Before we get too far away from New Year’s Eve 2010…

I needed a great beer to ring in 2011. I was looking for a big bottle of special beer with a cork and cage, so I could pop the cork in celebration of the New Year.

My 2010 New Year’s Eve brew of choice was Infinium, a champagne-like beer that comes to us from a collaboration between Boston Beer Company, brewers of Sam Adams, and Weihenstephan Brewery in Germany. I picked up one of the 750 ml bottles for $20.99 at Magruder’s.

There’s quite a story behind this beer — it’s being promoted as the first new beer style to be developed under the restrictions of the Reinheitsgebot in over a hundred years.  Reinheitsgebot, AKA the German Beer Purity Law, states that the only ingredients that can be used in the production of beer are water, barley, hops, and yeast.

What results is “a groundbreaking brew that’s crisp and champagne-like. It’s light and dry yet complex, with a sparkling effervescence,” according to the Sam Adams web site. Infinium clocks in at 10.3% ABV.

I savored my bottle of Infinium, but I won’t buy it often, not at that price. Definitely worth a try though.

In addition to the unique flavor profile, Infinium is notable for the story behind the brew (much more than I’ve written here), as ably described by Tammy Tuck on the Washington City Paper’s Young and Hungry blog.