Harpoon One Hazy Summer

The past few weeks I have been slowing down on writing and that is unacceptable. Summer beer season is in full swing and I need to do a better job helping you sort through what’s on the shelves to find the best recommendations possible.

The main reason I have been behind on my blogs is because my summer beer drinking has become predictable. I have been obsessed with Other Half Brewing being in town and frequently find myself stopping there for cans, bottles & pours. The other beers that have taken up a fair amount of space in my refrigerator are Genesee’s Ruby Red Kolsch & Lemon Strawberry Cream Ale. The latter feels like a response to Natural Light’s surprisingly successful Naturday, a Strawberry Lemonade flavored light lager. It could be my local pride talking here but I honestly believe Genesee’s Lemon Strawberry Cream is the better of the two. Genesee’s Lemon Strawberry Cream Ale is not as sweet as Naturday which is a plus and the fruit flavor is dialed back a bit allowing the base beer to come through a bit more. To keep it short, both beers are good, but Genesee’s is better.

Another great summer beer I enjoyed was Couch Tour, a cucumber sour from Three Heads Brewing. It’s very refreshing with just the right amount of cucumber. If you come across it, I highly recommend trying it.

Basically, I have been drinking a lot of great beer but my drinking habits need to expand. So for this blog, I decided to go with a widely released beer from a craft brewery I have not drank anything from in quite some time. I also really wanted summer to be in the beer’s name, so I decided to go with One Hazy Summer from Harpoon Brewery.

Hazy, hoppy beers that get a wide release tend to be hit and miss. For example, I really enjoyed Hazy Little Thing from Sierra Nevada but found Bells Official to be disappointingly bland. Harpoon’s One Hazy Summer is not going to blow you away but it is a decent pale ale. The aroma is floral, fruity & malty. Biscuit in particular really comes through, along with pineapple, mango, berry and a touch of citrus. The aroma matches the flavor for the most part. The hops compliment the biscuity malt profile, adding a touch of brightness. Mango & pineapple come through the most, along with a touch of berry & citrus before a soft, herbal, dry finish.

I was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed One Hazy Summer. It might not be as hoppy as I wanted it to be but it works. It’s a light, easy drinking, reasonable priced, session beer that will work nicely as a beach beer, lawnmower beer, camping beer, basically any summer occasion beer. One that I am glad is taking up real estate in my refrigerator.



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Last Call for Summer Beer

I seem to complain about this every year but I am not quite ready to drink Fall beer. They are already on shelves and I can't help but think it is way too soon for them, This past weekend the temperature was in the 90's and not once did I think 'man, I could really go for a refreshing pumpkin ale'. So I decided to take a trip to the bottle shop in full defiance mode, looking for light, fruit forward summer seasonals. I left with three fruit forward beers and a couple of fresh IPAs. The latter has no impact on this blog, I just wanted to admit I still could not pass up new hops. For this blog however, I wanted to blog about those three fruit forward beers and let you know whether or not they are worth taking up real estate in your refrigerator.

The first beer is Pineapple Cart from Golden Road Brewing in Los Angeles, California. It is part of the brewery's "Cart" series based on LA's fruit cart vendors. I have not had any other entries in the series but after drinking half a can of Pineapple Cart, I don't think I need to. It is a mess of a beer. While it is a pineapple wheat ale, it is also brewed with strawberries and blood oranges. The latter has basically zero presence in the beer. The strawberry overpowers the pineapple in the nose and left me confused which fruit this beer was supposed to be based on. The heavy graininess of a wheat ale is also very noticeable in the nose. The flavor of the beer is a muddled mess. The pineapple hits up front, is followed by strawberry, lots of grain and a tart, dry, phenolic finish. The whole beer falls apart in the finish. I appreciate Golden Road trying to dial back the sweetness but the end result here is a mess.

Is it worth a purchase? Absolutely not.

Next up is Harpoon Brewery's Camp Wannamango, a mango infused pale ale. I had this beer in Boston for the first time about two years ago. I remember liking it but it got lost in the fold with all the other amazing beer I drank that week. Revisiting it, I realized I still liked it. It is a very easy to drink fruit forward beer that allows both the base beer and the fruit flavor to shine. The pale ale shines at first, with some caramel, toasted bread, passion fruit before the mango extract rushes in and then finishes with a light citrus, pine, herbal hop finish. My only complaint for this beer is the vegetal flavor towards the finish that is not ideal but does not ruin the beer either. This is an easy drinking beach beer and I see it returning to my refrigerator before the summer is out.

