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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Thanks for reading. Sláinte! 

Jack's Abby & Søle Wicked Philthy IPL

When I think of reliable breweries, one of the first breweries I think of is Jack's Abby Craft Lagers. Jack's Abby consistently makes great lagers and on a regular basis can be found in my refrigerator. One of the things I admire most about Jack's Abby is the fact that they seemingly continue to find new ways to enhance their diverse catalog of beers. Each year, I look forward to the release of their Kiwi Rising Double IPL, their Framinghammer Baltic Porter and its barrel aged variants in particular. For this blog, I wanted to take a look at their latest IPL release which is a collaboration with Søle Artisan Ales, Wicked Philthy IPL.

Due to my love of Jack's Abby Kiwi Rising and Excess IPL, I was certain Wicked Philthy was going to be a winner. It poured a beautifully hazy golden-orange with a fluffy white head. A strong floral, almost perfume-like aroma practically jumped out of the glass. The nose also contained lots of grapefruit, malt breadiness, and tropical notes. My first sip was herbal, spicy at first, giving way to flavors of melon, grapefruit, bread, and grass before a pine, bitter, boozy, astringent finish. There are some nice things going on here but unfortunately overall, this beer is underwhelming. The herbal, earthy spice started things off nicely but seems to overshadow just about everything else. The tropical and citrus hop flavors are present as I mentioned earlier but unfortunately are not nearly as bold as they should be. They get lost in the shuffle between the spice and the finish, which is ridiculously bitter. The finish in particular is where things completely fell apart from me. After each sip, the astringent bitterness seemed to get stronger. I found myself laboring to get through the last few sips of this beer.

For the past few blogs, I seem to have started a streak of positive reviews. When I selected Wicked Philthy IPL for this blog, I thought that streak would continue. I also thought that things might start getting a little boring around here if I sang the praises of every beer I drank and wrote about.  Fortunately, things are not getting boring around here, the streak is now officially over. Unfortunately, this is a surprisingly disappointing offering from the normally reliable Jack's Abby.

Overall I would rate Wicked Philthy IPL a 2.5/5. It's not a terrible beer, it's just nowhere near as good as other Jack's Abby IPL offerings.

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Original vs, Variant (Weyerbacher Blithering Idiot vs. Weyerbacher Insanity!)

A little over a month ago, I reviewed Grimm Double Negative Imperial Stout. In that review I stated that I felt that the original Double Negative Imperial Stout was better than both the Bourbon Barrel Aged and Maple Bourbon Barrel Aged variants. Then the week after, I reviewed the passion fruit variant of Oskar Blues Pinner Throwback IPA. That got me thinking about adding a different spin to my usual review format. Instead of just reviewing a beer and/or beers, I would pit the original beer versus its variant in a showdown for the ages to once and for all decide which one is better. While the next time I decide to do this I will go to a bottle shop and pick 2 beers, for this review I am looking no further than my personal collection.

For several months, I have been staring down bottles of Weyerbacher Blithering Idiot Barleywine and its whiskey barrel aged variant Insanity each time I opened the fridge. I kept telling myself I was going to use them for a later review when the time was right. I would then grab any other beer in the fridge and forget about them until the next time I was faced with the same dilemma. For some reason I was comfortable doing this because barleywines only seem to improve with age. Also, since I had yet to have either beer, a side by side comparison of these 11.1% titans seemed to be the only way to enjoy them. Well the time has finally come and I could not be more excited.

Weyerbacher Blithering Idiot & Weyerbacher Insanity look almost identical. They are a murky reddish-brown with an off-white head. There is a small amount of sediment in the Insanity but that is the only visible difference. The aroma and flavor however could not be any more different. Blithering Idiot is pretty much your standard barleywine. It's full of caramel and dark fruits. Immediately noticeable are fig, plum and raisin. There are some nice flavors going on here but the syrupy sweetness to Blithering Idiot becomes difficult to enjoy by the end of the glass. What really counts against it is there is almost no hop presence to provide balance here. As it warmed I found myself liking it less and less. Weyerbacher Blithering Idiot is a big, strong beer. It kind of works, but not nearly as well as it should.

On the other hand Weyerbacher Insanity is a bit more balanced. The whiskey barrel aging is right at the forefront. Whiskey was the first thing I tasted before getting notes of vanilla, plum, raisin, and fig with a nice oak finish. I was not crazy about this initially. I felt the whiskey just overwhelmed the beer. As it warmed, I found myself really enjoying Insanity. The strong oak, vanilla and whiskey flavors settled down nicely, providing a nice balance to the sweetness of the base beer. This is a really nice barleywine. Easily one of the better beers I have had from Weyerbacher.

