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wrote:
> I just visited Anchor Steam Beer brewery, and they had us sample a
> number of beers with one being a "small beer." It did taste different
> than the rest, but it was about the fifth or sixth one was tasted so I
> am not sure of the real flavor. Are there any other small beers so
> around the USA? I would like to purchase some so I could have a better
> idea. I do not live in San Francisco, and Anchor has a limited
> distribution of this beer.

For a short time, Anchor Small Beer was available in NJ and I really
enjoyed the bottles I had and hated to see it disappear. I suppose that
the method used to brew it automatically limits it (being based on Old
Foghorn's production) and the price combined with it's low alcohol
content (3.3%) probably made it less attractive to many BIG beer fans
(the latter combination being what I also blame for the demise of
imports of Berliner Kindl Weiss in the US), but I remember thinking,
"I'd buy this stuff by the case in the summer if it was widely
distributed...". I liked that it came in 22 oz. bottles (and that OF
*used* to come in 7 oz. bottles)- makes more sense than the "bombers" of
8-10% beers and imperial stouts and barleywines in 12 oz'ers.

For similar tasting beers, I'd look for English ales/bottled "regular"
bitters or US versions of the same, that are relatively low in alcohol
(which, in the US, means under 5% nowadays) and not very heavily hopped.
Brooklyn's recently released a beer that meets that criteria, it's
"Summer Ale", tho' I won't claim it's taste is similar to ASB.

(I'm surprised that the tasting at the brewery had the Small Beer as the
"fifth or sixth"- should have been one of the first. What, did they do
it chronologically <g>?).