Craft beer is everywhere. These days it’s easier to track down the fancy beer in a store than it is to find your everyday domestic beer that is sold for less than a dollar a can.
The good news is, you shouldn’t be throwing your money away on those cans of glorified water anyhow. At a miniscule 4.2 percent alcohol by volume, Bud Light is slightly more alcoholic than what’s given to babies in Russia.
Why bother, when for a dollar or two more you can get beer that is almost twice the alcohol content and is also extremely delicious?
Anheuser-Busch, the makers of Budweiser, even have a smear campaign in the form of television advertisements going around attacking the craft beer industry and trying to promote their product as “beer for people who like to drink beer.”
Next week, we’ll take a look at the best of the worst beers available to college students like the Anheuser-Busch products, but today we’ll talk about a brewing company newly available in Fresno. Its beer is 10 times better than Budweiser and boasts a price that is nearly identical.
Based in the Miramar area of San Diego, Saint Archer Brewing has brought its awesome line up of beers to the Central Valley.
One uncommon trait is that it’s available in both cans and bottles. Only a few craft brewers are known to do this; most brewers pick one or the other.
The packaging it comes in is remarkably plain. It doesn’t necessarily stand out on a shelf; the boxes that the cans come in are simply solid colors like red, white, blue and yellow. The beers don’t have fancy names. The pale ple is simply called Pale Ale.
Saint Archer IPA pours a nice bright gold. The aroma consists merely of light hops.
The taste begins with the sharp flavor of hops you’d expect in a big IPA — nice and citrusy. The surprising thing is that the flavor doesn’t last. The hop flavor ends in an incredibly smooth finish that you would expect from a session beer that’s low in alcohol.
However, Saint Archer IPA is anything but a session beer. While session beers generally range from 4 percent ABV down to a tiny 2.7 percent like Evil Twin Brewing’s Bikini Beer, Saint Archer IPA is a solid 6.8 percent.
While this IPA may be the perfect beer, it also runs the risk of being forgettable. Beer enthusiasts tend to remember many of the beers they’ve had beyond just whether they liked it or not. They can remember the taste and aroma profile as well.
This beer is so easy to drink that you will remember you liked it, but might forget everything else about it.
Ultimately, perhaps that’s enough for most people.
Saint Archer is new to Fresno, so if you see your local liquor store put it on the shelves, pick it up. You’ll be delightfully surprised.