Is it worth a purchase? Yes

And last but not least is Victory Brewing's Limey Gose. When I went into the bottle shop, I had every intention of finding a citrus forward gose. When I saw Victory's latest gose, I knew I had to purchase it for two reasons. One, I love Victory's Kirsch Gose. Two, I wanted to see how it compared to my beloved Key Lime Pie Gose from Westbrook. Before I opened the bottle I will admit I had high hopes for this beer and they were rewarded. It is very tart and very refreshing. The lime flavor is strong and hits aggressively, followed by bread dough, a touch of lemon, lactic sourness, green apple and a saline finish. The flavors do not mesh as well as they do in Westbrook's version but they work really well here. It is very effervescent and very refreshing. I know goses are not for everyone, but if you are going to give one a try, this and Victory's Kirsch Gose are a nice place to start.

Is it worth a purchase? Absolutely

While August usually functions as a "last call" of sorts for the summer seasonals, there is still plenty of summer left and still plenty of great warm weather beer on the shelf. That being said, I don't blame anyone who makes the early shift to fall beer. It is easily my favorite beer drinking season. However at this moment, I am just not ready to say goodbye to beer's most refreshing season. Cheers!


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Florida Beers - Orange Blossom Honey Pilsner, Swamp Head Stump Knocker Pale Ale & Crooked Can High Stepper IPA

Whenever I travel, I look for beer that I can't buy back home. A trip to a brewery and/or bottle shop is essential to every vacation my wife and I go on. I know it is like this for many beer enthusiasts who are always looking to try new and exciting beer. Sometimes though, it is difficult to get beer from every place you want to try it from. That is where your friends and fellow beer enthusiasts come in. Recently a good friend of mine(thank you Dennis!) traveled to Florida for a vacation and was kind enough to bring back a plethora of beer for me to try. There was stuff I had never heard of, along with an old favorite of mine, Cigar City's Jai Alai IPA. Now while I am not here to talk about Jai Alai, I will say that if you have yet to try it, do so. Jai Alai IPA & many other of Cigar City's offerings are well worth seeking out. This blog is about the others beer in that exciting assortment. Some of the beer is great, some of the beer is not, but as always it was a lot of fun trying something new and getting to write about it.

The first beer I tried was the one I was most excited about(which unfortunately turned out to be the worst of the bunch), Orange Blossom Honey Pilsner from Lakeland's Orange Blossom Brewing Company. Boasting that it contained 2.3 teaspoons of Orange Blossom Honey and that it was a mouthful of sweetness according to the can seemed to promise something at least interesting. Sure, it had some sweetness but Orange Blossom Pilsner is a watered down, muddled mess of a beer. Don't get me wrong, there are some good things about this beer. The honey sweetness in particular was nice, I just wanted more of it. There was also a nice fruitiness to it, as well as a nice malt backbone and a crisp, clean, zesty finish. Unfortunately, none of it seemed to gel well together. It tasted like instead of deciding to bring out these bold flavors, they decided to go in favor of a forgettable, crisp, clean beach beer. Being in Florida, I can't say I blame them but at 5.5%, there should have been more body here and more flavor. Orange Blossom Pilsner might work as a warm weather beer, but so does Pabst Blue Ribbon. That being said, PBR is cheaper and tastes a lot better. I would rather drink a Pabst.

Overall rating: 1.5/5

Next up is Stump Knocker Pale Ale brewed by Swamp Head Brewery in Gainesville. I knew immediately I would enjoy this beer by the aroma alone. Stump Knocker was absolutely bursting with citrus aromas. Orange peel, tangerine, grass, pine but mostly grapefruit shined in the nose. The aroma pretty much matched the first sip. It was full of grapefruit, citrus, and pine with caramel malt adding a nice hint of sweetness. The finish was pleasantly bitter and clean. At 5.6%, this is slightly stronger than Orange Blossom Pilsner but it delivers bigger flavors and a significantly better drinking experience. The bright citrus flavors here are refreshing and compliment warm weather nicely. On my next trip to Florida, I will be looking for a 6-pack of this.

