Documentary tells David-Goliath brewing tale - Sacramento Living - Sacramento Food and Wine, Home, Health | Sacramento Bee

The article below - click on the orange link to read it - is about a documentary about beer. Here is my favorite excerpt from it, quoting film director Anat Baron: "The big guys have done a good job of convincing people that light-yellow, fizzy beer is what beer's supposed to be. But in reality that's not the case. Over 69 types of beer are being made in America today. The reason the small guys have succeeded is more consumers are concerned with taste and flavor. They don't want the sameness. Beer for some people is becoming like wine."

Photo: flickr (MsBlueSky)

Documentary tells David-Goliath brewing tale - Sacramento Living - Sacramento Food and Wine, Home, Health | Sacramento Bee

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Variety, not fruit, is the spice of beer

There are few experiences more frustrating than buying a 6-pack of a new beer, only to get home and find that the first bottle contains some strange ingredient. In a recent case, I excitedly brought home a new wheat beer only to find that the brewer had added banana flavor to it! Banana flavor. Now, really, what manly guy is demanding that fruit flavors be added to his beer?

Yes, I know that Heineken contains lemon flavor. Fine, but one fruit-flavored beer is enough.

This is the reason that Sam Adams Boston Brewery deserves some credit for releasing the Brewmaster's Variety Pack. The currently released 12-pack contains two bottles each of six distinct styles. In the current pack - there are different samplers released depending on the time of year - you'll find 2 basic Sam Adams lagers, 2 of Sam's Winter Wheat Ales, 2 very smooth Boston Stock Ales, 2 four-malt Scotch Ales, 2 Black Lagers and 2 Honey Porters.

The sampler pack gives you the chance to find out what you like and don't like with a minimal investment. In this Variety Pack, my favorite is Black Lager which tastes like a very dark and bold coffee, with absolutely no aftertaste (one of the bottles contains a clear explanation of the steps taken to eliminate the usual aftertaste). My least favorite - not so hard to guess - is the Honey Porter. But beer, after all, is still beer.

By the way, how do you get rid of a beer you find out you don't like? Wait 'til a special friend comes over and tell him, "Hey, you'll never believe the great beer I found that has bananas in it! Want to taste it?"