Craft Circa: 2010
Style: English-Style Summer Ale / Golden Ale
ABV: 5%
Label: Get used to seeing these fists breaking
through a grocer aisle near you. Love
the reference to the speech delivered by William Jennings Bryan referencing
bimetallism in place in
England that stirred up politics and propelled his place for the Democratic
nomination for presidency in the (refer
below for your
beyond tidbit of the
day).
Overall: In case you missed it, there was a recent
post about a
revolution
a brewing here in Chicago a couple weeks back. Fitting that we’ve been covering the
evolution of Revolution, and the word “
gastropub”
is being added into the
Merriam-Webster
dictionary for its yearly update. The
Logan Square Revolution Brewing Brewpub is the epitome of gastropubs here in
Chicago, with high end quality food, to go with in my opinion even better beer.
Ok, I’m blowing smoke up their asses, but that’s due to the
fanatic status B&B has for Rev Brew…
hey, what can we say, they make quality brews. In addition, the start of this review may be
sugar coated to maybe mask the subpar feelings for Cross of Gold. This just didn’t do it for me. An English
Style Summer Ale can be compared to an American Blonde, at least portions of
it. Still though, there just wasn’t much
to it. You anticipate, you hope something
more happens with this brew, but doesn’t.
You wait for a flavor note to make its way to a taste bud, strike a
nerve, do something, but instead it fizzles out. It’s a tad bitter off the bat, but nothing to
steer you clear of this.
I mean don’t get me wrong, the beer could be phenomenal
for this style of beer; it won gold for
Pete’s sake. The
beer is full bodied, goes down extremely smooth, pours great, I just have
little experience with this type of ale, and didn’t thoroughly enjoy it. I would be curious to taste others that have
no
WBC award assigned to them. There is no sign of hops, and maybe that’s
appropriate.
Either way, when it’s all said or done, there are so many
other viable options Rev Brew pours out… those are what I am sticking
with.
Acquisition: 22 ouncer - $5
Windfall (Wiki
Collaboration): Cross of Gold was a
speech delivered by William Jennings Bryan, a former US congressman at the
Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1896. The speech was promoting the “
free silver” policy that he
believed would bring the nation prosperity.
He decried the
gold standard, concluding the speech, "you
shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold". Bryan's address helped
catapult him to the
Democratic Party's presidential
nomination; it is considered one of the greatest political speeches in American
history. "The gold standard has
slain tens of thousands." He referred to "a struggle between 'the
idle holders of idle capital’ and 'the struggling masses, who produce the
wealth and pay the taxes of the country;’ and, my friends, the question we are
to decide is: Upon which side will the Democratic party fight?" The idea was that minting silver coins would
flood the economy with cash and end the depression.
Although Bryan lost the election in a landslide, he did
win the hearts and minds of a majority of Democrats, as shown by his re-nomination
in 1900 and 1908; as late as 1924, the Democrats put his brother on their
national ticket. The victory of the Republican Party in the
election of 1896 marked
the start of the "Progressive Era," from 1896 to 1932, in which the
Republican Party usually was dominant.
~gY
