Straub's Special Dark

The final leg of my vacation last week was spent at my cousin's wedding up in middle-of-nowhere Pennsylvania. Specifically we were up in Clearfield. One of the major challenges we had was finding a decent beer to drink. Unfortunately, due to the remote location we were in, this proved more difficult that we anticipated. The nearest place we could find that sells alcohol was a small bar with a bottle shop, and for the most part they only carried macro brews. They did have a couple six packs from a local brewery called Straub Beer. The next best option was Guinness, so figuring it was worth a shot, I picked up a six pack of "Special Dark" and my cousin got "All Grain Beer".

I knew it wasn't a good sign when the store clerk only charged us $5.50 for the six pack. When we got back to our hotel and I took a closer look at the "Special Dark" and discovered it wasn't very dark at all. It turned out that it was a simple amber lager.

We didn't have glasses available to us, so we were resigned to drinking these beers out of the bottle. It's hard to judge, but from the look of it I would say that this "dark" beer was lighter in color than my own pale ale. It was completely devoid of any hop aroma, and instead smelled of grain husk and a faint bit of "beer". It's hard to really describe the smell I'm talking about, sufficed to say that it's the smell associated with beer by everyone who has only ever had macrobrewed light lagers. There was no hop quality at all to speak of in the aroma.

The taste wasn't much better. While it wasn't terrible, it lacked any sort of flavor that would make it intriguing or unique. Once again the grain came through strongly in the flavor, predominantly this beer tasted like the dry malted 2-row barley that I've occasionally chewed on during a brew day. The only thing I really had to say about this beer was that it was what Bud American Ale was trying to be if it wasn't completely terrible. While there was nothing to enjoy about my bottle, it was at least serviceable. My cousin was not so lucky. Apparently his all-grain beer was straight macrobrewed flavor and aroma.

Of course my beer had just as little going on for it in the mouth. With a standard level of carbonation, and clocking in at 4.1% ABV, nothing made this stand out at all.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend this brewery to anyone unless their options were equally limited. It's certainly not something I would ever go back to again. Under all circumstances I would suggest avoiding any of their beers but the Special Dark. My thoughts are that this brewery fills a very specific niche market for individuals who want a more local version of their favorite macro-brewed beers. One note about this brewery - apparently they consider corn a grain rather than an adjunct, as they say they use flaked corn in all their beers, obviously including the all-grain. I'm glad I managed to finish off my vacation with the remainder of my growler of Pig Iron Porter from Iron Hill in Newark, because the Special Dark would have been a very disappointing ending.

- Adam