A Malty Brew for Barack

Okay, to address the obvious first, clearly the picture to the right is not the actual bottling of Gordon Biersch's recent Obama-inspired beer. However, since this is the first brew I've discussed that is not bottled or canned in any way, I had to improvise, and any picture that somehow features Obama, Dave Chappelle as Sam L., and beer is awesome in my book. Moving along.

GB's actual Barack beer is called Inaugur-Ale (hyphen and all). Before I pass judgment on the brew itself, I need to explain a bit about Gordon Biersch itself. Gordon Biersch is a magical, magical place constantly hiding just under ther radar of mass recognition - it exists as a limited chain almost always located exactly where I need them to be. GB's are more elaborate and better funded than most single restaurants or bars while managing to avoid that streamlined or generic feel associated with the massive national food industry chains like Applebee's and the like. Each individual brewery/restaurant has a staggeringly unique look and feel, both in general and, more interestingly, from each other - some have giant pillars and huge glass walls just between restaurant tables and brewing equipment (DC), others hide the brewing and instead go for a more traditional resaurant look (VA), and still others are dominated by the bar and more reminiscent of a dive bar than a Cheesecake Factory (CA) - but they're all, in a word, awesome.

Most Gordon Biersch locations have agreed upon what may seem like a supreme self-indulgence - they only serve GB-produced brews, and depending on what seasonals are available this limits the diner/drinker to a mere five to seven choices. Luckily, I've had every one of these at some point or another, and they are all simply fantastic - particularly the hefeweizen, but that's another post for another day. Regardless, such a strict limit on variety automatically makes it a big deal whenever a seasonal or special brew is announced and released (almost always accompanied by some needless but entertaining launch party - I've been to two and they're usually about the same as any other night, but it's hard to improve on amazing).

This seasons attempt is the aforementioned Inaugur-Ale. Available as of the Wednesday preceding Inauguration Day, the brew had an extremely limited release - just a handful of kegs were made, and I'm fairly certain that it's already no longer being served. And, as much as I hate to tarnish GB's generally glowing record, I can easily say that the Inaugur-Ale is the least delicious beer I've sampled from them yet. Gordon Biersch apparently decided they wanted to experiment with a recipe that was far more malty than anything they've produced before, with a variety of results - it's one of those unique beer experiences in which you're shocked at first sip, annoyed by how overwhelming a single flavor is in the next two or three, increasingly okay with it as you work your way through it and discover the underlying tastes and balance, and finally ultimately disappointed as you finish that all of that is hidden under that first oppressive (in this case malty) layer.

Note, please, both the context and syntax of that review - first of all, the worst Gordon Biersch brew is still far better than the best of some other breweries, and I must reiterate its status of "least delicious" as opposed to, say, "worst" offering. It simply didn't shine in the way that the GB mainstays and even the traditional seasonals do. Granted, this was such a limited release that they clearly couldn't devote the time and money in reseaching and refining the brew, and you can't really blame them for experimenting with something new. It's limited publicity (it wasn't actually on the menu at any point during its availability, as far as I could tell) also led to another of my complaints - every GB beer and the entire food menu have been tinkered with for years to create an unbelievable food/beer balance, where every meal has at least one brew that either perfectly complements it or notably enhances the experience as a whole, and every seasonal is released with a special menu of new food offerings tailored to the brew's recipe and taste. Limited releases such as the Inaugur-Ale receive no such fanfare or special treatment, and thus was left with a noticeable and disappointing lack of synergetic (yeah) accompanying app/meal choices. Again, with any normal brew this would not be much of an issue, but relatively to the amazingness that is all of Gordon Biersch's other beer options it quickly becomes significant.

So, long story short, Gordon Biersch is generally awesome; their Inaugur-Ale was disappointing, but its no longer available anyway, so GB has gone back to being all amazing. Find one online, go, and understand.

Gordon Biersch Inaugur-Ale
Overall Rating: 5/10