Action Figures & Their Beers -- HERE WE GO!!

by Bill Cable
on 2024-09-11, 08:25:47

This past weekend the NFL regular season kicked off, which presented the perfect opportunity for me to crack open this brew:

Beat Down Browns by Four Seasons Brewing Company of Latrobe, PA (where the Pittsburgh Steelers conduct training camp each year) was released either late 2023 or early 2024, which is when I found it on the shelf. It's an imperial brown ale with a beefy 9.0% ABV. The can art features #90 T.J. Watt plowing through an entire squad of Cleveland Brownies players, which he is prone to do a few times per season.

How is it? It starts out malty and slightly boozy. That evolves to an almost chalky coffeeness. It finishes with a long bitter aftertaste. Over all, pretty solid! Its bitterness is a bit pronounced for my taste, and it really lingers. Like for multiple minutes. I'd definitely get it again if it was still available anywhere.

To pair with this beer I chose Galoob's All-Star MVPs 1997 edition Pittsburgh Steelers. I actually crawled up into the attic to my bins of toys I don't have on display and dug through my Steelers bin. I know I have some other SLU figures somewhere in that bin that might have worked better, but as I was digging all I could find were some plush toys and a bunch of old Iron City Beer cans and it was hot in the attic, so I went with the first "action figures" I came across. This set contains all-time LEGEND Pittsburgh Steelers Greg Lloyd (the first Steelers jersey I ever purchased myself), Jerome "The Bus" Bettis, and "Hot" Rod Woodson (one of the best DBs in league history). It also has Yancy Thigpen and Kordell Stewart...

I checked eBay, and it seems like these were only made in 1997 for the NBA and NFL, and are pretty much worthless. So I guess I'll be crawling back up into the attic to sock it away for another 27 years.

I enjoyed this beer while watching my Steelers win their season opener with a dominant defensive performance despite starting a back-up QB, but I was done before the end of the first quarter when they were mostly floundering on offense, so I can't say if my mood biased my review or not. If you asked me about the last beer I drank as the clock ticked to zero, I'd probably say that one was fantastic!

Drink this if you also like: Dark, bitter ales. Coffee ales.