I was working my way through the Panda Pat parade of Colorado brews and realized I had the perfect opportunity to test my preconceptions about Left Hand vs Odell: LH beers are slightly overrated, and Odell's are just plain delicious. A quick note on amber ales (the beers in consideration presently): I find they taste like dank bathwater--metallic and stale. Needless to say, it's hardly a style I look forward to drinking.
The competitors...
Left Hand's Sawtooth
ABV: 5.3%
Odell's Levity
ABV: 5.0%
There can be only one. Levity.
Those are some gorgeous looking amber ales, and they both made me surprised to be enjoying an amber ale. But there must be a winner, and that would be Levity, by far. There's just something about Levity that makes it much, much better than Sawtooth. The flavors are brighter, and more punctuated; whereas, Sawtooth makes a good effort but just falls flat under the light of competition. I should emphasize that both are enjoyable ales, but, as they say, 'to the victor go the spoils'. The spoils being a stronger selection bias on my behalf.
1-0 Odell.
1-0 Odell.