REVIEW 164: ICELANDIC WHITE ALE

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  Iceland

BREWERY:  Einstök Ölgerð

STYLE:  Witbier

ABV:  5.2%

PURCHASE:  Six-pack of 11.2-oz. bottles, $11.99

SERVING:  11.2-oz. bottle, poured into pint glass. A pour of normal speed led to a head of three full inches; a slower one cut it in half. Good retention.

APPEARANCE:  Very pale, yellowish straw color. Hazy and cloudy, although it becomes clearer as you drink it. Spongy white head. Thin but steady bubbling. Very, very little lacing.

AROMA:  Prominent coriander notes, but orange zest seems to hog the spotlight here. Wheat, malt, and lemon essences are noticeable as well.

TASTE:  As with the aroma, zesty orange peel is the through-line, with an uptick of it in the aftertaste, which is quite lemony and yeasty overall. Mild at the onset, with a somewhat thin mouthfeel and middle-of-the-road carbonation. Wheat and coriander notes are makeable but very shy; they're almost bullied into submission by lemon and orange rind, and yeast. What's there is likeable but not ideally balanced. 

MUSINGS AND METAPHORS:  This is a witbier, but at best, it comes off like a compromised one. It's like Blue Moon and Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy mixed together. Nothing wrong with that; but it's a little misleading.

This is a brew with a decent enough taste and it's very easy to put away. But it's too heavy on the lemon and orange zest and doesn't have enough actual witbier character. It's what I call an "identity crisis" beer. I like it, but it's the worst of the three I've had so far from the Einstök brewery in Iceland. 




GRADE:   B-

REVIEW 163: ICELANDIC ARCTIC PALE ALE

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  Iceland

BREWERY:  Einstök Ölgerð

STYLE:  APA

ABV:  5.6%

PURCHASE:  Six-pack of 11.2-oz. bottles, $11.99

SERVING:  11.2-oz. bottle, poured into pint glass. A normal pour yielded a head of an inch and a half; a slower pour whittled it down to an even inch, more or less. Great head retention.

APPEARANCE:  Translucent body with a caramel tint that could also be described as light copper or amber. Slightly off-white head. Faint bubbling. Good and fairly consistent lacing around the inside of the glass.

AROMA:  Balanced yet subtle aroma. Mainly pressed grains and (seemingly) appleskin. Hoppy accents. Rounded out by a tinge of lemon, orange zest, and some other kind of spice, probably allspice or cinnamon. A bit roasty.

TASTE:  Well-attenuated body in terms of texture and taste. Carbonation, though, is a little sneaky; it's barely there, but can surprise you if you hold a sip too long. Entry is a little blah, but it rights itself by mid-palate, taking on an appleskin-malt profile. Finish is somewhat fusel-like, and not too dry. Aftertaste continues the apple-malt throughline while adding a dimension of spice--again, it's hard to pin down. Seems like allspice or orange zest, possibly a tease of cinnamon, maybe even clove. Not particularly hoppy, and this is supposedly an APA--an American pale ale. 

MUSINGS AND METAPHORS:  This isn't a bad little brewery, but they have some work to do.

This is a solid brew, but it's not perfect. They call it an APA because it's brewed with cascade hops, but it's brewed with a couple other varieties of hops as well. And they weren't that conspicuous. That could be a good or bad thing, of course. 

Per the label, this was "brewed 60 miles south of the Arctic Circle." The Arctic Circle passes through . . . Iceland--well, Icelandic waters, anyway. In other words, they're just saying it's brewed in Iceland. I love marketing people.




GRADE:   B

REVIEW 162: 21ST BIRTHDAY IPA

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  USA (Downingtown, PA!)

BREWERY:  Victory Brewing Company

STYLE:  IPA

ABV:  6.1%

PURCHASE:  Six-pack of 12-oz. bottles, $15.00

SERVING:  12-oz. bottle, poured into pint glass. Heady as hell from the bottle. Initial head of over three full inches with a standard pour. A faster pour yielded a head that took up almost the entire glass. Even a slower pour resulted in more than two inches. Outstanding retention.

APPEARANCE:  Light gold color and foggy. Densely packed white head. Faint bubbling, overshadowed by the suspended particles; reminiscent of another Victory brew, Golden Monkey. Prominent but somewhat uneven lacing.

AROMA:  Oh you know, the usual hop-citrus, hybrid aroma of an IPA. This one was a bit floral as well.

TASTE:  That hop-citrus dichotomy starts and last right through the finish, taste-wise; straightforward mouthfeel. Fairly easygoing and even a bit light-feeling, particularly for a six-percenter. No crescendos. No emergences. No surprises. Most complex part of the experience lies in the aftertaste: Somewhat lemony, a little sweet (a la Sweet-n-Low), with a slight uptick in bitterness. Sneaky carbonation. Almost shandy-like in its overall palate.

MUSINGS AND METAPHORS:  Another good-but-not-great offering from Victory, who in this reviewer's opinion, is really beginning to resemble Sam in that regard. And I'm always--ALWAYS--wary of the "anniversary" theme assigned to certain beers, as I am to any kind of "special edition." In my experience, none of them ever match the best and brightest of their respective breweries.

