Belated Sunday Night Suds - Yankee Jim Ice

Since this is a patriotic holiday weekend, Sunday Night Suds reviews a beer with a "patriotic" bend by looking at Yankee Jim Ice.

Although Yankee Jim bears an American sounding name, it is not available for purchase in the lower United States. However, if one visits America's neighbor to the north, he could procure the Yankee Jim in the LCBO or the Beer Store.

The story itself is not uncommon, often times a store in a given location will seek to associate itself with another geographic area to lend credence to the product that it sells. By example, a store may call itself xyz's New York Bagels or xyz's Chicago Deep Dish Pizza. Of course, the pizza in the store is not made in Chicago, any more than the bagels are baked in New York. Still, the geographic description may be enough to get people in the door and that's all that a good restaurant would need.

The odd thing about the Yankee Jim beer is that it is sold in Canada, a country known for its beer (and hockey). One would not expect a "Wyoming Style" pizzeria to succeed in Chicago. So why attempt to market a beer with an American sounding name (it is truly brewed in the U.S. as it is bottled by the "Big Hole" Brewing Company of Utica, NY).

I can't really explain the rationale for trying to sell American beer in the beer mecca of Canada, but I can tell you that having tried the brew, there is no reason for a Canadian to go out and purchase it. As you can see from the picture above, the beer poured an extremely pale yellow (I needed to take a couple of pictures so that the color could be seen at all). The flavor is macrolager with no hops and "lite beer" taste quality. Although this is partially related to the beer being an ice lager, it still has significantly less flavor than Icehouse or even Bud Ice.

I would not turn down this beer if I was at a sporting event, but would not choose this if I had other beer available.

Although the Yankee Jim Ice is not certified kosher, it is produced at a brewery which only maintains kosher ingredients on premises. As such,the mashgiach in the brewery assures me that the Yankee Jim can be assumed to be kosher.

For the experts' take on the Yankee Jim Ice please click here http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1602/30168.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

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