My apologies for being so....well American! I have reviewed nothing but American made beers, save for the Red Stripe, and I am sure that some of you might think I am not using the resources made available to me.
Do not worry, I have 3 Belgian beers in reserve and a couple German beers as well. Not to mention the English beers I have yet to, well, purchase, but that will come with time.
Please don't typecast me into an all local proponent of beer, because I know good beer when I see one, or can see one, depending on the amount of good beer that I have consumed. I think I am going to make a point of it to review a Trappist beer next. I have Chimay Red, White and Blue in my cellar so just wait, they are coming!
Someone once said that too much of a good thing......is a good thing. And I have to say that I agree with that person in the case of the Sweetwater folks here in Atlanta. I really enjoyed the IPA so I figured, "What the heck? If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" What I mean by that is I have some of the Trappist beers in my "beer cellar" in my garage, thanks to David with his article, Aargh! Promoting Iced Beer (check it out), but I was really impressed with the IPA so I wanted to delve a little bit further into the Sweetwater repertoire with the 420 Extra Pale Ale. And I am happy to report that the Sweetwater folks are rather consistent.
Here we go with the aroma! It has a beautiful hop and floral aroma, not as prominent as the IPA, but kind of a toned down version of it. I also noticed a bit of a malty undertone, which went nicely with this beer.
420's color was a nice pale gold, which I thought held up to its name. It seems that some of the pale ales that I have had the pleasure of sampling did not come off as looking too pale at all.
The taste is what got me, though. It has a great hop flavor to it. But it is not as prominent as the IPA, which does make sense. What I loved about this beer was the malty taste of it, it seemed to balance out the hops just right. It had a toasty afterthought as well.
Would I recommend this beer? Only if you like good beer, so....duh! I am little disappointed to see the prices of some of my favorite beers starting to inch upward, and Sweetwater 420 Extra Pale Ale is no exception. Most of you know that it was a bad year for hops, and that is definitely going to affect the price of your favorite beers. Oh well, it won't stop me. I actually drank this with a Boston butt pork steak (don't judge me) and some canned peas. Not your greatest meal, but it flowed!
Victory is sweet! It is even sweeter with a great beer! Perhaps the best sports experience (that I can remember) was this year's Super Bowl with the Pats and Giants. It came down to the last minutes and the underdog pulled out a "W" for the big game. Now I am not a Pats or Giants fan, per say, but I really do appreciate some good football. What made this experience more enjoyable was the presence of a half keg of Sweetwater IPA. Sweetwater Brewing Company is an Atlanta, GA. brewery that definitely lives up to its name. It was founded in 1997 and has made an impact on the beer scene throughout the country. It was voted Small Brewery of the year at the Great American Beer Festival in 2002 and has gone on to receive recognition at the World Beer Cup as well! It is primarily available in Georgia, but is branching out its distribution to the surrounding southeastern states (sorry Yanks, but you do have some other fine beers not available down here).
It is my great pleasure to start off with the aroma of this beer. It smells like a citrus-y flower blooming on a warm spring day! Mix that with a prominent hops aroma and it makes for one dandy smell, kind of like honeysuckle....only not!
If this beer were a tall blond, there would be some rubberneckers out there! It has a pleasing amber tone to it, and gives a very nice head. Use a frosty mug to catch this nectar and you will see what I mean by that. Notice that it leaves a little residue on the glass once the head has subdued, kind of makes me feel like pouring some more (and you know I will)!
And finally, we talk taste. One word: ohmygod! This is a hopheads wet dream. The hops are prominent and the citrus flavor is more than noticeable. I would also venture to say that it has a sort of toasty lingering to it. In short, it makes for one damn fine beer!
Would I recommend this beer? Recommend? I am considering forcing this beer upon people. It makes me sad that so many people will go their whole lives without ever tasting this treat. It would be like not ever tasting honey. I am pretty sure this beer would go great with about anything edible, but I just had a spinach green salad with broccoli, carrots, sunflower seeds, dried cranberries, and pork loin strips marinated in a honey dijon sauce, all topped with a light honey mustard dressing. It was better than my first meal after boot camp, mostly in part due to the beer.