Overall rating: 4/5

Finally, from Crooked Can Brewing Company in Winter Garden, is High Stepper American IPA. I will start this off by saying High Stepper is by no means a remarkable IPA but it is a decent one. Mango, passion fruit, resinous pine, grapefruit and a hint of malt sweetness come out in the aroma. The first sip is dank, tropical, citrusy and slightly sweet. Mango, pine and juicy grapefruit shine the most here. The malt is slightly sweet and provides a nice bit of balance. This is one of those beers I enjoyed initially but the more I had the more I started to enjoy it less. The first can of it I thought was incredible because admittedly it went down pretty quick. I took a bit more time to drink the second can and it became a chore to finish. This had something to do with a vegetal flavor that became more and more noticeable as it warmed. So, like a movie that falls apart in the third act, it became a chore to finish. Overall, I liked High Stepper and I am happy to revisit it in the future, but one can of it is more than enough.

Overall rating: 3.25/5

I had a blast trying these beers from Florida. Stump Knocker was my clear favorite and I hope one day to try more beer from Swamp Head Brewery. High Stepper American IPA is a decent beer especially if consumed before it warms. Orange Blossom Honey Pilsner unfortunately is just bad beer, that seemed to be full of potential. Still, it was a blast to try some new beer that I can't find in Upstate NY and I am very grateful to have had that opportunity(again, thank you Dennis!).


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. Drop everything, BUY IT NOW!

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Thanks for reading. Sláinte!

Burlington Beer Elaborate Metaphor Pale Ale

My intention is not to flood my blog with beer from my recent Vermont trip, but it seems almost a disservice not to mention a few of them. First and foremost a beercation in Vermont does not officially start until I have had some Heady Topper. I was able to accomplish this almost immediately and from there I was open to trying some new and exciting things.

Our visit to Foam Brewers in Burlington in particular was a highlight. Everything I had from there seemed to leave an impression, especially their Galaxie 500 Double IPA. The beer was like drinking pineapple juice mixed with an amazing blend of tropical hop notes and a nice bitter finish. Everything about the beer worked for me and I hope to one day have it again.

A place I did not get to go sadly was Burlington Beer Company. I ended up trying their Stargazer Blonde Ale as a hotel beer and was instantly in love. The blonde ale style of beer seems to get lost in the crowd and that's a shame. When it is done right, it can be fantastic. If this beer was sold in Upstate NY, I would make it a regular part of my summer beer drinking. Since Stargazer was so good, I had no issue dropping 15 dollars on a 4 pack of their Elaborate Metaphor Pale Ale. I waited until I  returned home to drink it, because if it was as good as I hoped, then Burlington Beer Company would be the first place we would visit during our next trip there. Until then, I think a review of it is a fantastic idea.

Elaborate Metaphor pours an opaque straw yellow with a lasting white head. The aroma is full of passion fruit, peach, orange, and grapefruit with a nice bready malt in the background. The citra hop really comes through in the aroma. From this, I was certain I would enjoy the first sip of this beer and I was right. Peach, orange, melon, mango, and passion fruit with a slightly bitter grapefruit finish. There was a hint of pine and grass in the finish as well. If you look at those flavor notes and think that sounds a lot like juice, you would be correct. There is a noticeable malt presence but it is in the background. The malt lends a breadiness which adds a nice amount of sweetness. The other thing about Elaborate Metaphor that is beautiful is its soft mouthfeel. It is light, pillowy and silky smooth. That characteristic which is more common in New England Pale Ales & IPAs makes everything here even better. Needless to say, I am gushing over Elaborate Metaphor Pale Ale. I think it is safe to say Burlington Beer Company will be my first stop next time I go to Burlington.

Overall I would rate Elaborate Metaphor a 4.5/5. So juicy I wonder if it has Vitamin C in it.

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Marble / Odell / Stone Megawheat IPA & Stone Ripper Pale Ale

For some reason I appear to have a surplus of beer from Stone Brewing Company in my refrigerator. My previous blog featured their brand new Mint Coffee Milk Stout. Like many of their beers I found it to be quite enjoyable. At the time I purchased that beer, I also picked up their brand new collaboration beer. Later that week I picked up a few cans of Stone Ripper Pale Ale as well. I do not know why I picked up so much Stone beer but that appears to be my predicament at the moment. So I thought, why not keep the trend of reviewing Stone beer going for one more blog?

