champagne Velvet

The details: Upland Brewing Company Champagne Velvet Pilsener, 5.5% ABV, served in a pint can

Everyone: I have a confession for you.

Not one of those tell the priest and say a bunch of Hail Mary's or something afterward; I'm not in to sitting in what amounts to a closet with a curtain telling my deepest darkest secrets to a random voice behind a screened window. That all just seems a little too fetish for me, but if you use that as a way to feel better about the difficulties of life, I support you 100%.

No, my confession is much more simple. I went out on school night with my friends. I had maybe a few too many drinks (some might argue way too many; that's their interpretation), and because my friends really wanted to share this weeks beer with me, I crazily walked far out of my way to get it as a to-go and then stumbled home (because taking long walks after you've been drinking is a bad idea, kids).

So I confess, I'm drinking this Champagne Velvet for you all, because it's got both an interesting and all-too-familiar story line and honestly it's not the worst beer either.

Here's the interesting story part: Indiana 1855 - Terre Haute Brewing starts making beer. In 1902 their brewmaster makes a new recipe for a pilsener and Champagne Velvet, or CV, is born. It's a hit and takes Indiana by storm. Then, one of the darkest times in our countries history - prohibition. Terre Haute Brewing is sold after and in 1934 new brewery owners proudly trot out CV. All is well, until national brands take over in the 50's and 60's, and CV is lost to history. 

Here's the much less interesting part: established breweries love buying rights to recipes and labels from the past, because nostalgia sells like hotcakes. Upland Brewing buys a portfolio of regional beers/labels/recipes (they're from Bloomington, IN) and what do they find but "a handwritten recipe" in there, and here comes CV all over again. 

What I've actually got here is what grandpa's in Indiana drank back in the day. It's a medium pilsener of the Bavarian style (that's why they spell it pilsener and not pilsner) - a little bit sweet (it's adjuncted with corn), a little bit peppery. It's got a bit of a weird aftertaste that I can't quite nail down. It's not clean, but it doesn't taste like can or like contaminate either. It's just, weird. Maybe Indianans like it, maybe they just don't mind it because there's nothing else going on there so just drink the beer? I actually find it a little heavy for my taste this evening, and think this would be a better beer with some food.

If I had to complain about something (and I do), it's that the can has absolutely zero information about anything at all. No ABV, no IBU... just the old CV tagline: "The Beer with the Million Dollar Flavor." I don't know about that much money, but I'd definitely say this has half million dollar flavor for sure.

The verdict: 3.0 out of 5 (on Untapp'd - follow me there @slownumbers to see what I'm drinking!)