My search for the best beer in New York continues….
I brought two of Brooklyn Brewery’s bottle fermented beers to Thanksgiving dinner to pair with the turkey and I thought the tradition should continue with Christmas. So I picked up the other bottle-fermented beer, the Sorachi Ace. Now I mainly brought it because I wanted everybody (especially the non beer drinkers) to give it a try. Yet due to it’s lightness, I wasn’t completely sold on the idea of pairing it with the food. For the record, I also brought my favorite beer, Troeg’s Mad Elf, which is a darker and sweeter brew and paired nicely with the heavier, richer dishes on the Christmas table. But Sorachi Ace was perfect to start the meal off. It paired nicely with the salad (yes, there was salad at Christmas!) and didn’t go too badly with the turkey either.
Brooklyn Brewery named this beer after the most unique ingredient: the rare Sorachi Ace hops, which was recently created in Japan. The beer is also re-fermented with champagne yeast, which were the words I used to lure the wine drinkers to my side.
I think everybody really enjoyed and were surprised by the beer. It pours a very large foamy head with a golden hazy body. There’s lots of citrus, lemony zing on the nose with some spice. When drinking it, the flavors explode starting with a strong lemongrass flavor, moving into warm spices like coriander, and finishing with a light yeasty character. This is an incredibly complex and utterly drinkable saison (farmhouse ale).
I just discovered Brooklyn has put out a new bottle fermented beer called the BamBoozle. What’s the next big holiday I can pull out this one for? Martin Luther King’s Day Dinner, anyone?
Is Brooklyn Brewery’s Sorachi Ace the best beer in NY? It’s a perfect year-round beer with light, bright flavors and a yeasty finish earning this a very drinkable 10 out of 10.
