452. 4 Hands Brewing – Pi PA

Posted By kkozlen on Aug 10, 2012 | 0 comments

Several weeks ago I was in St. Louis visiting my dad and my wife and I attended the St. Louis Brewers heritage Festival. I had to pick my wife up on Friday night at the train station since I took the day off and took the kids to the zoo on Friday. Her train was running a little bit late and so I stopped at Four Hands Brewing Company in downtown St. Louis. I had their Prunus Saison at the time, and picked up a growler of this to go.  Now that vacation is over, I’m finally starting to hit some of the beers that are left in my beer fridge, and this one was right up front.  This beer is a collaboration between Pi, a St. Louis pizza place and 4 Hands Brewing.

Location: Poured into a snifter style glass from the growler at my home in Bloomington, IL.

Numbers: 5% ABV, ~ 170 Calories

Appearance & Aroma: It’s copper and amber in color, and pretty clear. There seems to be a decent amount of carbonation in it, but the head was very thin, fading to a thin ring of bubbles around the glass. It has a very good citrusy and piney, almost Centennial hop-like aroma.

Taste & Feel: The body is light and the mouth feel is somewhat crisp. The crispness made it difficult to taste any flavors upfront, and in the middle, a slightly sharp bitterness from the hops was immediately present. In the finish, some caramel notes emerge, but take a back seat to a somewhat dry, floral-earthy bitterness. The bitterness lingers for several minutes in the aftertaste.

Food Pairing: This is a fairly bitter beer with some solid earthy flavors. I’d pair it with a hearty meal that would help to cut through that bitterness a bit. I could imagine enjoying this beer with a thick, juicy, bleu cheese burger, as the juicy beef would help to cut down on the bitterness and the bleu cheese would add a different dimension to the bitter flavors.

Overall Impression: I sampled this beer and the Prunus Saison at the brewery when I picked up this growler, I knew I’d prefer to get a full growler of this one, and just a glass of the Prunus Saison.  However, I didn’t remember the bitterness being quite so sharp in this beer. I’m a fan of hoppy beers, but I think I prefer more hop flavor than bitterness. Overall, the beer was decent, but it had a somewhat sharp bitterness with less hop flavor.

My Rating: