The Big Green House

Tuesday, November 05, 2002

 

Love is like a good pint is like love

Just because Iconomy asked me to, I�ll be reviewing Samuel Adams Winter Lager today. Before we dive into that, however, I should probably mention that I don�t usually drink much lager these days. I like a beer to be bold, full-bodied, strong, and bitter. (Actually that�s not a bad description of Science Girl, either, although she�s much more sweet than bitter. Yeah, I know I�m treading on icky ground here, but you�re just going to have to put up with it.) Lagers and pilsners, while definitely bitter, generally have a much lighter body. That said, on a hot summer�s day there�s nothing like a nice cool Pilsner Urquell to slake a wilting bmarkey�s thirst.

But it�s wintertime, or might as well be, so let�s get on with the, uh, whatever it is we�re doing. Right. Well, it�s a funny thing, actually. I brought some Sam Adams home last night after work. I poured it off into my favorite pint glass; it had a nice coppery color. When I went to smell the beer, however, I got� nothing. No discernable scent. Hmm. Well, I�d just come in from a ten minute walk home from the bus stop, in relatively cold weather, so maybe my nose was a little stopped up. I gave it a taste. It�s surprisingly full-bodied, so that part was good. I guess maybe it was a little too full-bodied, though, because it slid right down my throat without registering on my palate. It was there, and then it wasn�t. Science Girl wasn�t drinking at the moment, but I had her give it a try just in case there was something weird going on with my tongue. Same result - nothing. There�s a little bit of malt, and some sort of spice (the Sam Adams folks say that it�s orange peel & ginger), but in very small amounts. It�s almost as if it somehow erases any memory of how it tastes. Are they targeting for death the brain cells that control taste? Why is everyone so afraid of putting flavor into their beer? Have we become a nation of Zima swillers? Has it come to that? And why am I asking so damn many rhetorical questions? I�m going to give it another try tonight, but I�m not terribly hopeful at this point. Sorry, Ico.

bmarkey 11/05/2002 07:49:00 PM