Elysian Brewery in Seattle, Washington has issued special release Loser Pale Ale to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Sub Pop Records.
I came across this beer last night in our local specialty beer store. Everybody had told me that Elysian makes great beers, but for some reason, their beers never really reached out grabbed me when I was trying to make that tough decision at the store. Some might find this surprising given the great labels on the beers, which have cartoonish god figures on the front.
But how can you resist a beer simply labeled "Loser" on the front? So I walked out of the store with my 24 ounce bottle. The label on this beer is great. It is a black and white image of the good ole grunge days of the early nineties. I'm not quite sure who is on the label, but it evokes images of Stephan Malkmus or Kurt Cobain.
When you pour this beer into a glass, it has a great copper/orange tone to it. The taste is well-balanced with a slight nod to the hops, which fits my general preferences. It starts with a hoppy, interesting grapefruit taste but finishes with a nice bitterness that is not too overdone. The grapefruit is mixes with some other spices that I can't quite figure out what they are.
Oddly enough, there is no mention of this special release at the Elysian Brewery's website.
I just tried this beer for the first time at 5 p.m. on a Thursday going into a three day weekend and I'm not sure there is a better way I could have started the weekend.
I recently took a leak that smelled like a loser. You tell me.
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