Beer Tasting: Four Sixes Amber Lager
Aug. 3rd, 2023 11:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerOne thing about beer tasting, as with just-about-anything tasting, is that sometimes you try something just because it's there and you haven't see it before and you're curious. Oh, it's still got to pass minimum standards. It can't look or smell like shit. The label's got to offer some promise. Even better yet is if the person next to you or the bartender can vouch for it, or Internet randos on some drinking site have given it at least 3.5 stars. 🤣
So it was with Four Sixes Grit & Glory Amber Lager. I saw it in an end-cap display at the local Lucky supermarket ("Lucky, owned by Save-Mart"), it was on sale, and a skim of beer rating sites showed it was at least half decent.
Four Sixes has suddenly appeared in my area with a few different varieties of beer. I picked the Grit & Glory amber lager because it's the one of their styles I tend to like most. In this beer tasting project I've sampled a lot of amber ale. Amber lager has some similar qualities, particularly a rich and mildly sweet flavor, but because it's a lager rather than an ale it has a softer taste profile.
I cracked open the first can of Grit & Glory in the early evening a few days ago and took it out to the balcony. I wasn't sure if this red lager would be a good "warm day in the back yard" sipper. It turned out it was. Also, the weather wasn't really that warm. The heat of the day had broken. The cooling air made the rich taste of the beer more enjoyable.
As I got halfway through the glass it struck me what this beer reminds me off: Killian's Irish Red. Except I haven't had a Killian's— I don't think I've even seen a Killian's— in at least 25 years. For whatever reason it's not distributed in San Francisco, San Jose, and Los Angeles, the areas I've lived for the past 25+ years. Which is (a) weird that it's excluded from these major metros and (b) sad because I really liked Killian's back when I was in college. It was the first beer I tried that I genuinely enjoyed. It was my favorite brand for a few years until I moved out to California, then... whoops, it disappeared. A quick search shows multiples stores out by Sacramento carry it, 120 miles away— including, ironically, the store I shopped in Friday night in Folsom. So until next time I'm buying beer in Sac I guess I'll have to hope Save-Mart's off brand Lucky keeps carrying Four Sixes.
So it was with Four Sixes Grit & Glory Amber Lager. I saw it in an end-cap display at the local Lucky supermarket ("Lucky, owned by Save-Mart"), it was on sale, and a skim of beer rating sites showed it was at least half decent.
Four Sixes has suddenly appeared in my area with a few different varieties of beer. I picked the Grit & Glory amber lager because it's the one of their styles I tend to like most. In this beer tasting project I've sampled a lot of amber ale. Amber lager has some similar qualities, particularly a rich and mildly sweet flavor, but because it's a lager rather than an ale it has a softer taste profile.
I cracked open the first can of Grit & Glory in the early evening a few days ago and took it out to the balcony. I wasn't sure if this red lager would be a good "warm day in the back yard" sipper. It turned out it was. Also, the weather wasn't really that warm. The heat of the day had broken. The cooling air made the rich taste of the beer more enjoyable.
As I got halfway through the glass it struck me what this beer reminds me off: Killian's Irish Red. Except I haven't had a Killian's— I don't think I've even seen a Killian's— in at least 25 years. For whatever reason it's not distributed in San Francisco, San Jose, and Los Angeles, the areas I've lived for the past 25+ years. Which is (a) weird that it's excluded from these major metros and (b) sad because I really liked Killian's back when I was in college. It was the first beer I tried that I genuinely enjoyed. It was my favorite brand for a few years until I moved out to California, then... whoops, it disappeared. A quick search shows multiples stores out by Sacramento carry it, 120 miles away— including, ironically, the store I shopped in Friday night in Folsom. So until next time I'm buying beer in Sac I guess I'll have to hope Save-Mart's off brand Lucky keeps carrying Four Sixes.
