We recently had an opportunity to sit down with the Anderson Valley Brewing Company (Boonville, California) Sales Manager for Florida, Mike Halligan and discuss some of their beers that are in the local market. Mike filled us in on some of the history of the valley as well as some of it's culture. Almost on cue, as he was telling us about the local "language," Boontling, someone who was aware that he is with the brewery, walked up and asked Mike if he spoke Boontling. Turns out the brewery embraces Boontiing and has incorporated it into their beer names, labels, etc.

Since this has to be one of the only breweries in the country that can boast of this, I did some quick searching on the AVBC website and found the following about the language. "Around the turn of the century, Anderson Valley was a very isolated farming and logging community. To pass the time (and have a little fun at it), the locals began to use self-developed terms. The language originated with the women and children workers in the hop fields and eventually spread to become the spoken word for most valley residents. Today, with most fluent “boonters” in their elder years, the Boonting Club, Historical Society and many local businesses work to keep the language alive."

Mike brought out several AVBC beers, covering each end of the beer spectrum and points in-between,  for us to sample, Boont Amber, Hop Ottin’ IPA, Summer Solstice, Anderson Valley Wild Turkey Bourbon Barrel Stout and their Holy Gose. All had ABV's that I would rate as sessionable. All of the labels, except for the barrel aged stout, prominently featured Barkley, the brewery's mascot. He looks like a cross between a bear and a deer. Makes you wonder what's really going on in those woods of northern California :)

First up was the Gose. It's part of the Highway 128 Session and the official name is "The Kimmie, The Yink, and The Holy Gose” which is Boontling for "the Father, the Son and the Holy Gose." AVBC resurrected this nearly forgotten German style with their own spin. This is a wheat beer with coriander, sea salt and lactic acid bacteria. There's a little tartness to it but nothing like the sours that you might be familiar with. This was my wife's favorite and she likened it to being similar to a cider.

Next up was the Boont Amber, named with the Boontling word for Boonville, the largest communit in the Anderson Valley. Strong malt flavor with some hopiness coming in at the end.

This was followed up by the Summer Solstice which, as it's same suggests, is suited for a warm summer day (or fall, winter & spring if you live in Florida). Malty taste and a crisp finsih.

The Anderson Valley Wild Turkey Bourbon Barrel Stout was next. A lot lower ABV than one would expect, at 6.9%  Mike told us that because of an exclusive partnership, AVBC is the only brewery that is licensed to use the Wild Turkey logo on their label. It also allows them to have a consistent product since they are always using barrels from the same source. The stout is aged for 3 months in the barrels and now, with their new barrel aging program, the barrels will then be used for an aged amber and then wrap up it's useful life aging a pumpkin ale for 9 months. I'm looking forward to trying that one when it hits the market.

This one was my favorite. Nice dark brown, almost black color with a dark tan head. The vanilla from the bourbon mixes well with the coffee and toffee flavors of the stout. I'm definitely going to look for this one in my local liquor superstore.

We finished up with the Hop Ottin’ IPA. Solid malt flavors mixed well with the citrus-floral flavors and the hop bitterness.

Mike had mentioned that the brewery was very environmental conscious and though I knew that they use solar to run the place but I didn't realize just how committed they were until I looked at their website. Not only do they recycle the spent grains and hops via local farmers, they also use bottles that contain "50 percent post-consumer and 65 percent overall recycled content." Very impressive.