Sunday, April 3, 2011

Anchor – Porter and Deschutes – Obsidian

Anchor is the oldest craft brewer in America that began in 1896, survived prohibition, and Fritz Maytag saved near extinction in 1965 when the brewery had a bank balance of $128.  First, thank you Mr. Maytag for this purchase as this is one of the breweries that started the craft beer revolution.  Anchor is best know for Anchor Steam – a California Common Beer – was first released in 1975.  Flash-forward to today and Anchor has five styles available year-round and special seasonal and project releases.  Lori made a nice birthday dinner last night of grilled rib eye, sautéed green beans and fried potatoes.  I was confident that Anchor’s Porter (5.6% ABV) would be a perfect pairing and it was. You cannot go wrong with pairing a porter with steak.  Anchor Porter pours very dark with a nice thick head.  This beer has great aroma and has a wonderful taste of chocolate and coffee that went beautifully with the grilled rib eye. 

For desert, Lori had made my favorite, German Chocolate Cake.  I was confident that a stout would pair nicely with this and I choose Deschutes Obsidian (6.4% ABV and 55 IBU).   This stout pours black and has a great nose with taste of roasted malt, coffee and chocolate.  This is a very nice stout and I really enjoyed it with the cake.  Obsidian has won many awards ove the years and I can taste why.  I like everything I have tried from Deshutes and they are one of my favorite brewers.  When I get back to Portland, I will stop by the tap room.

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