Grizzly Growler

I love that my friends love to pull something new and unique out of their cellars when I come over for a visit. For one, it helps expand my beer horizons, and it helps me to have a conversation about the beer I try for this blog. A one-sided conversation, which I often have with myself about my beer reviews, just doesn’t work when it comes to making beer a real live conversation between many people.

After spending some time with some new friends last week, Jon pulled this great beer out of his cellar. He, like me, is unable to keep his cellar going for long without the need for refilling it. We’ll call it an enthusiasm for beer whether it’s freshly stored or well aged.

Over a long, rambling and enjoyable conversation that covered a good portion of our personal stories, we sipped this fine beer and smelled the good food simmering in the kitchen.

Hints of fresh oak, vanilla and rum-raisin pummeled our taste buds, while the beer finished with slightly wine-like streaks of green fruit and then, finally, a subtle hoppiness that is evidence of the dry hopping the beer gets before it is bottled.

I’ve had numerous beers about which you can have a conversation, but I’ve had few conversational beers as delightful as Mirror Mirror from Deschutes Brewing Co.

Let’s hope HB 400 is signed by the governor soon, so that we’ll be able to get some Mirror Mirror come October when the law raising the legal definition of beer in Montana to 14 percent.

Prost,

GG