We popped down to the Tap & Mallet on the night of the Inauguration to grap a glass of the very hot-selling Ommegang Inauguration Ale, informally known as “Obamagang.” It’s a decent complex brown ale that starts off sweet, with a dry roasty finish.

I don’t know how to feel about this one.  It’s got more character than most brown ales, but it isn’t a standout. More than anything else, it’s a play on a trend; the beer equivalent of one of those tacks commemorative plates you see for sale in the back of that “USA Weekend” supplement that comes with your Sunday paper.

Ommegang does Belgian styles better than just about any other brewer in the country. It would have been cool had they done a really kick-ass Belgian that justified the high price of this limited release. Hower, it seems they were doing the brown ale style as some sort of hamhanded play on Obama’s ethnic heritage, displaying all the subtlety of a backhoe in a funeral parlor. They could at least have done a Belgian abbey brun. Sheesh.

That said, it’s not a bad beer, and will hold a great eal of appeal for anyone not yet wearied by the media’s Obama hype vortex. Me, I’ll take a Rooster Fish Nut Brown Ale, thanks.

-Mark