history in a bottle: anchor brewing co.'s small beer
Written: Aug 29 '01
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: it was good enough for the puritans, and it's a neat ipa-like ale.
Cons: available in 22 oz bottles, only(?)
The Bottom Line: this is a unique tasting beer with strong caramel tones. and it's approved by countless puritan sermons.
|
|
|
| roymeo's Full Review: Anchor Small Beer |
"it was a common practice until well into the nineteenth century to refer to "strong beer", "table beer", "ship's beer", and "small beer." these were distinctions of strength, ... and also on the alcoholic content. "small beer" was the weakest and meant to be drunk immediately after being brewed." from page 16 of brewed in america by stanley baron
in this historical examination of beer in america, mr. baron also discusses small beer quite a bit, as everyone drank beer until the last century or so. water was deemed unhealthy (and considering the lack of germ theory, they were correct). everybody drank beer, from pilgrim and puritan children to the founding fathers. occasionally the pulpits would sing of the immorality of strong drink, (whiskey, beer that was stronger than necessary, etc.) but not until after water quality was advanced by science were the absolute prohibitionist ideas propagated.
and now we can drink like puritans!
propaganda
the bottle label tells us that (this particular) small beer is made from the 'second rinsing' of the grains from another, much stronger beer, anchor old foghorn barleywine style ale in this case. a grain bed is washed by water to remove the sugars from the grains, this water runoff is boiled with hops and becomes nummy beer when yeast turns the sugar to alcohol and carbon dioxide and beer flavors. after the grain bed is determined to be 'spent' by the brewer there is still sugar left in the grains, but washing them too long also washes out other, undesirable things such as tannins which lead to astringency and various proteins which lead to harsh tastes, haze, and can cause beer chemistry problems. but done correctly, a brewer can brew two beers from the same grain bed and they'll taste completely different.
(the label also uses words like mash and sparging, assuming you already know what those mean. i avoided those terms in the above explanation.)
wow. anchor brewing company is the first company website i've gone to while writing reviews that doesn't have much helpful information. in fact, it barely has any information. http://www.anchorbrewing.com/
head
light but sufficient. moderately carbonated.
color
light golden amber and bright-shiny clear.
aroma
this beer has a subdued, earthy floral hop aroma with a hint of citrus.
flavor, body, finish
strange
even without all the history bits, i would have noticed something different about this beer. the first flavor to hit you is caramel then a touch of tart citrus. the middle has a nice tart/sour wang to it and hop flavoring. the finish is caramel, a little burnt, followed by the bittering of the hops. i would put this beer more in a pale ale category than a bitter, because bitter beers aren't as bitter as pale ales, and this goes, i believe, beyond the usual bitter.
aftertaste
caramel n treacle sweetness, hoppy bitterness and a good, dry astringency, which one would expect from the second run of a grain bed.
warm
as this beer warms, it brings out more of the roasted malty characteristic that's hiding under the caramel.
conclusion
i really like this small beer. the caramel and the tartness, the surprising sweetness balanced by the hops, this is not a 'small' beer. india pale ale lovers will probably like this beer....i sure do. this beer really does show the skill of the anchor brewing company, because there is absolutely no haze (or maybe they filter the heck out of it) or any of the other problems one would associate with second runs, other than what i find to be a refreshing astringency. on a hot summer day, i do believe i would much rather drink this beer and talk in archaic language than have a lemon-reeking wheat beer.
this beer may very well became a frequent guest in my refrigerator.
quick stats
original gravity:
final gravity:
alcohol by volume:
color:
bittering units:
malts:
bittering hops:
flavor hops:
aroma hops:
bottles: 22 oz crown capped.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
roymeo
|
|
Location: SF, CA
Reviews written: 79
Trusted by: 105 members
About Me:
pseudo-intellectual altie-poser taken to self-deprecation
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.