The reason I was drawn to Stone's brand new collaboration beer, Megawheat IPA, is because of one brewery in particular that they collaborated with. Odell Brewing Company is a brewery I have heard a lot of good things about but have yet to try anything from. My uncle moved out to Fort Collins, Colorado and says they are quite popular out there. He has sent me glassware and t-shirts from Odell, reinforcing the fact I need to get to Colorado for a visit and to check out their local beer scene. I admit I do not know much about Marble Brewery unfortunately, but I definitely would like to. From a standpoint of Odell though, if this is my first taste of their beer, I think it is quite good. The huge aroma was noticeable about a foot from the glass. Tangerine, orange peel, tropical fruit and lime seemed to jump out of the glass. The first sip was interesting, full of citrus notes, tropical fruit with a silky smooth mouthfeel. Notes of tangerine, orange, mango and spice gave way to a bitter lemon, lime and boozy finish. I have to admit, the finish was particularly jarring, especially early into the glass. I did not expect it to be as bitter and tart as it was. The lemon and lime flavors were so aggressive that my mouth was puckering. From an ingredient standpoint, the finish is really a showcase of the Motueka hop, which really brings out those flavors. I really enjoyed this beer for it being aggressive and unique. It definitely gives me reason to see what else they are doing at Odell. As far as Megawheat goes, I enjoyed it but at 8 dollars for a 22 oz bottle, I do not foresee myself picking up a second bottle.

Overall rating: 3.5/5

The reason I picked up Stone Ripper Pale Ale is a lot simpler. I wanted to drink a solid, sessionable beer out of a can to drink while watching professional wrestling. Stone Ripper Pale Ale fit that bill nicely by delivering exactly what I looking for. I realize at 5.7%, that is borderline sessionable ABV-wise. Still, its light, easy-drinking flavor can be enjoyed for a duration of time. Juicy citrus and tropical notes work beautifully with Ripper's nice malt backbone. The only thing about this beer that is not ideal is the bitterness in the finish. The grapefruit rind bitter finish lingers for quite sometime. It's not ideal but it's not a deal breaker. If this is a regular part of Stone's lineup, I am looking forward to drinking a few cans of this when the weather gets warmer. For the time being, I think it makes for a great game day beer.

Overall rating: 3.75/5

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Thanks for reading. Sláinte!

Sierra Nevada Tropical Torpedo IPA & Sidecar Pale Ale

Two beers I will never review here are Sierra Nevada Pale Ale & Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA. The reason for this is quite simple, you should have already tried them. They are both excellent examples of their respective styles. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale in particular is one of my favorite stand by beers, it never disappoints. Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA is just a solid IPA and an excellent representation of the style. I'm trying to avoid sounding like a commercial but Sierra Nevada Brewing Company does a lot of beers extremely well. Now that I have made my love of those beers known, I think it is time to talk about the beers I will be reviewing. Sierra Nevada Tropical Torpedo IPA & Sierra  Nevada Sidecar Pale Ale are a brand new spin on two styles of beer they are known to do very well. So would that success translate onto this brand new beers? Or would these beers be disappointing entries into a solid catalog of beers?

I'll start things off with Tropical Torpedo IPA which of the two I was more excited about. I'll admit I have lower expectations for Sidecar Pale Ale because it seems to be playing off the recent trend of fruited pale ales & IPAs. Tropical Torpedo IPA however is not fruited. It gets its big tropical aromas from a fantastic hop blend that includes two favorites of mine, citra and mosaic. The big tropical aroma is mostly dominated by passion fruit. There are also notes of pineapple, papaya and mango. The aroma however does not translate to the flavor. Tropical Torpedo is really a nice showcase of bready malt with some grapefruit hop bitterness. The Munich malt in particular comes through nicely. Actually, I think this is the exact same beer as the 2016 Beer Camp Tropical IPA that Sierra Nevada released last year. Just like last year I was disappointed that the big tropical aroma did not translate into the flavor. Nevertheless, this is still a nice beer. I just wish they brought out some bigger hop flavors.

Overall rating: 3/5

Next up, we have Sierra Nevada Sidecar Pale Ale. The orange that this beer promises is definitely in both the aroma and the flavor. Much like the Tropical Torpedo, bready malt, especially the Munich malt comes through in the flavor. There is also a light hop bitterness on the finish. Everything here tastes fine but it is just a bit too light on flavor. For the most part though, Sidecar Pale delivers on what it promises. It is by no means anything special. It is just an easy drinking pale ale with a tangy orange flavor that would work nicely during the summer. It just seems out of place during the cold winter months. This is the kind of beer you bring to a beach picnic. It is light, easy to drink and sessionable. From a flavor standpoint though, this comes nowhere near the fantastic flavor of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. It's also significantly lighter that Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. I think this would work nicely as an introduction to someone that may be new to pale ales.

