Steemboat
Sunken City Brewing Company

 

 

 

 

Poured from a 12 OZ can into a pint glass. Appearance- the beer is a clear copper color with a large white head. Aroma- a nice blend of malt, hops and bready yeast. Taste- very close flavor to Anchor Steam, malt and yeast are dominate.

 

 

Pours a clear deep orange-copper with a 2 1/2 finger head that leaves some moderately sticky lacing as it recedes. Light carbonation is noted.

A nice fruity aroma from the glass, more toasty from the can. Almost soapy at times, but not unpleasantly so.

The taste is more laid back. Light sweet malts matched by bitter hops mainly, with hints of fruit and a bit of earthiness.

Moderate in body with a light prickle. Decent retention, somewhat drying.

The beer grew on me, improving with time. Somewhat two dimensional in taste, but it still borders on very good.

A: Pours a crystal clear deep copper in color with light to moderate amounts of fine visible carbonation rising slowly from the bottom of the glass and faint orange + amber highlights. The beer has a finger tall sudsy foamy tan head that reduces to a medium to large sized patch of mottled thin film covering about 75% of the surface of the beer and a medium thick ring at the edges of the glass. Moderate amounts of lacing are observed.

S: Moderate aromas of bready and doughy malts with a light to moderate aroma of fruity yeast and earthy hops.

T: Upfront there is a moderate flavor of bready, doughy, and caramel malts with a very light amount of sweetness. That is followed by a light to moderate flavor of fruity yeast and a moderate amount of earthy hops which imparts a moderate amount of bitterness which does not linger for too long. Hints of something slightly metallic in the finish.

M: Medium bodied with moderate amounts of carbonation. Light hints of dryness in the finish.

O: A pretty decent example of the style, nice flavors and aromas. Easy to drink and relatively refreshing. Alcohol is well hidden.

 

 

Warning: This will be a very non-technical review. If you like Anchor Brewing's flagship product, you'll like this. It's strange, but even though I consistently enjoy Anchor Steam Beer, I rarely purchase it. Sunken City's Steemboat reminds me that the California Common style is one of my favorites (in addition to IPAs, witbiers, and farmhouse saisons).

 

 

On tap:
Going to do overall up front: this to me is a fine representation of a steam beer. I am not a fan of the style, but the fact that I (think I) can say upon tasting it "I can see the resemblance to Anchor" gets an uptick within style.

Pours a reddish to amber, and quite clear. The head is pretty nice, sustains into the pour but eventually fade to spotty on the surface, but still decent edge head. Nose is heavy on the grain side, smelling like a silo. This is balanced equally by a metallic bitter scent (I think English ESB) that I am used to in the style.

The taste is a bit more English ESB than grainy. I get copper, burnt sugar, a little hay, some wet leaf, an overall earthy beer. The end has what I think is a typical almost salty water note. The feel is pretty much spot on, medium light body, with a lightly metallic towards piney bitterness. The beer is malty overall but not really "sweet".

If you like Anchor, try this. It's probably not a fair comparison, but I'd actually like to try them dude by side to see how wrong I am.