New Favorite

The new kid on the block in Dallas, with surprisingly large scale distribution, is Alaskan Brewing Co. (http://www.alaskanbeer.com).  With our next-door suburb, Plano TX moving into the current century by allowing liquor sales, several large upscale liquor stores have recently open with a very wide array of beer choices.  While searching for a reasonably priced, US-made ESB (Extra Special Bitter) I happened to see a 6-pack of Alaskan ESB and picked it up.

Now the gold standard for ESB is Fullers ESB, imported from London, England (Fuller's also makes London Pride, one of my favorite all time beers and my go-to when I'm in the UK).  Fuller's ESB is well balanced, a sublime combination of malt with just the right amount of hops.

One of the best

I also bought another ESB, but I don't know remember the name - it just wasn't memorable.  It was from the West Coast, had a black label and was far too hoppy.

And that's a problem for many current beers, especially from the West Coast of America.  There seems to be a competition among brewers in Oregon and Washington states to make the vilest, most bitter possible IPA (India Pale Ale) and regular Pale Ales with high alcoholic content (ABV).  So knowing Alaska sits above Seattle and Alaskan's pride themselves on being hardy, my expectations were set low......

A new favorite!

And wrong.  The Alaskan ESB is mild flavored (despite the name, ESB's are NOT supposed to be bitter), well balanced beer with strong head.  A sipping beer to bring the full flavor to bear, but not so strongly flavored as to discourage quaffing.  You can read the marketing hype here (http://www.alaskanbeer.com/our-brew/seasonal-beers/spring-release.html), but what counts is that this a Great One - I have new second favorite beer (after Samuel Adams Boston Lager).

And after that, I tried the Alaskan IPA - it while not quite so "blow-my-socks -off" great, it's still a good beer - I can only suppose that with Vancouver and a stretch of British Columbia between Juneau and the Seattle Hop Insanity (great name for a rock band!), in the dark Alaskan winter nights a new brand of smoothness was born and grew.

I might have to move.....