Good People Drink Good Beer

Tonight my dad and I had our own mini-tasting, featuring Oktoberfest brews!! I know, we’re a little late with this style. But we had a few left over in the fridge that we needed to drink, and my dad suggested we make it a little more exciting by staging our own tasting! We had offerings from Sam Adam’s Brewery (Boston Beer Co.- Boston, MA), Stegmaier (Lion Brewery- a local offering! Wilkes-Barre, PA), Shiner (Spoetzl Brewery- Shiner, TX), and Point (Stevens Point Brewery- Stevens Point, WI).

I really enjoyed all the Oktoberfest’s; each of them had great color and flavor. Sam Adam’s and Stegmaier are a little bolder in flavor than both Shiner and Point. Point was definitely the malty-est of all four, which isn’t really my favorite type of flavor. Shiner held it’s head better than any of the other brews. I think my two favorites had to be Shiner and Sam Adam’s - one a little milder, the other a little richer.

If you have a few bottles of the same style of beer, try having your own little tasting! It makes drinking them a little bit more fun! (Not like drinking isn’t fun already hahaha…)

Prost!
Erin

BLUE HILLS BREWERY’S WAMPATUCK WHEAT
South Shore Brewing Co.

Brewed by: Blue Hills Brewery, http://www.bluehillsbrewery.com/

Style: Traditional heffeweizen

Alcohol %: 4.8% ABV

Fun Fact: This traditional heffeweizen is brewed with 60% wheat! It makes it so much sweeter. SO yummy. It’s also made with german hops, and a Bavarian yeast strain.

It’s been a while, my beer babies, but I’m really excited to share this brew with everyone!! I’m honestly not sure about it’s availability, I think it may be fairly limited. Blue Hills is located in Canton, MA; about 30 mins from Boston. I used to pick some up at this tiny, hole-in-the-wall liquor store in Gov Center, but they don’t seem to carry it anymore. I last got it about 3 days ago when my roommate and I stumbled across Marty’s Liquors in Newton, MA — it’s a staple my family always visits when my parents come to Boston :) Their Watermelon Wampatuck Wheat seems to be pretty popular, and it’s delicious too. But I love this wheat, and I always buy up a few when I find it because I can’t always find it!

This brew had a lightly yellow/golden color, and it’s really gorgeous. If I had to pick a perfect color for a wheat beer, this would absolutely be it! It has good carbonation, but it’s not too filling at the same time. It’s also not super crystal clear, but it’s definitely not cloudy either. It looks really perfect when poured into a pint glass :) It had only a small amount of head when poured, but it didn’t really linger for long.

This beer’s smell is very sweet, and you can definitely pick up nodes of the banana and the spices. I think it smells wonderful. They say that smell makes up a lot of your taste, and I like light and fresh beers — so maybe that helps put the smell more in perspective! This brew also has a decent amount of carbonation, as any heffeweizen should, but don’t let that turn you off. The bubbles aren’t overpowering, and it’s still a beer that’s pleasant to drink.

The taste of this beer is obviously my favorite part. The first thing I really noticed was the banana flavor, yumm! I am a big fan of banana so it’s no surprise I love this brew. But do not be afraid if fruit beers aren’t really your thing! It’s really very subtle and not overpowering, probably because the yeast is what imparts that flavor — it’s not actually added to the beer in any way. The flavor is full and is definitely on the sweet side of things, but again it’s not too much. It also has a slight hint of cloves to balance its flavor out. Its a pretty clean tasting beer, and doesn’t leave any offensive aftertaste in your mouth. Because of that, I think it pairs pretty well with most foods. It’s a little sweet, but won’t overpower the taste of most dishes.

This brew is super refreshing, and not too filling. It’s got a lighter body, and is fresh and crisp. I’m soooo happy the weather has been so nice and warm recently because I seriously love sipping these on hot summer days! I may be biased toward a positive review of WW simply because I have yet to meet a summer/wheat beer I don’t like. But I promise you it’s fresh and sweet, and a quality wheat beer. Try some out the next time you’re in the mood for something fresh and new!

“A Good Man drinks a Good Beer”
Erin 

INFINIUM — The Champagne of Beers!

These are pictures of my freakin’ $25 bottle (thank god my parents love good beer and wanted me to try it so much they threw me a little bit of cash for the bottle ha) of Sam Adam’s Infinium, which they have billed as “the champagne of beers”. They worked closely for 2 years with one of Germany’s most famous breweries to create this special beer. I went to my local liquor store the day after it was released, and they only had 3 bottles left! So I snatched up 2, one for myself here in Boston and one to take home to my family for Xmas so we could all try it. I drank it before a fun night out to celebrate, so I was too distracted to even think of taking notes to write a review. Oh well! I’ll just say that it was refreshing, spicy, bubbly, interesting, and delicious. I really enjoyed it.