But it's still a Victory. (See what I did there? Give it a minute.) Victory's beers are kind of like Hitchcock films; most aren't masterpieces--even if that's what their creator is known for--but they're all at least markedly above average. You really can't go wrong. And I'm sorry for the cliché.




GRADE:  B

REVIEW 161: GOOSE IPA (REVISITED)

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  USA (Chicago)

BREWERY:  Goose Island Beer Company

STYLE:  IPA

ABV:  5.9%

PURCHASE:  Six-pack of 12-oz. bottles, $11.99

SERVING:  12-oz. bottle, poured into pint glass. An almost three-inch head from both a normal and slower pour. Outstanding retention.

APPEARANCE:  Rocky white head atop a transparent, golden body. Visually, could almost pass for a pilsner or Helles. Conspicuous bubbling. Excellent lacing.

AROMA:  What we have here is an IPA that isn't all hops all the time! They're nicely held in check by floral and citrus notes--namely grapefruit--as well as malt. Bready for an IPA.

TASTE:  Hoppy onset--what else do you expect? Sweet overall mouthfeel. Malty undertones. As with the aroma, the hops are not overly aggressive; instead, they are rounded out by mostly citrus notes. Packs a grapefruit wallop at the back. Aftertaste seems, for the most part, evenly split 50/50 between hops and grapefruit, with some yeast and bitter orange sneaking in there at the very, very end.

MUSINGS AND METAPHORS:  In my original review, I concluded that this is a beer that "flirted with greatness," or something to that effect. That was the draft version. 

It's a bit better in the bottle. 

Goose Island is one of those breweries that's never categorized in the top of the heap by the online beer snob community, perhaps rightly so. But I find them sorely underrated. They have their share of misfires, but their flagship IPA, while not quite elite, certainly hits the target. I'm bumping this one up a notch.



ORIGINAL GRADE:  B+

NEW GRADE:  A-

A Minor Change . . .

I have concluded that "bouquet" and "palate" are pretentious terms that make me sound like a friggin' snob. They will now be replaced, respectively, by "aroma" and "taste" in the template for each review.

"Bouquet" and "palate" are for wine drinkers. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

--Crock

I'm Sorry

So very sorry. But don't worry. 

Beer reviews resume later this week! WOO-HOO!

In the meantime . . . GO PREDS!!!

REVIEW 160: SAMUEL ADAMS FRESH AS HELLES

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  USA (Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts)

BREWERY:  Boston Beer Company

STYLE:  Munich Helles Lager

ABV:  5.4%

PURCHASE:  Draft (pint), $5.50

SERVING:  Chilled pint glass. Not the "headiest" beer on tap; not even half an inch, which quickly left the building.

APPEARANCE:  Golden and transparent. Standard white/off-white crown. Faint bubbling. Lacing is scattered at it's most prominent, but mostly nonexistent. 

BOUQUET:  Orangey above all else. Malty as well. Not much of a hop note. Rounded out mainly by orange zest and coriander. Smells like a witbier crossed with an orange scone.

PALATE:  Again, it's citrusy--mainly in the form of orange--above all else. This isn't the norm for a helles, at least in my experience. Minimal hops. Malty through-line. Slightly heavy body on the whole, with the usual degree of carbonation. Slightly spicy finish--again, like a witbier, with orange zest and coriander most noticeable. A hint of pepper and of all things, honey--although this could be a placebo effect on my part. Aftertaste carries on these same traits, but becomes somewhat lemony at the very end.

MUSINGS AND METAPHORS:  "Helles" is a German word. It means "bright." Visually, this was indeed that. 

Helles lagers were originally developed in Munich--hence the term, "Munich helles lager"--as a response to the increasing popularity of Czech- and Bohemian-style pilsners amongst German beer consumers. This is the trend we have to thank for brews like Höfbrau and Löwenbrau. 

Sam's version, however, could almost pass for Blue Moon. It's got more depth, though, so I can forgive the identity crisis.




GRADE:   B

REVIEW 159: MICHELOB

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  USA (St. Louis)

BREWERY:  Anheuser-Busch

STYLE:  Pale Lager

ABV:  5.0%

PURCHASE:  Case of 24 12-oz. bottles, $25.99

SERVING:  12-oz. bottle, poured into pint glass. A normal pour produced your typical head of not quite an inch, which disappeared fairly quickly. A fast pour didn't get much more, though it stuck around much longer even considering the "extra." Head retention isn't the calling card for any beer from Anheuser-Busch anyway.

APPEARANCE:  Golden, as opposed to straw, body, with the usual see-through quality. Your typical sudsy white head. Prominent bubbling. Almost no lacing.

BOUQUET:  Bready but with a faint hop note. Not much else. Except water.

