Full Sail Ltd. 01

Full Sail brewery in Hood River, Oregon, is celebrating twenty-one years of brewing. Part of their celebration means that they're releasing a series of very limited, small batch, lagers. "Ltd" might stand for "limited," or, as the Full Sail site intimates, it might stand for "Live the Dream," their slogan. Their first release, cleverly numbered 01 on the label, is a reprise brew from the past when it earned two gold medals from the World Beer Championship.

Full Sail Ltd 01 is definitely a lager, and a lovely copper colored one, made with Halleratauer hops, Czech Saaz hops, Stryrian goldings hops. You do notice the hops, but more in the finish; my first impression was quite honestly that the beer was surprisingly sweet—you do notice the caramel quality of the caramel malt, (much as the label suggests,) and I suspect the subtle after taste impression of post hops is the chocolate malt; they also used pale malt. It's 6.4% alcohol by volume but it's so very light and drinkable, that it's hard to believe. I suspect that the carbonation—noticeable but not excessive—is one reason it such an easy drinking beer.

Ltd 01 has already been replaced by Ltd 02, even though it's not yet available at my local beer stop. I'm going to hope I can pick up some more of 01 first, but I'm looking forward to seeing what 02 will be like. In fact, this is the first Full Sail beer I've tried, and I'm pleased enough by this experience that I plan to see what I can find locally on tap, as well as in the bottle. I'll admit that I very much like the twist off cap, too.</p.