Catamount 8 Lives
Dec 06 '00
They say cats have nine lives, and that seems to be true of cats and Catamounts alike. As previously reported in an earlier Epinion, the Catamount Brewing Company of White River Junction and then Windsor, Vermont went out of business last year, or nearly did. A pioneer among East Coast craft brewers, they had expanded beyond their humble beginnings in a small brewery to build a million-dollar state of the art facility. In the process, they over extended themselves and incurred debts that they never could pay selling beer in a fiercely competitive market.
At the same time, Harpoon Brewing of nearby Boston couldn’t make its beer fast enough to meet demand. Harpoon turned a hungry eye towards Catamount’s shiny new facility and eventually purchased it and the Catamount brands, though they are not brewing all of them at present. Catamount 8 Lives is a new beer, never produced by the original Catamount brewery. The name is an obvious play on the fact the number of lives cats are alleged to have, presumably Catamount has used one and has another 8 to go.
Catamount 8 Lives pours to a light golden color with a good two fingers worth of foam forming after a moderate pour. The nose is fresh malty and slightly fruity. The palate is extremely crisp malty, it is dominated by a crisp maltiness that is slightly crackery and very refreshing in the finish. There aren’t really much in the way of hops to speak of here, which will make it popular I think.
This is not a Catamount beer; it’s a Harpoon beer. In a literal sense, that is obvious, but I’m referring to the taste of the beer. You could put this beer in a Pickwick ale bottle, another of Harpoon’s brands, and never know the difference. The two are virtually identical.
A crisp beer like this is refreshing and great for any occasion, I’m enjoying it tonight with a fresh garden salad loaded with iceberg lettuce, radishes, tomatoes, cucumbers, green bell peppers, peperoncinis, carrots, and red onion, all topped off with an olive oil vinaigrette dressing.
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