Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. and Dogfish Head Craft Brewery Collaboration, Chico, CA and Milton, DE

To say this beer has a reputation would be an understatement. The most sought-out and appealing collaboration of 2009 was no doubt the Life & Limb / Limb & Life series by two of my favorite places, Dogfish Head and Sierra Nevada. We’d been trying to get our hands on Life & Limb for quite a long time. We were pretty sure it would never come to Montana (it didn’t), we didn’t think it would come to a nearby state (we were probably right), we held out hope for someone finding a bottle and bringing it back to Montana with them (no luck), and finally, we resorted to trying to grab a bottle or two on eBay (failed in every auction). Judging by the prices set on the eBay auctions, this was a special beer (we’re talking ~$80 for a pair of 24oz bottles). After 2009 trickled to an end and we entered 2010, our hopes of finding and tasting Life & Limb were looking bleaker and bleaker. But then a job move to D.C. and a crop of new beer bars got my hopes up that I still might find a bottle. So it came as an amazing find to run into not only Life & Limb in D.C., but to also find it on tap AND to find Limb & Life right beside it. There was no doubt about my choice; it was time to take the plunge into the beer I’d been searching for for months.

Before I get rolling, it’s worth noting some things about Life & Limb and Limb & Life. From the initial press release:

Life & Limb is a 10% ABV strong beer that defies style characteristics-brewed with pure maple syrup from the Calagione family farm in Massachusetts and estate barley grown on the Grossman “farm” at the brewery in Chico. The beer is alive with yeast-a blend of both breweries’ house strains-bottle conditioned for added complexity and shelf life, and naturally carbonated with birch syrup fresh from Alaska; it is the first beer we know of ever to use birch syrup in the brew. If stored under good conditions, this rich, full-bodied beer should age well for years. Life & Limb will be available in 24-oz. bottles and limited draft starting this November.

Limb & Life is a companion to the big beer-an acorn off the larger tree. It is a 5% ABV small beer-a low-gravity beer made using the residual sugar as “second runnings” from the first larger brew, fortified with American hops. This is a session beer. Its big brother is a sipper. Limb & Life will be a limited draft-only product, a prelude to the bigger beer, available in select bars and restaurants this October.

Needless to say, these are unique beers. I decided to go with a glass of the Life & Limb first. However, the hefty price tag made it a little off-putting to begin with. (A quick side note: I found the beer at a place called the Brickskeller in D.C. The place has an enormous beer list of bottles, though most the bar seems to be out of. The Life & Limb came in a measly 6oz wine glass and cost around $9. This didn’t bother me quite as much as maybe it should have, but the serving glassware was what irked me. A wine glass isn’t designed for a beer. Even their other beers were served in generic 12oz glasses. I didn’t used to care about pairing beers with glassware but after traveling to enough places, you realize it’s not just part of the drinking experience and a flavor enhancer but it’s a straight up invitation to drink. At least give us a snifter or a pint glass for Christ’s sake. I could deal with the cute mouse we saw scurrying across the floor that made more than one female in the establishment jump for the ceiling, but the glass-pairing was kind of a huge bummer. And I don’t even really like mice.) All qualms about price and pour aside, the beer looked delicious. Sitting between a sultry deep, dark hazelnut with midnight crimson touches and your over-the-top sexy brown ale, the Life & Limb smelled just slightly of semi-sweet malt, maybe just a touch of maple, and a tickling of alcohol. The lacing on the glass was unlike any other I’d seen before, with a velvety-brown cream clinging to the side of the glass like it was hanging above a cliff staring at death. The taste wasn’t overpowering or toxic like I would have expected, with just subtle notes flowing through the mouth. Sure, there were some smoothed and dulled down sweet flavors and slightly roasted malt, but the oddly filmy and sourish-caramel bite to it was something I couldn’t exactly say I liked. The end notes were filled with a soft collision of drier malt flavor and the aforementioned maple touch. Though I had just  six ounces, it wasn’t as if I were craving more of this. Maybe I could have found more deep and penetrating flavors with a bigger helping, but this one cowered behind the shield of the best collaboration potential of 2009 and decided to stay there.

I don’t think disappointment when I think of Dogfish or Sierra Nevada, but even masters have a setback occasionally. Or maybe I’d just built the beer up too much in my head. After all, we’d been searching for this guy high and low for months with no reward. The beer almost had a mythical quality by the time I found it. It was like a movie: guy fights forever to get the girl he wants; guy eventually gives up; guy, by chance, runs into girl he wants one night; guy expects to love her; guy has huge epiphany and decides she’s not what he thought she was; guy should be hugely disappointed, but isn’t; guy is changed forever and for the better. Was I changed for the better? Probably not, but I know one thing for sure–I wasn’t ready to shell out another heap of money for the Limb & Life counterpart. Some things are best left mythical.