If you’ve been waiting for 21st Amendment to notch an error onto their tight line of powerful, wild craft beer cans, Sneak Attack, the brewery’s latest seasonal offering, seems for a moment to be the first decent gash in the armor.
Recently I peered into a beer industry friend’s fridge, where I often discover 21st Amendment’s latest brews, to find yet another clever can design from the San Francisco brewery known for its detailed illustrations: a sort of beer-gutted George Washington sloshing his way across the Delaware is swim gear, perhaps prepped for a polar plunge.
But said industry professional asked me to rid his fridge of the last of these saisons. Drinking such a brew from a can is blasphemy, he said.
To be fair to his tastes, the initial whiff to escape the crack in this can is, well, a bit cheap. The real issue with Sneak Attack, I’ll agree with my beer buddy, is that a saison does not belong in a can; its yeastiness doesn’t flower as it would when aged in a bottle and allowed to flourish in a glass.
With that said, Sneak Attack is a highly drinkable beer that is better described as similar to a Belgian Blonde. The beer’s seasonings—cardamom is of note here—beg and hint at citrus.
Technically, yes, Sneak Attack tastes of a farmhouse ale, but nothing like the lively European versions. Instead think of smooth editions like Boulevard Brewing Company’s Tank 7.
Pouring Sneak Attack into a pint glass allows the beer much-wider aperture for its flavors to expand, but the action defeats half the reason of ordering or buying cans—the coolness and comfort in the palm of the hand.
Sneak Attack is perhaps not 21st’s best, but it’s very good.
Brewery: 21st Amendment Brewery
City: San Francisco
Style: Saison
ABV: 6.2%