Uinta Cucumber Farmhouse

The first time someone offered me cucumber water I thought they were messing with me. At that time I did not see much use for the cucumber. I found it to be the boring veggie I would typically eat first in my salads to make sure it did not affect the flavor of anything I actually did want to eat. I had no idea adding a cucumber to water would not only pleasantly enhance the flavor of the water, it seemed to make it even more refreshing. From that point on, I developed an appreciation for the cucumber. I found myself enjoying it more on its own. I stopped eating it first in my salads. I also felt it was only a matter of time until the refreshing flavor of cucumber found its way into some of the beers I drink. At a recent bottle shopping excursion, I was excited to see Cucumber Farmhouse from Uinta Brewing Company on the shelf. To make the first cucumber beer I have seen on shelves even more interesting, I saw that it was aged in gin barrels. I quickly picked it up, placed it in the fridge and waited to drink it on an incredibly hot day. Well, that day is today and I hope this beer is as flavorful and refreshing as it appears to be.

Cucumber Farmhouse pours a dense cloudy gold with a fizzy white head. The aroma is lightly spiced with clove, banana, coriander and cucumber. I rushed the aroma part because it is extremely hot and I had high hopes that this beer would be extremely cooling and refreshing. I was half right. The cucumber flavor stands out nicely. It hit my palate immediately before giving way to lemon, banana and clove. The finish then hit me with a lot of pepper and a hint of gin and oak. To put it simply, there is a lot going on here. Some of it works and some of it does not.

For my longtime readers you know I am a huge fan of barrel aging. In this particular case, I do not think it was needed. The light gin and oak notes do not seem to add anything positive to the beer. If anything they subtract slightly from the saison yeast in the finish. I think the light, crisp lemon flavor adds a nice touch to the beer. It provided a nice balance to the sweetness of the cucumber. Sadly, it got lost in a muddled finish with the a strong pepper flavor and a hint of oak. That being said there are some really nice flavors going on here, they just do not compliment each other well. I do feel there is a lot of potential for cucumber in beer. I would not be surprised if various styles of cucumber beer become a summer mainstay in the next few years.

Overall I would rate Uinta Cucumber Farmhouse a 2.5/5. There are just too many flavors here that do not go well together. There is potential for cucumber in beer however and I look forward to trying more of it in the future.

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!

Singlecut Beersmiths Softly Spoken Magic Spells

First off, I want to thank all of my new readers who saw me on 13 WHAM'S Good Day Rochester(here is a link in case you missed it). Thank you for taking time to check out my blog. I have really appreciated all of the positive feedback. For this review, I felt it would be appropriate to touch on one of the many interesting beers I discussed on the show. In particular, I want to focus on one of the more sought after beers or “whales” I talked about in the last segment. The “whale” I will be reviewing today is the Softly Spoken Magic Spells Double IPA from Singlecut Beersmiths.

The best way to enjoy an IPA is fresh. Over time the strong hop flavors can fade and a beer can became a shell of its former self. For this review, I am drinking a bottle dated 5/17. This should be absolutely bursting with strong hop flavors and I could not be any more excited. 

Softly Spoken Magic Spells pours a cloudy yellow gold with a white head. From about a foot away from the glass I can smell the hops. They are bursting with tropical fruit. Tangerine, pineapple, grapefruit and (light) pine are all present. The taste is close to the aroma. Tangerine, pineapple, mango, pine jump out right away before a bitter grapefruit finish. The best way I could describe the mouthfeel of this beer is juice. While it is nicely carbonated, the hops have created bold, fresh citrus flavors. 

I want to remain critical but when a beer is this good it is difficult not to gush over it. Beers like this one are the reason I love beer and insist everyone continue to try new beers. Softly Spoken Magic Spells is a world class double IPA and has earned every bit of its “whale” status. If you are a fan of IPAs, this beer is well worth going out of your way for.

Overall I would rate Softly Spoken Magic Spells a 5/5. This beer is so good, I wish my morning orange juice tasted just like it. The Pink Floyd reference is really cool too.

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!

Keuka Brewing Ghost of Rita

The gose style of beer has been hit or miss to me since I tried my first one about 2 years ago. For that reason it is not the kind of beer I regularly seek out. I feel that some breweries seem to get the odd mix of wheaty, tart saltiness to taste really well, while others find a way to make those flavors completely unappealing. One thing I have found is people who love this style of beer(like my wife) are truly passionate about it. So with an open mind I continue to try them in hopes of gaining a better appreciation for the style. This quest brought me to try Ghost of Rita from Keuka Brewing Company. The can immediately caught my eye and the description of a gose style beer with lime seemed to be the beer equivalent of a margarita. So with an open mind for the gose style and a fondness for margaritas, I popped the top of the can for this review.

