Ed: If you spend any time in the nebulous world of “Beer Twitter,” you may have come across the comic “T-Rex Hates Craft Beer.” It’s the product of local area man Beerbecue, and if we’re nice to him, maybe we’ll see more of these on our site. T-Rex is displeased that the following beer was omitted from our blind tasting of Oktoberfest beers earlier in the month, so he wrote, and drew, this up.
Wheatland Spring is generally safe from the ire of T-Rex. DC Beer is not. That is why the absence of Wheatland Spring’s Ursprung from their Oktoberfest Extravaganza had to be remedied. In fairness, it wasn’t available at the time of their little Extravaganza, but I’ve never let fairness get in the way of my criticism.
Ursprung is a festbier, which I find a welcome change of pace from the more ubiquitous copper, sweet, and caramel American-made marzen. It pours a brilliant gold with a #foamcore head typical of Wheatland Spring beers. The malt gets first billing on the label as 80 percent single-origin Bavarian barley, and the other 20 percent as regional grains malted by Charlottesville’s Murphy & Rude. It brings something that reminds me of a flaky biscuit with a hint of honey. While the hops are passingly billed on the label as “Old World Hops,” they provide a floral quality that complements the honey and a welcome soft bitterness that doesn’t linger and sends you back for another sip on the not-so-Fall-yet-early-Fall days of our area.
Ed: So there you have it. If, like us, you even remotely enjoyed that comic-cum-review, clap your hands and Beerbecue will continue to grace us with his presence. Also, Unsprung is very good, and probably would have won our blind tasting.
