Hoo boy. Next up on contestant's row is Oscar Blues Ten FIDY – and no, I didn’t fall asleep on the shift key. That’s how they spell it. Seriously – check out their site.
Oskar Blues is an American craft brewery in Lyons, Colorado that puts out a ton of delicious stuff, but perhaps the most distinct thing about them is that all of their beer comes in cans. Seriously. In their own words (from their about us page) :
Why cans? “We thought the idea of our big, luscious pale ale in a can was hilarious,” recalls founder Dale Katechis. “And it made our beer immensely portable for outdoor enjoyment fun.” Katechis and his crew then discovered other bennies of aluminum cans. “Cans keep beer incredibly fresh by fully protecting it from light and oxygen.”
And unlike cans of old, the modern aluminum can is lined with a coating so beer and metal never touch. Cans are also easier to recycle, free of glass breakage issues, and less fuel-consuming to ship. (35% of the weight of a bottle of beer is the bottle itself.)
I have yet to find one of their beers with any hint of what I think of as canned taste, so I’m inclined to take them at their word. It is still a little weird, though I do enjoy the fact that I can sip a Ten FIDY at my apartment complex’s pool.
As for the beer itself, take a look at this beauty.
(Thanks to Chad M. and the good folks at Oskar Blues for the images in this post.)
Ten FIDY clocks in at 9.5% ABV, making it a nice heavy beer.** It pours like a kind of thick coffee that you can’t see through, and it tastes delicious. This is one of my favorites as well, and it has a very smooth mouthfeel to it and a very malty nose. I’m a sucker for a beer with good nose (the aroma you get off the top of a nicely poured glass, which is noticeably absent in T&A beers). I can definitely taste the hint of chocolate and caramel, and I love the “coated” feeling this one leaves in your mouth after you take a sip. There is definitely a little bit more sweetness here than in some of my other favorite beers, but FIDY does well to toe the line without crossing over into super-sugar-insanity.
As for predictions – I think this one has a shot to take home the title. I picked FIDY to lose a close match in the finals with Breakfast Stout, but there is no reason this can’t pull out the win. They have a tough road to the finals; both Southern Tier and Brooklyn Black are similar styles, and they’ll have to take on one of them in round 2, and I suspect they’ll have to get by BORIS the Crusher in the semis.
You can get FIDY at nice beer stores in NC and MD. I’m still waiting for the day when I can go to my favorite bar and see this though.
Someday we’ll get there. Someday. Flying Saucer, I’m looking at you. Make it happen.
** Update from Chad M. at Oskar Blues – Ten FIDY is indeed now brewing at 10.5%. The can I was looking at while posting this in was old and had an ABV posted at 9.5%. Not sure how old that makes my can (I bought it two days ago), but on a side note, I can confirm that even apparently older cans of FIDY don’t pick up any taste from the can. The beer is still great.
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