Don Barkley, a New Albion brewer, has recreated the classic New Albion Ale for SF Beer Week.  I stopped by City Beer to pick up a few bottles of Firestone Walker’s Reserve Porter to for Jen to braise short ribs in, and while there tried a pour of the official Beer of SF Beer Week.

Tasting it in comparison to modern beers of today, it’s clearly I think more interesting as an intellectual historical artifact.  The hops are very, very mild, and there is a light malt finish.  It’s superbly brewed – light, delicate beers like this don’t have anywhere to hide off flavors – but ultimately, I didn’t feel like there was a lot there.  

On the other hand, I got Eli one at Toronado later, and she liked it a whole lot more than my Pliny the Younger. 

Next up: Triple Rock and and Jupiter’s Sour Sunday, followed by dinner with the Homebrew Chef  at 21A.

Tags: SF Beer Week

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 8th, 2009 at 6:14 pm and is filed under Taste Test. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.