Since 2002 American craft brewer Samuel Adams has been making very limited quantities of possibly the world's strongest and most expensive beer. It's even referred to in company literature and advertising as a brand of "extreme beer" and extreme it is in all sorts of ways. Each year's tiny batch (around 8000 bottles) is slightly different from the last in ABV (alcohol by volume) percentage, varying a percentage point or two from the average 25%. Most lager beer, by contrast, is a mere 4%, making Utopias about five times stronger than garden variety beer. The beer itself is also very unusual - uncarbonated, and aged for years in a variety of different wood barrels, each of which adds to its complex taste and aroma.
A bottle of Utopias beer is a serious investment. The suggested retail price for the 2011 release is USD $150.00 (It's also slightly stronger than normal at 27% ABV). Each 700 ml bottle in which Utopias is sold is numbered and is made from lustre-glazed ceramic. The shape of the bottle resembles that of a brewing kettle.
Rio Negrinho's German-style railway station
And it's this unique bottle, with its unusual shape and it's beautiful lustre glaze containing 3% pure gold that gives this very-American beer its Brazilian connection. To house their expensive nectar Boston Brewing Co. (the parent company of Samuel Adams) chose a bottle made by a very small artisan ceramic mug and bottle factory located in southern Brazil. The Utopia bottle is manufactured by a company called Ceramarte, in the tiny town of Rio Negrinho in Santa Catarina state. The interior of Santa Catarina, where Rio Negrinho is located, was settled in the 19th and early 20th centuries by immigrants from Germany, and Ceramarte has been making German-style beer steins and mugs for close to a hundred years. They still make beautiful traditional style steins, and their older steins are highly collectible items on Mercado Livre, Brazil's equivalent to eBay. But the beautiful bottle they've produced for Samuel Adams, completely contemporary in flavor, shows that they can do more than just produce old-fashioned, heavy beer steins. And apparently someone at Samuel Adams knew that, and trusted Ceramarte with the container of their most precious product. How the brewery from Boston even came to know of Ceramarte's existence we don't know, but it's probably a fascinating story.
The Goabeiras neighborhood of Vítoria, the capital of the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo, is home to a tradtional style of production of unglazed ceramic cookware, known in Portuguese as "Paneleiras de Goiabeiras." In small workshops and factories, artisans create beautiful, yet utilitarian, cookware using techniques originated by Brazil's Indian population long before the European colonization of Brazil began in 1500. Unglazed bowls, platters, plates and cups are molded by hand, without the use of a wheel, using clay which comes from the nearby Vale do Mulembá. Once formed, the greenware is left to dry in the direct sun, and then fired over open fires rather than in a kiln. After firing, the pieces of cookware are impregnated with tannin, which protects and seals the unglazed ceramics, and which provides the lustrous black finish characteristic of "Goiabeiras" ware. The finished product can be used as a cooking vessel, or as serving ware.
The video below from YouTube shows the entire process of production, and was made by the local ceramics cooperative. Traditionally, Goiabeiras ware was made by women at home, but now both men and women make the bowls and plates, and production is in small workshops supported by the cooperative.
In earlier posts I discussed how certain traditional and artisanal techniques have been recognized by IPHAN, Brazil's National Institution of Historical and Artistic Patrimony as "immaterial national treasures." The traditional practice of selling acarajé on the streets of Salvador was covered in this post. IPHAN bestowed the same recognition as "national treasure" to the clayware of Goiabeiras in 2002 to ensure that this technique and style which dates back well over a thousand years is protected and preserved, and to honor those who carry on the traditions that their ancestors have passed on from generation to generation.
A Vancouverite who's living in Fortaleza, on Brazil's fabulous Northeast Coast. Learning all I can about Brazilian culture, with emphasis on the rich culinary traditions of Brazil
