Mother Jones magazine to taste beers from Full Sail Brewing Company. It was many of the MoJo staffers’ first encounter with Beer Robot, who presided over the competition, but hopefully not their last.

Full Sail first set up shop in 1987 in an abandoned fruit cannery in Hood River, Oregon, and the following year bought a temperamental red Italian bottling line they named Mimi. By 1989, the brewery had won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival for Full Sail Amber Ale, which is still its best known beer today. But this brewery has much, much more to offer. Most of our tasters, including myself, had never heard of either of the beers Full Sail entered in our tournament, but I am positive they will be drinking them again in the future.

The Location: Wired H.Q.

The Brewery: Full Sail Brewing Company, Hood River, Oregon

The Beer: Session Black and Wassail Ale

The Method of Dispense: Half bottles of each beer poured into plastic cups under the watchful eye of Beer Robot, often followed by a full bottle of the taster’s favorite.

How They Fared: Full Sail bravely entered the only lager in our competition, their Session Black. And by black, they mean black. This beer’s dark color may have stopped some of our tasters from buying this beer at the store or in a bar, but they were very pleasantly surprised. One MoJo staffer said, “I don’t usually like dark beer, but it was good!” Session Black is very smooth and drinkable but still packs a good amount of taste, particularly for a lager. As a Wired writer put it, “Smooth, rich, Always bet on black.”

One of Session Black’s best attributes is the adorable short, fat barrel of a bottle it comes in, with its attractive, simple blue label. At a publication that puts a premium on design, this earned the beer many compliments.

The rival was also a happy discovery for the tasters. Wassail Ale is Full Sail’s current seasonal that the label describes as “12 fluid ounces of ridiculously tasty winter ale concocted by our massive brewforce of 47.” Now, I am very skeptical of these kinds of claims, but I must say, it is apt in this case. I usually hate winter or holiday seasonals, but I really liked this beer. And I wasn’t alone. This beer practically had a cheerleading squad by the end of the challenge.

I think where Full Sail went right with Wassail Ale is by making it full and flavorful but not overly spicy like many winter ales tend to be, and had just the right amount of hops. One voter commented that it is “spicy in the nose, but subtle on the palate.”

This was a very close match. A lot of tasters had to go back for more of each before they could make a decision. But in the end, Session Black edged out Wassail by a scant 4 votes. The lager lives on.

Coming up: Join us Oct. 8 at 6 pm at Devil’s Canyon in Belmont, Oct. 13 at 5 pm at The Hotel Utah for Ninkasi Brewing beers and Oct. 14 at the California Academy of Sciences to kick off the second round of October Madness and celebrate Sharktoberfest.

Image: Dave Mosher/Wired.com

Stay tuned to @wiredplaybook and @beerrobot for updates on attending future October Madness events in the Bay Area. Follow us on Twitter at @betsymason and @wiredplaybook and on Facebook.

See Also:

• October Madness Kicks Off at Modern-Day Speakeasy
• Eye of the Hawk Ale Swoops In for Early Win
• Beer Battle at Twitter HQ Goes Black Butte’s Way
• Hopeful Giants Fans Score One For Ironwood Dark

Authors: Betsy Mason

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