Salt Lake City

I just got home from my business trip to Salt Lake City. I did not enjoy this city which is why I have changed the name to Dumb Lake City, the weak beer was at least partially responsible for this name change, but not totally. Anyway, we have a lot of ground to cover so let's get to work on this multi-part series.

First the brewpubs;

Squatter's Brew Pub: I had a beer sampler here. Now, if you know me, you know I LOVE beer samplers, something about the tiny glasses and the number of beers I get to try makes me very excited. Now before I start bad mouthing this place I want to make sure you realize a few things, first I don't care what the percent alcohol of a beer is. If it tastes good it can be 4 or it can be 10, doesn't matter to me. I don't drink to get drunk. That being said, if you know anything about making beer you know that sugars and other compounds extracted from malted grain give beer both its flavor and it's alcohol. If you skimp on the malt you lower the alcohol content and flavor of your beer. With SLC's "no beer on tap above 4%" law that's what the brewers around here do, skimp. They do normal beers in bottles but we'll get to that later. My beer sampler contained a hefeweizen, an unfiltered ... thing, a pilsner, a pale ale, an amber and an oatmeal stout. Everything but the oatmeal stout sucked. They were all lacking flavor and tasted watered down, the hefe lacked any of the flavor characteristics I associate with the style (yeast, citrus, little bit of tartness) and had no aroma, the unfiltered thing was a hot mess that's all I can say. I don't normally care for pilsners, this one didn't make me want to change my opinion of them, it was fine I guess if you're into pilsners. The amber reminded me a little bit of Sweetwater's Georgia Brown ale, but once again watered down, the pale was ...... unremarkable since I can't remember drinking it. The stout was ok. Hints of coffee and a malt. Too sweet to get any toasty or burnt flavors from it. I would actually drink a whole pint of this, which is more than I can say about the rest of the bunch.

Someone at my table got a bottle of their double IPA Hop Rising. 9% alcohol trying to be a hop bomb. This thing tasted like hops, I've give them that. That's all it tasted like. It smelled like sticking my nose into a bag of hops pellets, which I do every time I brew, and tasted like a tea made of hops. There was no finesse here just straight up hoppiness. I enjoyed it and as a once and a while treat it would be great but I would never buy a 6-pack of this.

So this place was a total let down, which is odd because a lot of the bars in the area have huge signs up proclaiming they serve Squatter's beers on tap. To me that seems like the people around here give them way to much credit for what they are making which is mediocre beer. If they were able to take the limitations placed on them and make something remarkable then yeah yell it from the rooftops that you're selling it. But if you're a steakhouse and your window has a neon-sign telling everyone you proudly serve steak-ums you may want to rethink your business model.

Next time: Redrock Brew Pub (maybe I won't be as mean)

((I'm going to be just as mean))