Last month, Sixpoint Craft Ales – with which I share a Brooklyn zip code – launched “Hop Obama”, an electoral ale. It’ll be around until the Pennsylvania primaries and sounds nice:
In keeping with the Illinois senator’s unifying theme, the “Hop Obama” is an indefinable ale that doesn’t adhere to traditional style guidelines. The 5.2% ABV creation contains five different kinds of European crystal malt and three different kinds of Pacific Northwest Hops. Combined with a Scottish yeast strain for fermentation, the result is a highly drinkable beer with a big malt background and an “Obama” of hops that imparts floral and citrus notes with just a hint of spiciness.
“The Hop Obama is our unique Sixpoint creation brewed in honor of the inspirational surgency (sic) of Senator Barack Obama,” said Sixpoint brewmaster Shane Welch. “Although we do not intend this beer to be a direct Sixpoint endorsement of Obama, we believe the delicious and refreshing quality it represents reminds us of the Senator’s successful grassroots campaign that positively blossoms each and every day.”
All mildly amusing, although the funniest part may be the earnest Real Ale enthusiasts’ reviews of the beer (including that quoted in my title) all of which resolutely refuse to get the joke and go on and on and on about malt… And yet not one of them has the gumption to refer to the “Audacity of Hops”, a sad oversight.
Unlike the ubiquitous candidate, the ale is rather hard to spot, but as a service to New Yorkers, I am pleased to note that it will be available at The Gate in Park Slope on the evening of Wednesday 9 April. Indeed, one can imagine no better evening in NYC than attending a thoughtful public lecture by Hans Blix hosted by the Center on International Cooperation, before heading off for a political pint.
(Okay, maybe you can think of a better evening in NYC, but that is why we leave comments firmly off on this blog – we don’t need you to tell us we’re wonks).