The Ghost of Rita pours a slightly cloudy yellow gold with a white head that dissipates quickly. The aroma is tart, with strong wheat notes, salt, light citrus and coriander. The beer itself however barely has any bold flavor or almost any flavor at all. At first I got a light malt and wheat sweetness, with lactobacillus sourness to balance. There is a light hint of salt and lime in the finish but I really had to look for it. It washes away cleanly but the flavors I mentioned before were so light that they barely register. 

I wish I could say this is a light, crisp, clean beer that is perfect for the summer but it is not. To me, this is barely beer. If you take away the very subtle malt and sour notes there is no difference between this and a club soda with lime. I do not want to appear overly negative about Ghost of Rita. I think there is a great amount of potential here. If in future batches the flavors are a bit more developed that has the potential to be a wonderful option for the style. But unfortunately I do not rate beers on their potential. I rate them by what is in front of me, and what is in front of me is a disappointment.

Overall I would rate the Ghost of Rita a 1.5/5. An example of trying to be ambitious while playing it safe. It just does not work.

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!

New Belgium Citradelic Tangerine IPA

When I heard the news that New York was getting distribution of New Belgium Brewing out of Fort Collins, Colorado, I was fairly indifferent. This reason for this is while on vacation I went out of my way to sample a few of their beers and was fairly underwhelmed. Most notably I remember trying Fat Tire Amber Ale for the first time, looking down at my glass and thinking 'that's it?' But I do not want to start this review giving you the idea that all New Belgium Beers are underwhelming. I felt based on their reputation that perhaps I need to give them another chance. That is why on a recent trip I picked up New Belgium's latest offering, Citradelic Tangerine IPA. I felt that if I enjoyed that beer, perhaps I could get excited for them hitting the beer isles in New York.

New Belgium Citradelic Tangerine IPA pours a crystal clear golden yellow with a white head. The aroma is immediately noticeable. It is bursting with tangerine, grapefruit, orange zest, mango and just a little malt sweetness. The flavor pretty much matches the aroma. A light malt sweetness hits the palate before the citrus and tropical fruit notes come flooding in. Tangerine, orange and bitter grapefruit shine before giving way to a slightly sweet almost melon like finish. There is a lot going on here and I probably missed a few flavor notes, but that is what a second and third bottle is for. To put it simply, if you are a fan of a more tropical fruit forward IPA this is for you. It works and it works well.

Citradelic delivers the bold tropical aromas and flavors it promises. It also got me excited to see what else New Belgium Brewing has to offer when they become a mainstay in the New York beer market. My only real complaint about Citradelic is that I wanted it to have a little more body to it. That is nitpicking though, but that is what I do here. The lighter body and the 6% ABV does make this beer is fairly sessionable. That means it is a perfect beer to compliment warm summer weather or if you just want to try a lighter-bodied IPA.

Overall I would rate New Belgium Citradelic an 4/5. This is a perfect summer IPA if you are looking for something with bold flavor but on the lighter side.


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!

Founders Mango Magnifico

I'm no stranger to malt liquor. In fact I spent more than a few nights in college at the local food mart trying to decide between Mickey's, Old English, Colt 45 and Magnum 40 as my pregame beverage before heading out on the town later that night. While I did have trouble deciding which one I thought tasted the best, I knew Magnum 40 tasted the worst. To me it tasted like bottled urine with a hint of kerosine. But this is not a review of Magnum 40(that might work in the future), this is a review of Founders Mango Magnifico, a beer which flavor took me back to my college days and not in a good way.

Founders Mango Magnifico pours a slightly hazy gold with a fizzy off white head that faded quickly. The aroma reminded of the cheap malt liquor I drank in college with a ton of mango sweetness. Frankly, the smell was so sweet I began to worry about what the flavor would bring. Upon first taste, I knew I hated this beer. The flavor is of malt liquor, drowned in candy mango with a boozy, spicy pepper finish. To cut right to the chase, absolutely none of this works together. On its own the base beer would have tasted fine if it was in a 40 ounce bottle and cost about 8 dollars less. Where it starts to go wrong is in adding the mango. It has no place here and normally I enjoy bold tropical flavors in my beer. The habanero pepper finish just seems like someone added it as a joke. If anything, it draws more attention to the fact that Mango Magnifico has a 10% abv by adding to the burn of the alcohol.

I struggled to see if I could say anything positive about this beer because up until I tried Mango Magnifico, I had yet to have a truly bad beer from Founders. In fact, they make some of the best beers I have ever had. It actually blows my mind that the same brewery that makes KBS, CBS, Backwoods Bastard, Mosaic Promise and Blushing Monk could make something this awful. I love when brewers take risks and experiment with creating new flavors but at no point did anything in Mango Magnifico seem like a good idea. The next time I drink a 40 of malt liquor it won't just bring back college memories. It will help me forget this disaster of a beer.

