Sweetwater Brewing Co.
Atlanta, GA
Available: GA, AL, NC, FL, TN, SC
Road Trip is a pilsner brewed with lager yeast but fermented at typical ale temperatures. It is part of Sweet Water’s Catch and Release series.
ABV: 5.3
ABW: 4.22
Color: 4-5
Bitterness: 55
Original gravity: 1050
Creative label reveals that Sweet Water was named “small brewer of the year “ at the GABF, no small achievement, especially from a little ole brewery from Georgia! The bright color of a Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket jersey, the name “Road Trip” for their summer seasonal, and diminutive head suggest a beer to take to the football game, but the nose knows not. Nice hoppy aroma full of yeast is a bottle rocket trip to the brewery, or perhaps to Pilsen. Malt flavors are light but clean, with good floral balance easy on the mouthfeel. A fine trip with Brunswick Stew, hush puppies and a slab of baby back ribs.
Right on beer! Opalescent clarity and wispy white foam. Aroma hints of ale fruitiness, but overturned by sweet, floral hop-malt aroma. Color and lightness deceive. This is a ballsy, hopped pilsener hybrid. Nice job, Atlanta! This is the kind of hoppy pils lager/ale that knocks your socks off with true quenching refreshment. Either cold or at European-style serving temperatures, this beer is on my radar.
Founder of Merchant du Vin and the Pike Brewing Co., Charles Finkel is a pioneer in the marketing of craft beers in America.
Author of the New Complete Joy of Homebrewing, founder of the Great American Beer Festival and a Beer Examiner at www.examiner.com, Papazian is a leading voice in beer and brewing.
