at two breweries: North Coast in CA and Goose Island in Chicago. I don't think a great number of my beer customers are seeking organic brands, but some do.

Rules vary by country, but currently in the US, a product with 95% organic ingredients qualifies as organic. Since hops are a minor component compared to malt and water, a brewer can use all conventionally-grown hops and still be able to call the beer organic. Most organic hops come from New Zealand, which doesn't have the diseases that causes hop growers to apply chemicals. But there are only a few NZ varieties AFAIK, so this severely limits the brewer. Some organic beers in the US: Wolaver's (I believe brown, IPA, pale ale, and also a hard cider), Golden Promise (Scotland), Sam Smith (England), Pinkus (Germany), Butte Creek (Chico, CA), Foret (Belgium), Jade (France). There is also an organic brewpub recently opened, I believe in CA, the first of its kind. Whole Foods Market (full disclosure: this is where I work) has a couple of organic beers called Lamar Street.

Sorry, I should have mentioned in my previous post that Rodenbach has not been imported to the US for over a year now. I hear it might be coming back soon, but meanwhile, you can try Duchesse de Bourgogne, a very nice beer of similar style (West Flanders red/brown ale). Somewhat related is a British beer called Old Suffolk (Strong Suffolk in its native land, where they don't have ATF to tell them they can't call a beer strong). It's a blend of a young beer with an older, stronger brew that has spent considerable time in wood.

Folks in the DC area can purchase Cantillon and several other brands of lambic at Whole Foods Market in Vienna, where I am the beer guy. Lambic was recently the topic of the cover story (by Canadian beer writer Stephen Beaumont) of Saveur, with some great photos, including the Van Roy family that runs Cantillon. Probably about five years ago, Scientific American ran an interesting piece on lambic. You can probably find it on their web site.