Brookeville Beer Farm - "Patterson Footage" sweet potato ale

Well, it's a bit late for a Thanksgiving-themed beer post, but whatever. I'll be quick. Here's an interesting libation from Brookeville Beer Farm, located about twenty miles north of DC in Brookeville, MD. What a fun name for a brewery! I'm imagining that, come harvest time, farmers pulling six packs out of the dirt and holding them up to the light. "Good crop this year, yep," the farmer says as he tosses dirty six packs into his basket for sale at the village market.

I jest. BBF is a farm, though, and they grow much of the ingredients used in their beers. Today's beer is called "Patterson Footage", named after the famous Patterson-Gimlin film, purported to be the most authentic sighting of Bigfoot until it was proven a hoax. Which most of us could probably have told you from the beginning.

This 5.40% ale is made with 200 pounds of sweet potatoes, 100 pounds of toasted pecans, 50 pounds of marshmallows, and 3 gallons of molasses. Wow! It's quite malty, with a moderate sweet potato character. Also, it's somewhat sweet for a beer, reminds me of original Pumking a bit. Might be the marshmallows, there's not much molasses from what I can pick up. Overall a soft, sweet, malty beer and kinda fun. I've had a few sweet potato beers before (one from Ardent and another from Asheville Brewers Alliance as part of the Sierra Nevada Beer Camp series) but this one I think is the most flavorful. Cost-wise, it's $16.99 for four pints. I ended up chatting with a Beer Farm rep one Saturday at the store, and he indicated that this beer was tough for the brewers to make, but they hope to bring it back. I hope they do, too!