As the calendar goes from August to September, one thing is very clear; I am not ready to let go of Summer. Now don't get me wrong, I love the Fall season and everything that comes with it. The leaves changing color; the return of football; Halloween; and most importantly, Fall beer. Now, I understand you might be ready for all that I just mentioned. I however, am choosing to be stubborn because I am not ready to give up the warm weather, trips to the beach, flip flops(although this one I probably should), outdoor concerts, and knowing that snow is not right around the corner. So as you can imagine, when fall beers arrived on shelves in mid-July, I began to feel irritated that breweries were trying to cut my Summer short. This should go without saying, but mid-July is way too early to see anything Fall or pumpkin-related. I decided then, I was going to wait until the start of September to do a Fall review of any kind. Well, now that September is here the weather is still well into the 80's. So, I am not exactly feeling motivated to do a Fall review. Plus I also just picked up a beer that sounds perfect for the weather we are currently experiencing. So I am going to put off switching to Fall seasonal beer for just a littler longer so I can say goodbye to Summer with one final light bodied, fruity, sessionable, Summer-like beer.
For my final fruit-forward beer of the Summer season, I decided to close like how I started, with a cucumber beer. Out of Pittsburg, California, High Water Brewing Company's Cucumber Kolsch is pretty much everything you would want from a cucumber beer. The aroma and flavor is dominated by cucumber and it is refreshing. The appearance of the beer however, leaves something to be desired. It looks murky, like puddle water with a fizzy white head. If the aroma was not as promising as it was, I might have had second thoughts about drinking it. The pleasant aroma I mentioned of cucumber is balanced by grain, honey and coconut. My first sip was just like the aroma. There is a lot of cucumber with a light, spicy coconut finish. The pilsner malt also provides a nice, delicate backbone to the beer. The light coconut flavor also works but it is very light. I think putting “Brewed with Cucumber & Coconut Water” on the can made it sound more interesting that it is. When all is said and done, I do like this beer. It's an easy drinking fruit-forward beer that is definitely worth a try if cucumber is your thing.
Overall I would rate High Water Brewing Company's Cucumber Kolsch a 3/5. It's heavy on cucumber so if that sounds good to you, you will like it. If that does not sound good to you, it might be time to start looking at the Fall beer.
Rating Scale:
1 - Repugnant and undrinkable
2 - Acceptable but forgettable
3 - Good, worth a purchase
4 - Excellent, a step above the norm
5 - Truly exceptional
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For more beer reviews go to: http://acraftylook.blogspot.com/
Thanks for reading. Sláinte!
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