The Utah Sampler

It had been a long, hard trek, but the bears were doing well as they drove into Salt Lake City, Utah.  There they would be staying with a gracious host and friend of Ambear, Abbear.  We ate homemade pizza, played music, and sampled an array of local beers.  It was heaven in Utah.

Heaven is very dry...

Music rippled through the air as four music bears, one beer commentator, and a snail (literally) enjoyed the evening air, delicious food with friends, and sampled Utonian? Utahite? Utahn beer.

(This is just going to be a quick run-through from my note book because I'm behind in my posting and time is running on.  So, to start...)

We began with  Squatter's brand Radio from Hell "Red as Hell" Ale.  One of our first introductions to a red ale and it was thoroughly enjoyable.  "It's stoutsy" comments BPB.  Smooth with slight stoutsy roasted bitter notes.  Really good.

"Red as Hell", left

Next was the Wasatch's "The Devastator" Double Bock Lager.  It had a slight sour flavor, but retained a strong build.  Although it was smooth, I was personally not a fan, wishing to myself that it had stronger sour tones, if it was planing on being sour at all, by adding some sauerkraut.  Ambear loves sauerkraut...

Anyway, on to another Squatter's, the Hop Rising Double IPA.  We found this IPA to be full bodied yet reserve a gentle balance within it's hoppy and bitter characteristics which was then lightly topped by citrus esters.  It still had the usual hop-centric vibe that one would expect from a Double IPA, "very hoppy" but "absurdly sweet for an IPA" my IPA guru-bear commented, which we figure accounted for the IPA to maintain a decent level of drinkability.  I would recommend this beer, especially if your one of those hop junkie beerophiles.

Home-grown Sampler Set

(It is important to note here that, the taste-buds were getting a bit fuzzy at this point in time.  Although we were not yet drunk, as we had only shared 3 beer among 5 people, our judgements were becoming impaired by the overwhelming range yet similarities in flavors.  Especially without pallet cleansers.  So, this is essentially a disclaimer.  I will expose my findings, but I can not swear upon their accuracies.)

So, what happened next was that, after going one round with Squatter's Double IPA, we foolishly moved onto their regular IPA. There were no more citrus notes, and I felt this let the hops move in and take advantage of my tongue.  Bipolar Bear says, "I like it".

Then we had Squatter's Big Cottonwood, Amber Ale.  Now, despite our similar naming, Ambear does not enjoy Amber Ales... so instead of expressing my dislike for Amber's, I'll just say that for me it seems that all Amber Ales are the same Amber Ale.  And they all taste bad...

Next!  The Wasatch White Label Belgian Style.  The note are silly, but I'll just say really quick before getting into those that White beers are an odd breed which I have minimal experience but they always
seem clean but a bit bland... now my notes.  Clean? Interesting, strange smell and taste... capers again? artichoke? What's going on?!

And finally, Wasatch Polygamy Porter... the anti-Porter.  Yes, it was the end of the night.  Yes we had already sampled 6 other beers.  But, it just tasted to us, after knowing the fullness and roasty notes of McMenamins' Porter, like it was lightly carbonated water with a bit of porter flavoring.  "Kinda tastes like dirt after a doughnut", notes Abbear.

The most surprising thing we found in Salt Lake, right

And so our wonderful visit ended, as did our great American excursion.  After this we left Abbear's lovely apartment in Utah and booked it back to wonderful, green Oregon.  The bears had taken captives from Missouri and we went to find asylum in the most beautiful place in the world, the Willamette Valley.  The End... sort of.

God descending on Utahn Mountains next to our car...