Overall rating: 2.75/5

Tropical Torpedo IPA & Sidecar Pale Ale are both underwhelming beers. I am not saying they are bad beers. In fact, I think they are both quite drinkable. Both just failed to deliver a drinking experience in the same league as Torpedo Extra IPA & Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Tropical Torpedo has a wonderfully complex aroma but delivers a rather basic flavor. Sidecar Pale Ale just seems like a watered down pale ale with a lot of orange flavor. I would recommend you give both of them a try, just lower your expectations.

To discuss this blog or all things beer follow me on Twitter, Instagram & Untappd at @ACraftyLook

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For my most recent appearance of 13 WHAM's Good Day Rochester: Click Here!

Thanks for reading. Sláinte!

Narragansett Summer Ale, Anderson Valley Summer Solstice & Magic Hat Stealin' Time

While summer has officially arrived, summer beer has been here since April. While that is all well and good, I am not interested in drinking a beer with a beach or sun on the label if snow could still fall at any moment. Now that it's late June and there have been consecutive 90 degree days, it's time for some light, crisp summer beers. But where to start? Beer aisles right now are loaded with summer beers trying to catch your eye and find their way into your coolers. So instead of letting you know if just one beer is good or not, I am going to review three very different summer beers so you can have a better idea of what is out there.

First up is Narragansett Summer Ale. This is a light, crisp pale ale that pours a clear gold with a white head. The aroma of bready malt, citrus and pine is very light but pleasant. After tasting, the flavor is very similar to the aroma. There is a light malt sweetness up front before the light flavor of citrus comes in and washes away fairly clean. I keep using the word light because that is exactly what this is. To be specific, it is a watered down pale ale. Normally I would make this a huge issue, but for a summer beer it works. This is an easy-drinking, sessionable beer that would work perfectly on a very hot day. Its 4.2% ABV puts it on the same level as Bud Light, it just tastes a lot better.

Overall I would rate Narragansett Summer Ale a 2.5/5. If you are looking for a light, easy-drinking beer for a day at the beach, this works nicely. If you are looking for something with a bolder flavor profile, I would leave this on the shelf.

Next up is Anderson Valley Summer Solstice. This is an interesting cream ale that pours a slightly hazy ruby brown with an off-white head. The aroma is slightly sweet, with caramel and lots of vanilla. Much like the aroma, the vanilla really stands out in the flavor as well. Right off the bat I was hit with caramel malt, followed by the bold flavor slightly sweet vanilla. These initial flavors work really nice together. They provide just the right amount of sweetness. But pleasant flavors then give way to a bland hop finish which really takes away from how good this beer could have been. That's not saying it's a bad beer, it's not. It's just a fun take on a cream soda beer with an underwhelming finish.

Overall I would rate Anderson Valley Summer Solstice a 3/5. I wanted to love it, I really did, but the finish just did not work for me. That being said, it's still too fun not to try.

Finally, we have Magic Hat Stealin' Time. Before I get started, I want to take a moment and mention that I really wanted to like this beer. This past winter I reviewed Magic Hat's Snow Roller and gave it a fairly harsh critique(you can read that by clicking here). I was hoping this pale wheat ale with ginger would restore my faith in the Magic Hat name. I am sad to say, it did not. Stealin' Time poured a crystal clear golden yellow(I thought it was unfiltered) with a fluffy white head. The aroma contained wheat malt, citrus, pine and ginger. Just from the aroma, I was fairly optimistic I would like it. When I tasted it, I realized how mistaken I was. Grainy malt comes through right away before pine, a light hint of lemon and a whole lot of ginger. The ginger is fairly strong and it could have worked if not for the strong metallic flavor that came along with it. Midway through the glass, all I could taste was ginger and metal. I ended up dumping out my glass which makes this the second Magic Hat beer I've reviewed and not finished.

Overall I would rate Magic Hat Stealin' Time a 0.5/5. It certainly lives up to its name. It steals time from drinking a good 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　

To discuss this blog or all things beer follow me on Twitter & Untappd at @ACraftyLook

For more beer reviews go to: http://acraftylook.blogspot.com/

Thanks for reading. Sláinte!

