January 20, 2009: Maverick's Obama Presidential Ale

The day has finally come. After 8 years of a miserable, oppressive and idiotic reign of terror, President Bush has finally served his last official day in office and President elect Barack Obama has become the next President of the United States of America. People all over the world breathed a collective sigh of relief as the President Obama's inauguration signaled the end of the Bush administration and ushered in a new era of hope that America's been in desperate need of for a long time. In honor of my new President's first official day in office, I've selected a beer that was brewed specifically for this occaision; Half Moon Bay Brewing Company Maverick's Obama Presidential Ale.

Half Moon Bay Brewering company is a microbrewery just south of, you guessed it, Half Moon bay in northern California. It's not far from the legendary surf spot Maverick's that's known around the world for it killer waves and shark infested, freezing waters. As any lover of beer knows, Microbreweries are always a game. They typically don't have the reputation or heritage of the more established, commercial breweries so it's hard to tell what you're going to get. The Obama Presedential Ale is a special brew concocted especially in honor of Mr. Obama's victory over John McCain in the presidential race, so it's not a beer that's going to be around for a while. Furthermore, this beer can only be bought in the state of California which makes it even more difficult to obtain. Fortunately for the curious ones out there, this beer was really nothing special. More of a gimmick than anything else, I found this ale to be pretty much lacklustre and boring with every sip. It wasn't necessarily bad, but it didn't contain any of the hope, charm or charisma of it's namesake Barack Obama. If you really want to try this beer, you can find it at bevmo but I wouldn't recommend it. For the $3.75 you'd pay for Maverick's Obama Presidential Ale, you could get a much more fulfilling beer, maybe even two. But still I'll give Half Moon Bay Brewery credit for glomming onto the Obama bandwagon, and making me want to buy it.

Cheers,
Ian

http://hmbbrewingco.com
p.s. The fact that I'm wearing an England hat on the day of Obama's inauguration isn't some sort of weird protest, I was just having a bad hair day. =)