Somehow at 35,000 feet over Texas on a recent flight out to the American west coast it seemed fitting to drink a California beer, so we had previously asked the crack farlieonfootie aviation staff to make certain the corporate jet was stocked full of a brew that would slake the considerable thirst worked up during our 5 hour trip from Florida.....
Which is not exactly how we came to be drinking Back in Black, an American Black Ale produced by San Francisco-based 21st Amendment Brewery. For those of you not hip enough or old enough, the 21st Amendment was the very fine piece of legislation in the United States that repealed the nasty little brutish lapse in American social mores known as Prohibition.
Back in Black was poured from a 12 ounce can into a plastic cup -- the G5 somehow being found absent of the Riedel crystal beer glasses more typically used (Note to self: remember to ask Correspondent Scott who else was on that last flight he took). Indeed, however, even in plastic the beer appeared as a darn black (or brown, at the very least) color, topped by a extra thickish mocha-brown colored head -- who knew a plastic cup could retain such considerable lacing?
The scent of sweet malt rose immediately from the cup, followed by a tiny, bitter-ish hop note. Roast coffee was the flavor we recognized first and foremost, with the taste gradually becoming a bit metallic in the middle before the swallow ended with a large dose of hops. We don't know nor do we care to delve into the subtleties of the somewhat opaque style often referred to as a "Black IPA" (Is it an IPA? Don't think so.... Or an American Black Ale?). What we do know, however, is that this beer wasn't half bad, and that if the flight had lasted much longer we would have been hard pressed to turn down another. B
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