According to Sam Adam’s website, “Our brewers worked for two years with the world’s oldest brewery, Germany’s Weihenstephan, to create this unique new beer style. A groundbreaking brew, made with only the four traditional ingredients: malted barley, hops, water and yeast, Infinium™ is a crisp champagne-like beer with fine bubbles and a fruity, spicy aroma. The crisp clean malt character and delicate fruit notes in this beer are complemented by a slight citrus flavor from dry hopping with Bavarian Noble hops. Bottle conditioning adds another layer of complexity and light spice notes.”
If you click the link through to their website, it also has a locator where you can type in your zip-code to try to find some near you. 

I definitely recommend trying it if you can ever get your hand on a bottle (are they still making it? I have no clue if it was a one-time release or not). Infinium is a high alcoholic beer at 10.3%! But the champagne-like bubbles of the brew help cut the alcohol taste and keep the flavor from tasting too strong. It also follows the German Beer Purity Law of 1516 — only barley, hops, water, and yeast are used in the brewing process! I love that fact about it. It’s a little pricey, and it may not be a brew for everyone, but it’s worth it to try a little beer history in the making!

(Please excuse my goofy face haha, I look ridiculous)

MAGIC HAT SINGLE CHAIR
“celebrating the independent spirit of Mad River Glen”

Brewed by:  Magic Hat Brewery

Style: Golden Ale, American Pale Ale

Alcohol %: 5%

Fun fact: According to an article I discovered that was written in February 2010, Single Chair was another beer that was strictly regional, kind of like Boston Brick Red ale. (See a few posts down!) It was only on draught in Vermont at the brewery’s bar, and it was only made in very small quantities. SC was hailed as kind of a local secret, but it didn’t stay a secret for long! I saw it a few months back at Sunset Grille & Tap; they’re always got the best beers on draught, over 120 kinds! I never tried it there, but got my hands on some in Magic Hat’s newest 12-pack summer sampler (uhh, summer sampler? In March? You’re getting a little carried away here Magic Hat…) - along with Wacko, #9, and Blind Faith IPA.

Hey guys, I’m here this time bringing you something that everyone can get their hands on and try! Magic Hat’s Single Chair is an American Pale Ale that is brewed using lager techniques. It could definitely be mistaken for a pilsner, as Jay and I did for a moment. It’s made with all-barley malt and a certain strain of German hops, Hallertau hops, that were chosen for their “spicy, floral flavors”.

Single Chair is a very light gold/yellow color that I wasn’t too excited about. It wasn’t unattractive in itself, but it looked kind of like a crappy light beer which will remain nameless. When poured into a pint glass, it had a very small amount of light head that disappeared pretty quickly. This beer was crystal clear and you could see through the glass without a problem. Without even trying a sip we knew it was going to be carbonated. You could see the bubbles floating all around the glass.

This brew had barely any smell at all! It took us a while to even decide what we were smelling because it didn’t immediately stick out. It was kind of light and fruity, but most of the smell was dominated by a yeasty/bread like smell. It basically smelled like your average beer; nothing in the smell stood out. SC is very carbonated, just like we guessed it would be! I wouldn’t really describe this beer as smooth because of the carbonation. It was fine to drink, but too bubbly to really be called a smooth-drinking beer in my opinion. Get ready for some burps!

The taste of this beer is very similar to a lager or a pilsner, even though it’s an ale! It has a very classic “beer taste” that is very mild. The hops used in brewing, as I stated before, were chosen for their spicy, floral tastes. I think that these flavors come through in this beer, but they’re very muted and mild. I also think it’s more on the spicy side of that spectrum, though just barely. It’s not very strong; that, along with it’s muted flavored, make it the PERFECT transition to finer beers for those out there who are BMC drinkers. I am definitely going to be recommending this beer to my friends who aren’t very particular about the taste of their beer, in hopes that I can maybe get them on the right beer track! SC has a ridiculously clean aftertaste that I enjoyed, mostly because it wasn’t bitter and didn’t linger for long at all. This beer has a medium body and is pretty light tasting, making it really easy to drink. It’s feels like a semi-filling beer while you’re drinking it, but I found that it actually didn’t make me feel uncomfortably full after getting rid of some of that bubble gas. It would probably pair well with a meal because it’s so clean and light. We didn’t try ours with a meal, but I imagine you wouldn’t have to worry about it overpowering or affecting the taste of food.

Overall, I was unimpressed with this supposed hidden secret of a beer. I felt like it was just slightly above your average BMC beer, and I usually expect a lot more than that from a company as kooky and fun as Magic Hat. It just really didn’t stand out like I was thinking, or even hoping it would. SC was drinkable, light, and clean tasting, which are all pluses in my beer book. But overall? I was just not impressed! Try a bottle and see for yourself — or pass it off on your BMC drinking friends if you feel the way I do about it!

“Life… Love… Ale”

Erin