Sometimes, when I'm feeling bored with the bottles in my refrigerator, I play a game I call Beer Roulette. I go to a store that carries good selections of individual bottles instead of six-packs — Total Wine, Pipetown Traders and Chevy Chase Wine and Spirits all fit the bill — and set myself a limit of $25 or so. Then I buy a few beers I haven't tried lately, if at all.
On a recent swing through the aisles of single beers at Total Wine in Alexandria, my haul included Swordfish, a double Cascadian dark ale from Fish Brewing in Olympia, Wash., and part of the brewery’s seasonal Fish Tale Reel Ales series.
I can’t pretend that I’m an expert on Fish Brewing, which picked up the 2015 Washington State Brewery of the Year award at the Washington Brewers Festival last summer. All I knew was that Swordfish was a Cascadian dark ale, which is the Pacific Northwest designation for a beer similar to a black IPA and a style I’ve enjoyed in the past. It didn’t hurt that it cost $6.99 for a 22-ounce bomber, so I wasn’t taking much of a hit if it didn’t pan out. Fortunately, it did.
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Swordfish is an intensely black beer with roasted and chocolate malt character in the body. Some of the predominant flavors, including hops with orange citrus and resinous sticky pine, are typical of other Pacific Northwest IPAs, but in this Cascadian dark ale, those characteristic elements are balanced and blended with caramel sweetness, and the bitter finish is tempered with coffee notes. A lovely beer for a chilly winter night, and another win for my roulette game.
Fish Brewing's Fish Tale Reel Ales Swordfish. fishbrewing.com. $6.99 for a 22-ounce bottle at area Total Wine stores.
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