Economy Size Geek

Welcome to a new column at Economys Size Geek - He Said / She Said Beer!

You’re probably wondering what the hell that means - well be patient and I’ll explain. Basically, my wife loves beer even more than me! To maintain marital harmony, we have to keep a lot of different beers in stock. I thought it might be fun to offer up some of our beer-sperience to my faithful readers so that the next time they are out and about they can journey beyond the tried and true.

We chose a very special beer for our first review. Left Hand Chainsaw Ale (Double Sawtooth)

This is a special release from Left Hand. It’s called a double ESB (for more about Bitter style (Wikipedia RateBeer). Following a trend in American brewing - by putting the word double in front of a style means you are going to kick everything up a notch. In this case, it means instead of a 4.5% ABV (Alcohol By Volume) you get 9%ABV. No mention on the bottle of IBUs.

He Said:

Truth be told, I’m not much for the Bitter Style. I tend to stay as far away from most pales - becasue frankly I’m more about the malt than I am the hops. (Though I will admit I had a St. Geroge’s this week and enjoyed it.) I wasn’t very excited about this beer. It has the incredibly low carbination that seems to be typical for the ESB style. It is a reddish brown color with more than a bit of precipitate (mostly probably yeast - the beer is bottle conditioned).

It has a very slight aroma with the smallest hint of sweetness. It’s very smooth going in with a very serious bitter finish. One thing I will say for the bitterness at the end - it is also very smooth. So much so it almosts seems to linger well after you finish swallowing it. I will also say that when I started drinking it, it was probably a little too cold. Now that it’s starting to warm up, the flavor is even more mellow and enjoyable. The really nice (dangerous) thing about this beer is that it is so smooth even in its very bitter finish - that it is hard to tell that it is 9%. If this weren’t a special release I would stock up on it just to launch it on unsuspecting visitors who drink all beers like they are Miller Light.

My Vote: Good enough for a special occasion beer, but it won’t be pushing Negro Modelo out of my fridge any time soon!

She Said:
The funny part about this beer is that someone tried to order it from me earlier this week and I had to say sorry, that I hadn’t heard of it, so it
must be a seasonal that’s not in season right now, but that I’d keep an eye out for it. The guy then noticed that the price tag was $124.40 per
case and quickly decided it wasn’t *that* interested. For price comparison, the cost of a case of Delirium Tremens is $72.

The next day I was in the warehouse and came across a pallet of it in the Left Hand order. We decided to bust a case open for samples. I grabbed two — one for me and one for the above mentioned customer.

Now on with the review!

This beer is a double version of Left Hand’s Sawtooth ESB and comes in a 22 oz. bottle with a cork. Let me start out by saying that I’m not much of an ESB drinker, although I did drink a fair amount of Red Hook back in the day. :) I was a little concerned when, after a fair amount of effort to remove the cork, it did not make that familiar popping sound. I poured three pint glasses (for Dirk, Brett and myself) about halfway. The color is pretty… very typical of an ESB, from what I remember. It’s lacking in carbonation, but that’s typical too, I think. On first drink, this beer is a bit of a punch in the face. However, now that it’s warmed a little, it’s much, much more palatable. I think I would enjoy this beer on draft with fish and chips in a smokey London pub.

As we work out our rating system, Dirk asks if I would buy this beer again. My response was a quick no, but that I’d drink it if it were given
to me. :D It’s obvious that I’m not loving this beer, but maybe I would feel differently if I didn’t know that the retail cost would be something
in the neighborhood of $13 per bottle.

My Vote: Save your money and buy a six-pack of Red Hook.