Try?
First beer ever from the Sunken City Brewery! OK, first beer ever from the Sunken City for me. Sunken City is a relatively new addition to the Virginia brewing scene, and I got a can of their delightful Steemboat Beer from the magnanimous Chuck Triplett. Here’s what the brewery says about themselves:
Southwest Virginia’s newest craft brewery is located along Route 122 at Westlake Towne Center near Smith Mountain Lake. Sunken City is a 25-barrel, four -vessel brewhouse, featuring a tasting room and pub, retail store, and beer garden.
Very nice, I’ll have to make it there one day. But for now, they’ve come to me and I’m enjoying the beer. Their Steemboat Beer is of course a variant on the California Common style made famous by the one and only Anchor Steam beer. There isn’t much information about this beer on the brewery website, so I’ll quote from the back of the can, just so you can have more knowledge about this beer.
Before dependable overland routes were available throughout the Mid-Atlantic, the main thoroughfares were its pattern of waterways. The king of these waterways was the mighty steamboat! Up and down the rivers and in the Chesapeake Bay, Steamboats were an economical and cultural life line. Our STEEMBOAT beer is a “California Common” style of beer, a style born in the American west during the gold rush. It gets its unique characteristics from the historical practice of being fermented with a lager yeast but at close to an ale temperature causing a quick fermentation and leaving the beer with a mix of uncommon characteristics. STEEMBOAT beer shows mildly fruity aromatics with a clean hop aroma. Body is medium with an assertive hop bitterness in the finish. Sink a few in honor of the mighty STEEMBOAT!
Boy are my fingers tired! You can thank me later. Sunken City Steemboat has an alcohol content of 5.6% by volume and seems to be a year round brew.
Sunken City Steemboat Beer pours to a beautiful deep amber color with a medium sized head of creamy foam and a soft malty nose laced with hints of fruit. Taking a sip, the beer has a delicious malt character up front that hints at caramel but offers more toasted malt flavor and aroma to my taste, a hint of pear fruit and at the last a very dry grassy herbal hop aroma punctuated with a big bitter hop buzz that leaves the beer long and dry on the tongue.
The maltiness reminds me of Anchor, but the hop bitterness is really over the top, perhaps too much so for the style. Still, I’m enjoying this beer, it’s very drinkable and one I could drink a few of without a problem. California Common, or steam beer is a style I don’t see enough, so hats off to Sunken City for making one, and a very good one at that.
And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.
*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.
(B)=Bottled
(D)=Draft
