The Southampton Publick House
40 Bowden Square
Southampton NY 11968
(631)283-2800
web:www.publick.com
email: sph@publick.com
hours: 11a - 11p, happy hour 4p - 7p M - F, all night happy hour on F
Brewmaster: Phil Markowski
Brewer & Regional Sales Representative: Spencer Niebuhr
News
- Phil Markowski talks about Pabst deal (Appellation Beer, 12 Nov 2007)
- No, Pabst did not buy part of Southampton (Appellation Beer, 12 Nov 2007)
- Southampton Bottling Joins Pabst Brewing in Strategic Alliance (Beverage World, 10 Dec 2007)
Directions
Getting Bigger All the Time
Phil Markowski has been brewing artisanal ales and lagers at the Southampton Publick House for the past ten years. For much of that decade, a trip to Southampton was neccessary if you wanted to taste Markowski's hand-crafted beers. Lucky for beer lovers, that has changed in recent years.
These days, you can walk into most local beer shop or grocery store and purchase a Southampton Publick House beer. Their flagship beer, Southampton's Secret Ale, has been available in 12 ounce bottles for quite some time. Now, their India Pale Ale (I.P.A.), a higher alcohol content, highly hopped ale brewed in the West Coast style (craft brewer talk for "maximally hoppy") is also available in 12 ounce bottles.
Southampton also offers a line up of beers available in 22 ounce bottles — their XXII Reverse series, which includes such beers as a Belgian Double White, Imperial Baltic Porter, and May Bock. Perhaps the most interesting of all of Markowski's beers are the corked and caged 750 ml bottles such as the Saison, Biere de Garde, Abbot 12, Grand Cru, and a special release, the 10th Anniversary Old Ale.
That's a pretty expansive lineup for such a small brewpub, and one might wonder how they are able to step up production to supply not only the New York market, but several mid-Atlantic and New England states as well. Quite simply, Markowski is a busy brewer these days, overseeing the brewing operations of Southampton Bottling LLC at Old Saratoga Brewing Company in Saratoga Springs, NY, and Sly Fox Brewing Company in Royersford, Pennsylvania.
When I spoke to Phil Markowski about his expansion of brewing operations, I was curious if the Southampton beers I have enjoyed for the past several years would still taste the same. I also wanted to know just how important consistency was to the success of a growing microbrewery.
The idea of yearly "vintages" isn't a new concept in the craft beer world. Many breweries produce special beers that are suitable for cellaring for thirty or more years. Some breweries intentionally vary these special beers from year to year and label the beer with the year of production in much the same way as wineries do. Southampton's Abbot 12 and Grand Cru are cellarable beers. However, in the beer world, success is usually built on the consistency of the brewery's signature or flagship beer not its specialty beers. The reason for this is that the flagship beer tends to be more mainstream in taste and thus appeals to a larger potential market of drinkers. The specialty beers on the other hand accentuate bold flavors and thus tend to appeal only to the smaller market of craft beer drinkers.
One of the reasons I've kept going back to Southampton (at least monthly trips despite the distance of the drive for me) is to experience the beers from the Publick House cellar (a beer cellar is much like a wine cellar inasmuch as it is a place for storing bottles rather than the draft beer) — many of which are brewed in the Belgian style. In fact almost all the Southampton beers being brewed at Sly Fox Brewing Company are Belgian-style ales, which is no surprise given that Markowski is a recognized authority on Belgian-style ales and how to brew them. He's the author of a recently published book Farmhouse Ales. The subtitle explains it all: "Culture and Craftsmanship in the Belgian Tradition."
Traditionally, brewers have prized consistency over complexity and variability. There are many reasons for this, but the two major reasons are (1) to conform to the beer drinker's expectations, and (2) to demonstrate mastery of the brewing craft. Variability of product is usually associated with lax brewing practices rather than the intent to make something different. That's all changing in the microbrewed world. In his new book, Microbrewed Adventures, Charlie Papazian, founder of the American Homebrewers Association, quotes Morgan Wolaver, owner of Otter Creek Brewing Company, who compares the complexity of beer to that of wine: "The wine industry would go broke if they had to have consistency. It's [complexity and yearly variability] a plus for the wine industry; why can't it be a plus for brewers and their beer?" Phil Markowski covers both bases. His Secret Ale fulfills the consistency criteria; whereas, the specialty beers (such as Abbot 12) fulfill the complexity criteria.
One Trappist brewery in Belgium has built their entire reputation on a complex and variable beer. Michael Jackson, author of The Great Beers of Belgium, quotes a former head brewer at la Brasserie d'Orval, Roger Schoonjans, on the complexity and variability of Orval: "People do not want our beer to taste exactly the same every time," Roger Schoonjans once observed to me. "They want the goût d'Orval, for sure, but they want to be able to chat about it: 'I think this one is a little more hoppy... yesterday's was rounder...' In that respect they treat it like wine." I would say that Southampton's Abbot 12 could be treated in this fashion. Since Abbot 12 can be successfully cellared for years, beer enthusiasts could compare different "vintages" of that beer and note how it continues to develop with proper and careful aging.
In the quote above, Schoonjans mentions "the goût d'Orval." The French word goût might translate literally as "taste," but in the beer world, goût can be regarded as a technical term describing the overall sensory impression of a beer, an impression that includes aroma as well as taste. This is one of the beautiful aspects of bottle-conditioned beers (beers that are refermented in the bottle with an addition of yeast at bottling time). Not only do they keep extraordinarily well in the cellar, they continue to develop in character, taste, and aroma.
