Beer 460: Full Sail Session

I'm fascinated by the phenomenon in which you hear or read about something that at the time sounds so obscure but which insinuates itself throughout your waking life.

For example, on Sunday Gary was changing the lightbulb in our porch light and heard our neighbor blasting Yah Mo B by James Ingram and Michael McDonald. He tells me about it when I arrive home, but it was odd enough for him that he wrote a post about yacht rock. Not having the savant-like repertoire of music knowledge like Mr. Blog Named Brew, I had to ask for a definition. Instance one and two of yacht rock references. Fast forward to Tuesday when I'm driving home and one of my preset radio stations plays a couple of yacht rock songs. Number three. Fast forward to tonight when there's an entire show dedicated to yacht rock on another station that I just happen to be listening to. Instance four.

Strange, but true.

This is known as Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon. Trust me, my writing about it is going to cause it to pop up several times in your life during the next few days or weeks. The definition is simple: It's when one happens upon some obscure piece of information--often an unfamiliar word or name--and soon afterwards encounters the same subject again, often repeatedly. Anytime the phrase “That’s so weird, I just heard about that the other day” would be appropriate, the utterer is hip-deep in Baader-Meinhof.

Is the phenomenon all in our minds? Could be. Our brains have an amazing ability to recognize patterns--a key to learning. But what causes a particular pattern to stand out amongst all the other patterns we encounter on a daily basis? Why don't we log all the beginnings of sequences and note more patterns. It seems to be the relative obscureness of the pattern that signals to your brain, "Hey! Pay attention to me!" Interesting, huh?

I thought I was onto another instance of Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon this past week when I was inundated by information about a new set of session beers from Full Sail Brewing in Oregon and then ended up at a BYOB dinner where one of the beers of choice was Full Sail Session Black lager. I think that was just a coincidence.

It comes in a fantastic chubby little 11 oz. bottle and pours a cola color with a light tan head. It has a strong chocolate malt smell with lots of roastiness. The flavor is best described as a chocolate lager. It has a full roasted malt flavor with a thin mouthfeel. More sips revealed a definite lager-ness to it. There was a strong grain flavor and it reminded me of a stout but not quite a stout. It's a wildly different beer that I really enjoyed.

Beer stats
Style: Black lager
ABV: 5.4%
IBUs:  18
Rating: Good

Previously reviewed from Full Sail
Gary's yacht rock / Session lager review