image (c) Fulton Beer; http://www.fultonbeer.com/
What: Sweet Child of Vine, by Fulton
Where: The Muddy Pig in St. Paul, MN
Rating: 9
Non-Quantifiable Rating: Somewhere, the Summit guy is nervous.
I went to the Muddy Pig with a small group, and three of us ordered Sweet Child of Vine. This is a local brew made by good local folks, so as we waited for our beer to come, I'll admit that we were already talking about how much we all expected to like it. When my beer came, I was a little nervous knowing that I planned to review this beer, because I want to support a local business enterprise, but I also feel obligated to be honest.
I didn't need to worry. This stuff is legitimately, objectively stellar.
I prefer dark beer, one of the other Vine drinkers prefers a really hoppy beer, and the third one isn't very particular. Somehow, this beer managed to please all of us. It's definitely hoppy but a nice malty infusion keeps it from being overly tart; it's smooth and drinkable but definitely not mild; and it has enough personality to evoke the rare "ooh, wow" reaction when you take the first sip. I suppose I would classify it as an IPA, but it would definitely gnaw the label off Summit's IPA (which I also like) in a fight.
I give Fulton a lot of credit for having the chutzpah to roll out with such a punch-packing, flavor-filled beer. It would have been much easier and safer to start out with a crowd-pleasing yet unadventurous Mich-Golden Light doppelganger, but instead they took a risk and it paid off.
The only reason these guys didn't score my first-ever 10 out of 10 is because of my totally subjective preference for really dark beer. I looked at http://www.fultonbeer.com/ and found out that they carry a stout (my favorite) called Worthy Adversary. I might have higher standards for that one, but I'm willing to take one for the team and do the necessary research to find out if it is indeed worthy (it's a rough job, but someone's gotta do it.)
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