“CAN’T YOU JUST TASTE THE SNOW CAP”

For many years I’ve been a Winter Beer freak, and every year for at least a dozen years, that’s meant a trek to San Francisco’s TORONADO, which marks each of its Christmas ales with a decorative bow stuck on the board next to each holiday beer. In the early days, i.e. the mid-90s, one of the perennials that everyone always had to buy a 6-pack of & get on draught was PYRAMID BREWING’s SNOW CAP. I remember being in Seattle for grad school in 1997 and planning a trip back to SF & The Toronado via email with a friend, who kept mercilessly baiting me w/ emails, “Mmm….can’t you just taste the Snow Cap….” etc etc. (not like we couldn’t get it in Seattle, but it always tasted better “back home”). Nowadays no one seems to give PYRAMID any respect whatsoever, which seems kinda wrong to me, especially after reacquainting myself with SNOW CAP recently. Damn, this could end up being in 2007’s top five winter ales for sure – sure, it’s got a fairly thin body and a very mild head o’ foam, but with its light spicing and hearty blend of malts, this is Christmas done right. It has, despite its rich and soothing taste, what we call in the trade as “slammability”. The folks with whom I shared a six-pack weren’t beer dorks by any means, but not only were they totally raving about it, they were looking to me for cues as to whether or not that was appropriate. To me? Me? Sure, it’s great! SNOW CAP 2007 = 8/10!