PALATE:  Middle-of-the-road mouthfeel with quick-setting carbonation. Grainy for the most part, especially early on. A tease of hops creeps in toward the otherwise yeasty finish. Slight hop reemergence in the aftertaste. Strong alcohol character at the end--fusel, like a malt liquor--despite being an average 5% beer. Could almost pass for Colt 45 under the right conditions.

MUSINGS AND METAPHORS:  Introduced by A-B co-founder Adolphus Busch in 1896 as a beer for "connoisseurs," Michelob really is a pale lager, as opposed to an adjunct lager; the malt proportion is "all-malt," with no rice, corn, or other adjuncts added. That's what distinguishes it from Budweiser. Perhaps that's why I always found it to be the best of the Anheuser-Busch lineup--whatever that's worth--at least until Shock Top came along.

You know what else distinguishes it from Budweiser--or, used to? The bottle. Who didn't love that bottle back in the day? They called it a "teardrop." I always thought of it as a lava lamp. I wish they'd bring it back. Now it's just like any other beer bottle out there. Another win for conformity.





GRADE:   C+

REVIEW 158: MUDBANK MILK STOUT

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  USA (Croydon, PA!)

BREWERY:  Neshaminy Creek Brewing Company

STYLE:  Milk Stout*

*Per the brewery's website, brewed with oats. Could be therefore classified as an oatmeal stout.

ABV:  6.5%

PURCHASE:  22-oz. bottle, $10.99

SERVING:  Said bottle, poured into Guinness branded imperial pint glass. Like many stouts, not very heady with a steady pour. This got maybe, maybe, half an inch with a normal pour from the bottle, which withered away in seconds. A faster pour, however, got some and then some more: Two and a half inches (or thereabouts). Congratulations. On that go-round, retention was solid but unspectacular. 

APPEARANCE:  Dark, dark brown bordering upon black--it's a freakin' stout. Tannish-beige head. Faint bubbling. Lacing is scattery at first, then better on the second pour, but dies anyway. 

BOUQUET:  Mostly oaty and malty. Caramel, chocolate, and berry-like fruit essences round things out. A hint of toffee seems evident as well.

PALATE:  Scratch the berry. I couldn't taste any. The toffee is also arguable, at best. Everything else was there, tempered by mild hop notes. Expertly balanced. Slightly heavier than average body, but smooth and inviting. Carbonation is timid at first, but becomes cola-like if held. Relatively sweet mouthfeel from start to finish, though in varying degrees. Finish is equally sweet and roasty. Chocolatey aftertaste--best part of a beer with a lot of contenders for "best part."

MUSINGS AND METAPHORS:  This was as addictive as your favorite junk food, and that, my friends, is the mark of a truly great beer. I couldn't stop drinking this tonight; I had to re-up almost immediately after every single sip, even toward the end of the session. 

I downed two 22-oz. bottles of this while listening to classic Guns N' Roses songs, and therein lies a fitting analogy. Like GNR, this isn't something you're into right away. But you force yourself to try it, then try it again, then again, and at some point . . . you're hooked. The other music out there just doesn't measure up. 

I actually started writing the final part of this review as "Patience" came on. Which is my advice for those of you who are put off by stouts. Give this one a chance, and "just use a little patience."

Yet another winner for Neshaminy Creek, yet another outstanding Philly-area brewery. 




GRADE:  A

REVIEW 157: WHIZBANG HOPPY BLONDE

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  USA (Fort Collins, Colorado)

BREWERY:  New Belgium Brewing

STYLE:  Blonde Ale

ABV:  5.7%

PURCHASE:  Draft (60-oz. pitcher), $10.00

SERVING:  Said pitcher, poured into chilled pint glass. Roughly one-inch head in the pitcher. Normal pour from pitcher to glass yielded a short-lived head of about half an inch. A fast pour, however, got almost three full inches. Who let the dogs out?

APPEARANCE:  Pale golden in color, with a typical off-white head. Narrow bubbling visible. Very good, consistent lacing.

BOUQUET:  Comes off like a pale ale--which it is at the end of the day, I suppose. Balanced between malted barley and noble hops, with some citrus thrown in. 

PALATE:  Comes off like a pale ale--which it is at the end of the day, I suppose. But it's a little underwhelming. Malty early on, giving way to a prominent noble hops bitterness fairly quickly. Joined at the finish by a generic citrus factor. Aftertaste seems dominated by a lemony and grapefruity note. Average in terms of texture and "fillingness." Soft carbonation that takes a while to assert itself. What's there is agreeable--I say this about a lot of beers, I know--but it just seems to be missing something. 

MUSINGS AND METAPHORS:  So what's a "whizbang" anyway? Merriam-Webster defines it, first and foremost, as "one that is conspicuous for noise, speed, excellence, or startling effect."

Google defines it as "a resounding success." Apparently, it also refers to a "small-caliber, high-velocity shell" in wide use during the First World War.

Urban Dictionary adds yet another "street" definition:  A mixture of heroin and cocaine known for its "one-two punch" effect on the user.  Yet another was the urgent need to urinate.

It was this last definition that fit this beer best. I'm about to go for the third time since finishing the pitcher.

GRADE:  C+