For my first Original vs. Variant Battle, I have to give round 1(could be considered round 3) to the variant. Barrel aging took the fairly mediocre Blithering Idiot Barleywine and turned it into something nice. I am not telling you to run out and buy Insanity immediately. If you happen to come across it however it is well worth a purchase. It would compliment a cool fall night perfectly. Just drink it slow, let it warm up a bit and enjoy the journey.

In the battle of Base Beer vs. Variant, the winner is the VARIANT! (Weyerbacher Insanity Barleywine).


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Thanks for reading. Sláinte!

Victory Kirsch Gose

When I was a kid I loved Cherry Crush soda. On a nice summer day I would ride my bike to the local supermarket and buy a six pack or a 2 liter bottle of it and spend the remainder of the day drinking every last refreshing drop. By the end of the day I would have a tremendous sense of accomplishment, a massive stomach ache and a sugar high so big I could barely blink. But one day, seemingly out of nowhere, my desire to drink Cherry Crush completely vanished. I want to say it was because I realized drinking over 250 grams of sugar in a single sitting was a poor life decision but the truth is my palate changed. To me, Cherry Crush became so sweet it was unbearable to drink. For years I have been trying to relive those days with different cherry beverages, but found none that worked with my adult palate. Cherry sodas were too sweet, seltzer waters tasted too medicinal and cherry beers were typically mediocre at best. I had pretty much given up hope on finding a refreshing cherry beverage that worked me, but that changed when I took my first sip of Victory Kirsch Gose.

Victory Kirsch Gose, which according to the label is a “Sour Cherry Bier” that pours a light red, almost pink color with a white head. The aroma is bursting with tart cherries and little else. The flavor is more of the same. The flavor of sour, tart cherries immediately flooded my palate, before the light flavor of salt(which is common for the Gose style) and malt sweetness come in at the finish. I wish I could tell you I detected more subtle flavors but I did not. While I would have loved to see a little more depth in the flavor, I have to admit Kirsch Gose is an example of when a beer doesn't try to do too much and it works. The simple flavor of tart cherries with the perfect amount of carbonation make this a perfectly refreshing beer for a hot day. It's lack of overpowering sweetness and a low 4.7% ABV make it wonderfully sessionable as well. Basically this is cherry crush for adults.

Overall I would rate Victory Kirsch Gose a 4/5. It's simple, delicious and accessible. It just plain works.

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

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Thanks for reading. Sláinte!

Guinness Blonde American Lager

While enjoying a Guinness, how many times have you thought to yourself: I really wish they made a lager? I'd wager the answer to that is zero. But on the slim chance you have had that thought you would find out they made Harp Lager and never think about it again. So when I first saw Guinness Blonde American Lager in stores my first thought was 'why?' instead of 'I've got to try it.' But in the spirit of this blog and the goodwill I have towards Guinness Draught, I felt picking up a single bottle was necessary.

Brewed in Latrobe, PA, Guinness Blonde American Lager pours a beautifully crystal clear golden amber with a fluffy white head. Unfortunately, that was the only positive thing about this lager. The aroma was almost non-existent. I had to bury my nose in the glass for a couple minutes to detect the aroma of a bready malt and some grassy hops. Sadly, much like the aroma the flavor was almost non-existent. There is some initial bready malt sweetness and a light peppery hop finish, but it took almost half a glass to figure that out. 　Frankly, it tasted like someone dumped out ¾ of a bottle of Rolling Rock, filled it back up with water, capped it, slapped a Guinness label on it and charged 10 dollars a 6 pack for it. 　Clearly, Guinness was trying to cash in more on their name value here then providing a quality product.

The first of their new Discovery Series line, Guinness Blonde American Lager disappoints on almost every level. And while I admire their attempt to try to do something new to compete with the expanding American craft beer marketplace, if this is a sign of things to come, I do not expect the Discovery Series to be a success. This is dull, flavorless beer and it’s an insult to the Guinness name. If you find yourself looking for a lager to pair with Guinness, I’d recommend sticking with Harp or looking anywhere else.

Overall I’d rate Guinness Blonde American Lager a .5/5. Overpriced and flavorless, I do not expect to see this beer on shelves for very long.


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 at @ACraftyLook

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

Thanks for reading. Sláinte!