Overall I would rate Founders Mango Magnifico a 0.25/5. This beer is so bad, I felt bad for my sink as I poured it out.

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!

Vulcan Ale: The Genesis Effect Red Session IPA

I grew up a big Star Trek fan. As a small child, probably no older than five or six years old, I would spend a lot of time playing with Star Trek toys and looking forward to the next episode airing on TV. I watched Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country any chance I could get and to this day I think Captain Picard being turned into a Borg might be the greatest cliffhanger in television history. So now that I have established my Star Trek fanhood cred, you will understand the excitement I felt when I saw Star Trek Vulcan Ale from Shmaltz Brewing Company. At the time I heard my inner voice reminding me that this was probably just a gimmick beer that would leave me disappointed. I then silenced that voice by seeing Spock on the label, along with a reference to “Project Genesis.” I decided it was time to put skepticism aside. With high hopes I decided to boldly go to the register(see what I did there?) and purchase Vulcan Ale not just because I was geeking out. I got it for this review.

Vulcan Ale is a red session IPA that pours a slightly hazy amber with an off white head. The aroma was full of bready malt, grapefruit with a hint of pine. Basically the aroma was what you would expect from a Red IPA. Unsurprisingly the flavor matched the aroma. There was caramel malt sweetness up front followed by grapefruit bitterness and a pine finish. Vulcan Ale had everything you would expect from the style of beer but it was also easy to taste that something is missing. This could be due to the fact that it is a session IPA, which means it has a lower level of alcohol than a normal IPA and multiple bottles can be enjoyed in one sitting before you start stumbling around. In simpler terms a session IPA is the light beer version of a regular IPA. Because of this I felt that it was too light on flavor. I'm sure there were more complex notes intended for this beer but due to the limitations of the style they seem to be lost.

Putting the Star Trek label may be a way to attract someone who may not have had a Red IPA before and safely introduce them to the style. For an old “Trekkie” and Beer Enthusiast this feels more like a missed opportunity to create something unique and special. At the end of the day this is a basic beer inside a really cool bottle. I do not give points for cool bottles.

Overall I would rate Star Trek Vulcan Ale a 2.5/5. It is a safe, middle of the road beer to put a Star Trek label on. But to an experienced beer drinker like me, it is hard to think of this as anything more than a fun novelty beer that I would never buy again.

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!

Jack's Abby Hoponius Union

Pearl Jam, the Boston Red Sox and craft beer are three things I love. With the recent announcement of two Pearl Jam shows at Fenway Park, the excitement I feel at the moment is particularly overwhelming. To think, my favorite band is going to take the stage and deliver two performances on one of baseball's legendary fields is incredible. This is the same field that Red Sox heroes like Ted Williams, Carlton Fisk, David Ortiz, Curt Schilling and Dave Roberts delivered moments no Red Sox fan will ever forget. While starting a long list of great Red Sox moments sounds fun, it does not really work here. And while it is exciting, a concert on hallowed ground is not the only reason to travel to Boston this summer. With so much great beer coming out of Massachusetts that never finds its way to New York this seems like a summer vacation to top all summer vacations. But all of that will have to wait until August because a beer needs to get reviewed right now. To prove that this long-winded introduction is going somewhere, I decided a beer from Massachusetts that was readily available in my area would work perfectly for this review.  So I hopped in my car and headed to my local bottle shop looking for a beer I had yet to have. The beer I decided to go with is Hoponius Union from the always reliable Jack's Abby Craft Lagers. 

Hoponius Union India Pale Lager pours gold with light amount of sediment and a fluffy white head. The aroma is bursting with hops that provide beautiful grapefruit, citrus and tropical fruit notes. Basically there is nothing else in the aroma except bold hops. The flavor however is slightly different. The initial flavor is a burst of floral & citrus hops that fades quickly and then finishes with the bready, crisp, malty flavor of a lager. There is some subtle herbal hop bitterness in the finish as well that sticks around and continued to grow the further I got into the glass. That was my only real issue with this rather tasty lager. I think I would have preferred a crisp, clean finish instead of lingering hop bitterness. Without question if that was the case this beer would have been quite sessionable, even with a 6.7% ABV. But instead by the time my glass was empty I knew I had drank a quality beer but not one I would want a second glass of. 

Overall I would rate Jack's Abby Hoponius Union a 3/5. While not a preferred choice, this could make for a good beer on a crisp summer night under the lights at Fenway.



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!