It is a sad day indeed when you start to notice the price of your favorite beer begin to rise. It is even sadder when you know that it is going to get worse before it gets better.
Now every avid beer drinker is going to be affected by the hop shortage, in one way or another...be it your beer is a little pricier, or your beer is temporarily out of stock (God save us from such a day). So now is the time to start dabbling in the art of brewing your own beer. While brewers and micro-brewers will be grossly affected by this shortage, the home brewer is going to fare a little better. Since most of us brew in five gallon batches, the price of hops for this quantitatively small batch, considering the size of the batches for most brewers and micro-brewers, will not be that much higher than normal.
I would also like to take this opportunity to point out what the Boston Beer Co. is doing to help out the "little guy." Seen Through a Glass has an excellent article on exactly what Jim Koch is doing to help out other breweries that are feeling the hop shortage. The article is Hey , Craft Brewers: Who's Your Daddy?
Hypothetical Situation...Let's just say that your good buddy/next door neighbor was blessed enough to receive the holy grail of Christmas presents, a kegerator....let's just say! Your buddy is so proud of his new toy/bestest friend in the whole world and he shows it off. Good for him, you would do the same!
However, he starts to realize that everyone is going to be drinking from it and he is going to be footing the bill. He contemplates a cover charge but, realistically, that only works downtown at the topless clubs. So, being the upstanding citizen and purveyor of fine beers that you are known to be, you offer to go half and half with him for his first keg, which coincidentally, is the fountain of happiness for a rather enjoyable party centered around the Super Bowl! Good Times were had by all!
Now it is two weeks after the Super Bowl and the keg that you helped purchase is sitting in a lonely garage, not to be drank except when the partial owner feels it necessary to drink! What do you do? He does drink with you when he feels it necessary to drink, and you are grateful for the good company and good beer! But what about those nights that he slips off to bed early after too many margaritas, and you have no choice but to dip into your own stash because he closes the garage door and your are still very thirsty?
I recently had a friend ask me what an IBU was? It stands for International Bitterness Unit. In short, it is a rating for the bitterness associated with a beer. Me being a hophead, I enjoy a higher IBU in my beer. I can't think of anything better than a Double IPA which has an even higher IBU rating on the IBU scale.
And every beer that you will drink will have a rating on the IBU scale. For instance, your lambic beers and blonde ales have a very low rating on the scale, where an irish stout has a more significant IBU rating than other beers.
It is my opinion that this has a lot to do with what beers most people will drink. If someone does not like a bitter beer, they are not going to like the IPA's or stouts, but will drink your golden ales or lagers.
Recently, I was talking to my store of liqour owner, asking his opinion on some beers. We were on the topic of lagers, and he mentioned Yuengling. It was like a flash of bright light lit up in my head and then it all came back to me.
While stationed at MCAS Beaufort, SC, my pals and I would frequent the downtown strip and order up a couple of Yuenglings. We would watch the boats breeze by on the Broad River and it would be nothing but smooth sailing from there on out.
So back to the conversation between my liqour store pal and me, it dawned on me that I hadn't had a Yuengling in about 3 years. So I immediately told him to show me the way. He informed me that if I want one now, I was going to have to drive to the Carolinas to get one. But do not worry, Yuengling is coming to Georgia in a couple of months!! YUENGLING IS COMING TO GEORGIA!!!!
So guess what, as soon as they are available here in Georgia, I am running out to the store and buying this incredible beer. Has anyone had one in a while? Let me know what you think!
Single - Will not drink again! Ever! 22 oz- Not a good beer, but passes as a beer. 40 oz - Will quench your thirst, but would not drink regularly. Sixer - Middle of the road. 12 pack - Good Beer, would recommend. 18 pack - Great Beer, would drink regularly. 24 pack - Excellent Beer, buy in bulk!!! Kegger - It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time!!!
My apologies for being so....well American! I have reviewed nothing but American made beers, save for the Red Stripe, and I am sure that some of you might think I am not using the resources made available to me.
