|
|
Don't Fail To Try It: Lia Fail Stone of Destiny AleJun 12 '04 Write an essay on this topic.
Popular Products in Refrigerators
The Bottom Line It is your destiny to buy this beer.
For most beers, the best time to buy them is within a short time after they’re bottled. Of course, there are exceptions. But for the most part, fresh beer is the best beer. Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to tell how fresh your beer is. Some beers have freshness dating of one kind or another to help out in that regard. But many beers don’t. For some brewers, freshness dating can be a double-edged sword. To be sure, the brewer wants you to get his beer fresh. That way it tastes best. Of course, if date coded beer doesn’t sell within a certain time frame, it may sit on the retailer’s shelves forever. Which is bad for the brewer, because he won’t be getting many re-orders that way. Of course, if a beer has no date codes and the consumer gets bad beer, he’ll have a poor impression of the brewery and may shy away from all of their products as a result. As I said, a double-edged sword. For my part, I think many more brewers worry about the former more than they do the latter. That’s because most beers don’t come with any kind of freshness coding at all. So what’s a beer enthusiast to do to get fresh beer? No method is 100% foolproof, of course. But one that has worked generally well for me has been to pounce upon any new beer I see in my market. Because that’s usually the time the beer is the freshest. Such was the case today when I saw a bottle of Lia Fail Stone of Destiny Ale in my local beer store. I snapped a bottle right up. And boy, am I glad I did. Because Lia Fail is one of the most delicious Scottish ales I’ve tasted, period. And my bottle was exceedingly fresh. Lia Fail is brewed by the Inveralmond Brewery of Perth, Scotland, so I’m sure our pal Proxam drinks a lot of this stuff. He’s a lucky guy for that. The brewery claims to be the brewer of the Supreme Champion Beer of Scotland 2002. Pretty impressive, that. The name Lia Fail means stone of destiny, and the label tells me that it was a coronation stone for Scottish kings from 840 to 1296, when it was whisked off to England. The English gave it back in 1996, and so it got a beer named after it. A better tribute I can’t think of, and proof positive that beer not only tastes great, but that it can be educational too. Lia Fail Stone of Destiny Ale pours to a light mahogany color with a thick creamy head of densely packed bubbles and a rich butterscotch nose. The palate is medium bodied with sweet notes of toasted treacle at first along with light chocolate, a hint of butterscotch, and toasted nuts. The beer is incredibly creamy and I just couldn’t stop sipping it until my glass was empty. Gradually, a slightly piney hop character emerges and leaves a gently lingering hop buzz in the finish. This is a wonderful beer, and I can’t think of one thing I would change about it. EPINIONS CRITERIA: Overall Rating: Five Stars Beer Rating: A Must-Sensational Weight: Medium Body Flavor: Bitter Complexity: Complex Price: $3.99 per half liter bottle  |
| Read all comments (1)|Write your own comment |