Hipster Ale by Evil Twin Brewing

It seemed out of nowhere Pabst Blue Ribbon became the “hipster beer”. Now I am not a hipster, but I do enjoy a PBR tallboy from time to time. Before I go on, I feel a need to justify the previous statement. I dig a PBR once in awhile because sometimes I want to enjoy a beer on a budget. And sometimes it's nice to drink a beer with 170 years of history behind it(I often wonder if my great Grandfather enjoyed one back in his day.) Still, I have never dug the thought of drinking a beer because it's trendy. If I did that I would not be writing a beer blog and on top of that I'd probably have a fridge full of Blue Moon, oranges and Bud Light Lime. Still, I've always wondered why hipsters took to PBR. Was it Dennis Hopper's famous “Heineken? F—k that sh-t. Pabst Blue Ribbon!” line from David Lynch's Blue Velvet? Is it because it's cheap? Or is it because according to the can, the “choicest products provide its' prized flavor?” Perhaps it is none of the above or perhaps it is a combination of all three. Either way I guess we'll never know the real answer and maybe there isn't one. Sometimes things just become popular with little to no reason. But it seems Stratford, Connecticut's Evil Twin Brewing has decided to force the issue and try make their Hipster Ale the next trendy choice. So my mission with this review is to find out whether or not it has a shot at doing just that.

Evil Twin Brewing's Hipster Ale pours hazy gold with with a lingering white head. The aroma was pretty standard for a pale ale. A bready malt matched with the grapefruit and citrus aromas from the hops. The hops seemed to stand out a bit more in the aroma and they did the same in the flavor. Unfortunately, aside from being a hop forward pale ale, there is really nothing else good to say about the flavor. The dirty, peppery, citrus flavor of the hops were all I could taste. My first sip I could barely taste the malt. Towards the end of the glass I could start to pick up some of the malt sweetness but that was only because my palate had been desensitized by the strong, lingering, unpleasant aftertaste of the hops. To put this in perspective, there are beers that wash away clean, beers that leave a pleasant lingering flavor that almost beg you to take another sip and then there is the flavor of dirty garbage which this beer left behind. I wanted to put the rest of beer down the sink but in the name of integrity I carried on, determined to finish it in the hope there was at least something positive I could say about it. Unfortunately, by the time I finished the beer the only positive thing I could come up with was the can looked pretty cool.

To put it simply, this is a bad beer. And it's one that I would recommend staying very far away from. Usually, I will retry a beer a few years down the line to see if I may have been wrong about it upon first tasting. I don't think that will be the case here. And unless it becomes cool to drink really bad expensive beer out of an a fun looking can, I think it's safe to say this beer has no shot at becoming trendy.

Overall I give Hipster Ale a 0.75/5. I want to make it clear that half point is for the cool can, not the 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　

To discuss this blog or all things beer follow me on Twitter & Untappd at @ACraftyLook

For more beer reviews go to: http://acraftylook.blogspot.com/

Thanks for reading. Sláinte!

Goose Island Ten Hills Pale Ale

I was walking through my local grocery store and was surprised to see that some of the summer seasonal beers are already on the shelves. It almost seems like a cruel joke considering there is still snow on the ground but it is a sign that good weather, barbeques and outdoor concerts are on the way. That being said I realized I have yet to review any of the spring seasonal beers. So before it's too late I decided to take a look at Goose Island Ten Hills Pale Ale.

I have always been a fan of the Goose Island Brewery. From Bourbon County Stout to Honkers Ale to the easy drinking Mild Winter Ale, Goose Island has become a brewery that I do not hesitate to try a new beer from. That being said, not everything that comes out of there is fantastic beer. And that unfortunately is the case with this week's beer.

Goose Island Ten Hills Pale Ale pours a clear golden brown with a finger thick white head. The aroma is very light, flowery with citrus notes. The flavor is balanced but nothing spectacular. The malt is bready and slightly sweet, and the very light citrus flavor of the hops comes through in the finish before it washes away clean.

But once Ten Hills Pale Ale washes away, it's almost easy to forget what it tasted like. In fact it was difficult to write this blog because there was almost nothing to say about it. The flavor is so safe and comes and goes so quickly, I felt like I spent the entire bottle trying to remember what the last sip tasted like. That being said, the beer is very easy to drink and contains a 6.2% ABV which is hidden nicely in its almost invisible flavor.

Overall I give Goose Island Ten Hills Pale Ale a 2/5. This is a forgettable entry from a solid brewery. I would be surprised to see on shelves next spring.



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　

To discuss this blog or all things beer follow me on Twitter & Untappd at @ACraftyLook

For more beer reviews go to: http://acraftylook.blogspot.com/

Thanks for reading. Sláinte!