Ask anyone who knows me and they’ll tell you: I always do what I’m told.

So when the directions on the side of my 22-ounce bottle of Southern Tier Imperial Compass commanded me to drink the beer out of a champagne flute, I obeyed. Although this obviously added an unparalleled level of class to my beer consumption, I couldn’t escape the feeling that I was acting like a “Real Housewife.”

But I’ll do just about anything for my love of beer, so I persevered. After performing the beer equivalent of popping bottles, the first thing I noticed was how much yeast was floating around in the beer. I expected the Compass, which is a sparkling ale, to be clear and super-light, like champagne or sparkling juice, but to tell the truth it was really rather murky.

This disconcerted my drinking buddy so much that he looked at me uncertainly and said, “Uh, when was the last time you washed this glass?” It turns out the beer just needed to decant like a fine wine, but I sure appreciated that knock on my housekeeping skills.

I forgot how disgruntled I was, though, after I began drinking. Yeastiness aside, I didn’t hate it, although it wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I had been expecting the beer equivalent of champagne: light, crisp and a surefire way to incapacitate me for nearly 24 hours. To be perfectly honest, I also thought it would be kind of dull and lack flavor or complexity.

Instead, it was far more interesting and far less vapid. Kind of like “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” instead of “The Real Housewives of Orange County.” Not that I watch either of those shows or anything.

The most surprising — and delicious — aspect of the Compass was how citrusy it was. The flavor is equal parts sweet and sour and almost tastes like a summer ale. In fact, Empire Brewing Company’s Shandy immediately came to mind.

Then you get hit with the full flavor of the rose hips.

Rose hips, it turns out, are not hips at all. They’re actually the fruit that grow on rose plants and they contain high levels of Vitamin C and the antioxidant lycopene. But they’re also very bitter, which becomes more and more apparent with every sip. At first you might mistake the flavor for hops, but rose hips have their own distinct taste and, when combined with the citrus elements of the beer, create an intricate, unparalleled brew.

As if all that isn’t enough to entice you, the Compass has a 9 percent ABV. I’m embarrassed to say that half a glass in, I was already becoming a little warm. It must have been the combination of the bubbles and the booze, because I was definitely feeling something. Or maybe it was just the pretentious rush of drinking from a champagne flute.

I guess I’ll have to have another one, just to be sure.

Published on October 23, 2013 at 10:49 pm

Contact Avery: avhartma@syr.edu | @averyhartmans