The "King" of Beer

by Joshua M. Bernstein, Posted Jul 19th 2010 @ 3:00PM

When NBA phenom LeBron "The King" James made his televised decision to depart the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat, he left northern Ohio's fans with a bitter taste in their mouths.

To blunt the pain of James' departure, Cleveland's Great Lakes Brewing has fittingly released Quitness, a beer "as bitter as the mood of Cleveland."

Quitness (a take on James' "Witness" campaign for Nike) is a dry-hopped, cask-conditioned India pale ale that Great Lakes released on Wednesday, July 14, at the brewpub. Three hours later, all 30 gallons of the beer were gone, with nothing left but rave reviews: "It was very floral, didn't hit your tongue very hard and actually wasn't bitter at all until the aftertaste," Beer Advocate member abraxel wrote. "It was downright delicious!"

While Great Lakes re-released Quitness on Saturday, and may do so again in the future, don't expect this to hit bottles anytime soon. Heck, I doubt this is even a brand-new beer.

More after the jump...

LeBron made his decision on July 8, which was less than two weeks ago -- too short a time frame to formulate, brew and release a new ale. (My guess is that it was Great Lakes' Commodore Perry IPA, given a nice round of dry-hopping.)

But why begrudge a tasty marketing stunt? While Cleveland will no longer have the King, residents can console themselves with a King of beer to call their own.

Filed Under: Celebrities, Drinks
Tags: beer, Cleveland Cavaliers, lebron james, quitness