In my recent conversation with Markowski, he came down firmly on the side of consistency for Southampton's flagship beer. "When people pick up a bottle of Secret Ale, they expect it to taste like the last Secret Ale they had," he said. One wonders though if this expectation is correlated with other factors such as the beer's cost to the purchaser and to perceived variety in a brewery's line-up.
Southampton Publick House produces a dozen different beers whereas Orval has a single product. Also, a single bottle of Orval runs about five to six dollars, where a single bottle (12 ounce) of Secret Ale will cost just over a dollar at a retail outlet. This might seem counter intuitive, since the more you pay for a beer you might have more exacting expectations about what is inside the bottle and what it will taste like. Markowski certainly feels this way about beers from Fantôme (another Belgian brewery known for their variable, yearly changing beers). "Who wants to pay fifteen dollars for a bottle of beer and then have it taste completely different from what you expected?" he asked. Michael Jackson evidently appreciates the variability in different vintages of the same beer. However, what we see in Schoonjans's statement and his reference to "the goût d'Orval" is the expectation on the part of the drinker that a bottle of Orval will share recognizable characteristics with every other bottle of Orval regardless of how each batch develops. So the concept of a beer's goût is not a single point on the map of taste and aroma, but a fuzzy region where the brewer has license to explore the various contours as long as they don't stray too far away from the drinker's overall impression.
When the price of a beer is factored in, one can start to see there are (at least) two different kinds of beer drinkers. The population of drinker that purchases the one dollar bottle of Secret Ale is probably much larger than the population who regularly plonk down five bucks for the same sized bottle of Orval. The person that buys Orval is of that smaller subset of beer drinkers that we might call beer enthusiasts, drinkers that want to pay attention to their beer, discuss it, savor it. So, by virtue of it being higher priced, Orval can get away with product variability, and even turn it into a selling point.
Successful brewers in the U.S. though have been models of consistency. Markowski he seemed a little surprised by my naïve questions about maintaining a microbrewed quality and flavor even when the level of production is scale to near macrobrew levels. Markowski cited Sierra Nevada as quintessential example of the successful mass production of craft beer. In his book Microbrewed Adventures, Charlie Papazian says this about Sierra Nevada: "Even though they are at a much higher level these days, their goal has stayed the same---to make great beer. Their equipment is larger and better and their processes have become more efficient, but the beer stays true. Their production is approaching 600,000 barrels at the time of this book's publication, and their products have every bit of the 'microbrewing' integrity with which they began in 1981. This is not only a tribute to Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, but also to what passion for beer and brewing has done for our American beer culture."
Markowski said that scaling a recipe up from a fifteen barrel system to a fifty barrel system isn't just a matter of multiplication. The difficulty of making the same beer on different brewing systems is enormous and ultimately success depends on the knowledge and palate of the brewer. The brewer must know the goût of his beer and know what it takes to achieve it. But it's not just knowledge and skill, it takes passion.
This is what Charlie Papazian says about how to stay successful in the brewing business: "True and successful microbrewers have always put quality, diversity and the people who will enjoy their beer first on their list of priorities. Sales are essential for a brewery, but selling beer for the simple sake of selling beer usually dooms a dispassionate brewer."
I asked Leo Bongiorno, cofounder of Butternuts Beer and Ales in Garrattsville, New York what he thought of Southampton's growth and expansion. He said, "If anyone can make that transition from small batch production to mass production, it's Phil Markowski. He's a knowledgeable and competent brewer. And he's passionate about making great beer."
Tasting Notes (sidebar)
The Southampton Double White is part of the XXII Reserve series. You'll find it in 22 ounce bottles at your local bottle shop or quality grocery store. At 7.2% alcohol by volume the Double White is a warmer version of a Belgian-style Wit. You are probably familiar with Hoegaarden which is quickly becoming ubiquitous on taps and in bottle shops all over the US. Southampton's Double White shares a few similarities with Hoegaarden: orangey tartness and a suggestion of coriander; however, the Double White is better for sipping as it is bigger and sweeter than the Hoegaarden.
You might want to try the Southampton IPA or India Pale Ale. India Pale Ales were originally brewed in England for export to India and were made hoppier and higher in alcohol to help them endure the sea voyage to India. Here in the United States we've taken this traditional English style and made it all our own by cranking up the hop character of the IPA to levels not found in England. The Southampton IPA is in the West Coast style and is a big, hoppy, fruity (think grapefruit and tangerine) beer with enough alcohol strength to keep you warm on a cool evening.
Update for the Weekend Beginning April 7, 2006
I finally made my first (long overdue) trip of the year
out to the Southampton Publick
House. I found a wonderfully refreshing Abbey Single on tap. It was
a luminous yellow, hazy, and grassy tartness---a perfect way to welcome
the arrival of Spring. I usually have two different pints when I head out
to Southampton, but the Abbey Single was so good that I had to have
another. For desert we split a small bottle of Old Herb, a barleywine.
I'm not a big fan of barleywines in general. They are often too syrupy
for my taste. Old Herb's was definitely strong and sweet. The nose was
the most interesting aspect of the beer; it smelled like an antique
shop---a little musty. Not bad. Our bottle was labeled 148 of 500, a
limited edition.
A Second Place
Be sure to check out the The Village Cheese Shop.
