Football season in Alabama doesn’t arrive quietly. It shows up with “Roll Tide” and “War Eagle” and half the state rearranging their weekends around a kickoff time that hasn’t even been announced yet. By the time the Iron Bowl comes around in November, you can feel the difference in the air, and what’s in the cooler.
Alabama Crown works with suppliers all over the country, and a few make beer that’s especially well suited to a long Saturday. Here are three brands worth putting on ice this season.
Aslin Super Volcano Sauce
Aslin Beer Co. was founded in 2015 in Herndon, Virginia, by Andrew Kelley and Kai Leszkowicz. Two brothers-in-law who married into the same family bonded over homebrewing and eventually decided they could do this for real. Their whole thing is “Consume Life,” and they built the brand around being there for the after-work hang, the wedding, the random Wednesday, and the post-game celebration.
Super Volcano Sauce is their best-selling sour ale, supersized. It’s a fruited sour brewed with blackberries, blueberries, vanilla, and milk sugar, and it comes in a 19.2oz can (the kind of can built for a tailgate where nobody wants to make a second trip to the cooler).
At 9.5% ABV, this one earns its name. It drinks a lot easier than that number suggests, which is exactly why you pace it.
Victory’s Monkey Crew: Golden, Berry, Juicy and Sour
Victory Brewing Company’s Monkeys have built a following on being unapologetically big and unapologetically fun. All four of these land at 9.5% ABV, which makes the Monkey Mixed Pack a smart buy for a group at the tailgate.
Golden Monkey is the original. A Belgian-style tripel brewed with imported malts, Belgian yeast, and a blend of spices, it comes in at 9.5% ABV and 25 IBU on Pilsner malt and Tettnang hops. Try it as the beer you hand somebody who says they’ve had enough light lager for one lifetime.
Berry Monkey takes the same base (imported malts, Belgian yeast, magical spices) and turns it into a fruited sour tripel with real raspberries. Best enjoyed early in the day, while the grill’s still warming up.
Juicy Monkey is the Hazy Imperial IPA of the group, 9.5% ABV and 25 IBU, built on Sabro, Lotus, and Sultana hops. Try it as the cooler beer for the hop crowd that still wants something that hits.
Sour Monkey is the tangy sibling. Same Belgian roots, same 9.5% ABV, but with a precise souring layered over the fruity yeast character. It’s the kind of beer that resets your palate on a 90-degree September afternoon in Tuscaloosa. Best enjoyed when the sun’s beating down and nothing heavy sounds good.
Sierra Nevada Hazy Little Thing IPA
Sierra Nevada has been a fixture of American craft beer since long before “hazy” was a style, and their Mills River, North Carolina brewery makes them a genuine Southeast neighbor. Hazy Little Thing is the one that brought the whole hazy category to the tailgate.
It’s aggressively dry-hopped and skips the filter entirely, because, as Sierra Nevada puts it, the haze is where the flavor lives. Oats and wheat build the body, Citra, El Dorado, Magnum, Mosaic, and Simcoe hops do the rest, and it lands at 6.7% ABV and 35 IBU.
This is the beer for the long haul. It’s one you can actually drink from the noon kickoff through the 4th quarter and still find your car afterward.
One last thing
Alabama takes its Saturdays seriously, and a cooler that’s got a little range (something sour, something juicy, something you can drink all afternoon) beats twelve of the same thing every time. Ask your local retailer what’s on the shelf or check the brewery finders to track down what’s nearby.
