Day 365, Dec 31 / Infinium Ale

Day 365 / December 31, 2011

Infinium Ale

Boston Beer Company, Boston MA

and Bayerische Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan, Freising, Germany

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That’s all folks!

Well, that’s it!  365 different beers, every day this year.  Done!  I’m disappointed in myself that I didn’t put the effort in the losing 50 pounds part of the challenge.  But hey, I’m happy with the accomplishment.

I bought a special beer to finish out the run.  I didn’t know quite what to expect, but the promise of the Samuel Adams Infinium Ale was inviting.  A special collaboration between Sam Adams and the world’s oldest brewery, Germany’s Weihenstephan, it was billed as a “champagne” beer, comes in a very attractive bottle, and cost $20 for a 750ml bottle.

While the mission of the two breweries was to create a beer with the quality and taste of fine champagne, they needed to do so in accordance with the German beer purity law, Reinheitsgebot, which says the beer can only be made from four ingredients:  hops, malt, water and yeast.

To learn about the two year collaboration to produce this beer, you can check out this great article from All About Beer, and watch the videos (here and here) on Sam Adam’s website.

The final fermentation actually takes place in the bottle.  And in this case, it was actually fermented by the makers of Great Western champagne in Hammondsport, NY.

This was a very unique and tasty beer.  It popped and was effervescent like champagne, and had a slightly sweet, crisp tartness like champagne.  I thoroughly enjoyed this beer, and I was glad I chose it to end the run.

So, the big question… will I have a beer today, January 1, 2012?  Maybe, maybe not.

Make sure you subscribe to the blog via email (top right) to see if I’m up to anything in 2012!

See ya!