Breaker breaker one nine
1977. A mustached Georgia actor, a country singer and the Flying Nun unleash upon the world the greatest American movie ever made. It’s about big trucks and fast cars, about serendipitous love, about power-mad country sheriffs, and about beer.
It’s easy to forget, but there was a time when Coors was an uncommon delicacy. The various twists and confusions of the liquor law and distribution of the time kept Coors west of the Mississippi, giving it a rarefied air in the east, especially in the southeast. Of course Coors is available nationwide now, finally permitting this so sought pairing of blue mountains and red necks, but alcohol distribution is still a byzantine thing. In Georgia two beers in particular seemed to take up the mantle, discussed in whispered rumors and smuggled home from carefully chosen vacations.: Yuengling, a lager with history and about on par with Coors in terms of taste, and the other a fancy microbrew from the land of Coors, Fat Tire. Both are now available in Georgia. We’re losing our Coorses, and that’s fantastic.
This Fat Tire came in a special bottle noting the various struggles and pitfalls of moving beer across state lines: “1st (legal) distribution commemorative: Georgia on My Ride.” It claims to be an amber ale of 5.2% ABV and best served at 45°F. There’s a little diagram of what looks like a snifter, so hey why not. It pours clear copper with a big white head, sturdy and fluffy, and it smells sweet and citrusy. There’s a sort of thickness to the taste, but not that sort of syrupy thickness in beers that go nuts with the malts and sugars, just a sweet solidity that stays on the easily drinkable side. It’s a little lemony, and there’s a little bit of a hoppy bite, and that’s about it.
This was a nice beer, but I think the name of the brewery made me expect something that it isn’t: this isn’t a Belgian. It’s somewhere between a sipping beer and something that can be pounded back, it doesn’t taste like they raided the spice cabinet, and there isn’t that crazy yeasty taste of alien fruits grown by mad monks. It’s just a nice, easy-going, comfortable beer. And I’m glad I can get it in Georgia.
May 15th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Fat Tire is one of our favorites, and if we’re lucky, we’ll soon have it here in Alabama. Even though Fat Tire is below 6.0% ABV, most of New Belgium’s products aren’t, hence their lack of interest in our market (and who can blame them, really). We once stocked up on Fat Tire in Missouri and brought back somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 worth of Fat Tire, 1554, and 2 below.