Ghost River Brewing is suspending their tours while doubling its capacity and installing a twelve head bottle filler to begin packaging twelve ounce bottles. You can read the entire article on the Commerical Appeal website. After reading this article we had to stop in and pickup a growler off the docks to find out when bottles will be available in stores. They hinted that the plan is to start bottling toward the end of summer. And what growler did we pickup? A new special limited quantity beer brewed to honor this years Memphis in May Salute to Belgium.

Rogue XS Imperial Younger’s Special Bitter Ale

We picked this little guy up at Joe’s Liquor on Poplar and Belvedere in midtown Memphis for $5.49.  Yes, $5.49 for 7oz of beer.  Is it worth it?

A clear brown pour releases scents of bread and sweet alcohol.  The mouth feel is heavy, clinging to the cheeks.  Strong malt complexities brought on by long fermentation dominate the first taste, but it is definitely a British style bitter.  The hops comes through immediately and stays to the finish until the bitterness is all that remains. The initial burst of robust malt is the best thing about this beer.  It is very satisfying, but it yields too quickly to the hops.   Not that the hops is bad.  To the contrary, hops lovers will surely enjoy this.

Younger’s Special Bitter Ale (for which the Beergoat coins the acronym SBA) is bottle conditioned, so one could cellar it for several years.  We imagine with time the pleasant malt flavors will increase and hopefully last a little longer.  The Beergoat will have to find out.

Such a small amount disappears way too fast, but it is enjoyable while it lasts.