This is No Corporate Beer, Decibel’s new beer-spotting, consumer guide where we drink a beer and a then review it. Now that we’ve accomplished the drinking part of the equation, we present the review part below.
Beer: 4th Anniversary
Brewery: Prairie Artisan Ales (Tulsa, OK)
Style: Sour – Ale
6.5% ABV / N/A IBU
A very fine anniversary beer from a brewery that already has one of the best imperial stouts (the chocolate/coffee/vanilla/chili Bomb! And its numerous deconstructed spin-offs) as its flagship, and a very forward-leaning and imaginative approach to farmhouse ales and sours. 4th Anniversary is a moderately boozy sour ale with some citrus notes and a very appealing amber color. Also, it’s aged on ginger—approximately one metric fuckton of pureed ginger was added to infuse the sour base with a little kick. 4th Anniversary is ultimately a bit like Indian food or the Spice Girls: It would probably still work without the ginger, but it wouldn’t be the same.
As a practical note, this beer only comes in 16.9-oz bottles and half-kegs. You won’t want to share this with your mooching friends, so you should probably go with the bottle unless you have a superhuman tolerance. As a guy that has rocked a C. Everett Koop costume for Halloween the last five years, I can also attest that Prairie Artisan Ales is proof that excessive drinking is not deleterious to your health —the brewery supports the “Pints for Prostates” campaign to raise awareness for men’s health/prostate cancer screenings. Which is not to say that 4th Anniversary is a substitute for getting two fingers shoved up yer bum, but after draining this bottle, you’ll probably be down for anything.
More more info – and fewer Spice Girls’ references – check out Prairie Artisan Ales here.
