Seen Through a Glass: "FSA 2/09"? Update: mystery solved!

Thursday, June 25, 2009

"FSA 2/09"? Update: mystery solved!

Someone -- I'm not sure who -- gave me two unlabeled bottles of beer a while back. The plain bottlecaps bear the only clue to what's in them: black marker, spelling out "FSA 2/09". I wasn't even sure what "FSA" was, until I opened one last night: Flemish Sour Ale! And a good one, too. Pale gold, lots of white foam, and a clean tart flavor, not touched by heavy acetone or solvent aromas or overdone with body. In short, a very nice beer...if only I could remember who gave it to me. I'm thinking it might have been one of the Iron Hill brewers, but I'm not sure. Anyone know?

(6/26: mystery solved. Greg Ouellette, the brewer at Martha's Exchange, gave them to me back in May when we met for drinks in Philly. Here's what he said on Facebook:

Lew. That's mine. Gave it to you at Triumph when I saw you in early May. Glad to see you enjoyed it. Not homebrew. but brewpub brew. 2 years in the making. Blended with a golden ale cuz the straight sour was waaay too sour. Cheers.)

Very low blogging rate this week, I know. I've been working on a story for Mass Beverage Biz, doing Malt Advocate editing, and setting up Thomas's first college visit trip. Busy week. I'll try to squeeze a few more in before the end of the month.

4 comments:

sam k said...: Oh, sweet mystery of beer! At least it was obvious what FSA meant once you quaffed it.; June 25, 2009 2:31 PM
bill mc said...: Just idle curiosity, which colleges is he looking at?; June 25, 2009 6:20 PM
Lew Bryson said...: List of about 10: we're hitting the Southern ones -- UVA, University of Richmond, Wake Forest (barbecue!, and William & Mary.; June 25, 2009 7:02 PM
okbrewer said...: Be sure to include Oklahoma City University (OCU) on your tour schedule!; June 26, 2009 2:42 PM

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Talk to Me About Booze

Are the goat farmers “targeting” the Italian market? Bet your ass they are: That’s where people buy goat meat.
Beer IS broad, it encompasses many things. To single out one beer type as "not really beer" is an act of snobbery, or ignorance.
Beer doesn't quench my thirst? That's okay, I just wanted to distract it for a while.
Bock, Maibock, Doppelbock, Weizenbock: I love 'em all. I am catholic in my bockaphilia.
Bring me your hoppiest beer. I'll drink it, and say "Hmmm, hoppy. Not bad."
Ever wonder why you drink the beer you drink?
Good God, MUST we be hit over the head by a beer to like it? Are we cartoon cavewomen??
I like getting hit over the head by a beer occasionally. But I do not think that such beers are necessarily superior by virtue of their power. I think they are interesting, much like a hurricane happening somewhere else.
I said that back in 1991, maybe 1992. I was malty when malty wasn't cool.
I was tired, I was battling intestinal problems, and I was missing my wife, but the beer blew that all away in one swallow. Here was a beer that carried its "complexity" in its soul, there displayed for anyone with the eyes to see.
In its most beautiful form, the buzz is a warm expansive feeling that puts you right in the zone … what zone, it doesn’t really matter, but you’re so damned centered in it you won’t want to leave.
Malt liquor invites hypocrisy by being so honest.
Oh look, a west coaster making fun of my capacity for hops. How droll. How original.
Pal, you pay enough already for the sin of working at your annoying job. You do NOT have to pay more to have a beer when that 8-hour shift in hell is over.
Should we stop making craft beers because we don't have a set of terminology that adequately describes all of them? Of course not, the language needs to catch up with the reality.
Specific Gravity only captures one narrow aspect of "MALTY," just as IBUs only capture one narrow aspect of "HOPPY." Neither addresses FLAVOR. Jon Binkley, 5/27/05
There is nothing more seductive than the exotic look of that cloudy nectar sitting perkily foam-capped in the buxom pipe of a weizen glass; beer in a WonderBra.
They buy cheap booze for the same reasons any of us buy anything: because we want it and can afford it.
They have some study that for X increase in beer taxes, there is a decrease in underage drinking of Y. They plug in new numbers all the time, but X is always a high number, and Y is always a nebulous one.
Vodka has...that eye-opening zing! that wrinkles the skin in your nose and makes you realize that this stuff is gonna clean the crap out of your pipes and let you live forever – at least for a while, just today.
When it comes to beer, Rodney King is right: we can all get along.
When people toss aside a beer as "not being true to style" because it's not "toasty," and never really say what they mean by "toasty," well, that I have a problem with.