Full Sail

Full Sail is one of the closest breweries to The Dalles. It is located in Hood River, only about 25 miles away. It is also one of the breweries I was most familiar with when I first arrived in Oregon. Their Session Lagers have a pretty wide distribution, and I am pretty sure Jon and Ian were the first to introduce me to those on a trip to Colorado.

This picture shows all of their year-round beers:

The LTD in there is a limited series Lager. Year-round, they create these small batch lagers with slight differences. I am not sure if they cycle through a set recipe list or if they just come up with a new recipe each time. I've had a couple, and they tasted pretty much the same to me.

I've tried all the beers they have on offer. For my Roommate Ryan's birthday we took him to Hood River to check out Full Sail and Double Mountain. The Full Sail beers are good, but none of them really impressed me. They are drinkable, but they lack flair.

Which is perhaps why their Session Lagers are so popular. Here's a definition of a session beer as taken from beeradvocate.com:

"Any beer that contains no higher than 5 percent ABV, featuring a balance between malt and hop characters (ingredients) and, typically, a clean finish - a combination of which creates a beer with high drinkability. The purpose of a session beer is to allow a beer drinker to have multiple beers, within a reasonable time period or session, without overwhelming the senses or reaching inappropriate levels of intoxication. (Yes, you can drink and enjoy beer without getting drunk.) "

Their lagers are exactly this. They are very drinkable (read: not too flavorful), and not too alcoholic. And considering they go for about the same price as PBR around here, I have had more than a few of them.

Their other beers seem to have been dragged down along with these lagers, though. According to Nathan, one of my bosses who is into beer and homebrewing, the Full Sail beers used to be more exciting. They used to be really flavorful, high quality beers, but as their size and distribution grew, the quality declined. This is a pretty common occurrence as breweries grow in size.

So, in conclusion, Full Sail makes drinkable beers. They are not the most exciting or flavorful beers. They might be good for someone new to craft beers, and they are definitely good for a barbecue. I am pretty fond of the Black Lager as a session beer.