Southern Tier Bourbon Smash and Gin & Tonic

If you have been following my blog for awhile now then you know I have mixed feelings about Southern Tier Brewing Company. While I do think some of their beers are wonderful, most of them, especially recent releases, have left me feeling a bit underwhelmed. My low batting average with recent Southern Tier releases has significantly lowered the amount of time their beer takes up real estate in my refrigerator:

I still find myself curious about each new offering I see from them, but rarely does that curiosity get me to actually purchase one. This blog is about one of those rare times curiosity got the best of me. I not only purchased one of their offerings I had yet to try but two. The only issue about writing about it on a beer blog is the fact that neither one is a beer. They are both mixed cocktails and they are both surprisingly good.

I will start with Bourbon Smash. If you are a fan of bourbon & ginger ale, you will really enjoy this take on it. Southern Tier Bourbon is showcased nicely but does not over power. It is balanced nicely by the strong flavor of ginger and a refreshing touch of lemon on the finish. The can says there is mint in the cocktail but I did not taste any. It is a touch on the sweet side, but I did not think it was cloying.

Speaking of sweet, Southern Tier's take on a Gin & Tonic is a bit sweeter than I would have liked, but it is still quite good. It is floral, refreshing and also really showcases the gin. The use of cucumber instead of lime was also a fantastic choice for this canned cocktail. I wish the sugar was dialed back a touch as I could see that being off-putting to some, but overall this is a really impressive canned cocktail.

I feel like this is the first positive blog I have written about Southern Tier in quite sometime. I honestly wish it was about beer but unfortunately the praise here is going to their distillery. If you are looking for a great Southern Tier beer, I highly recommend checking out their recently released Fall offerings Warlock Pumpkin Imperial Stout and their Harvest ESB. If you are looking for something different and refreshing for your summer drinking, I highly recommend both the Bourbon Smash and Gin & Tonic. Oh, and for my next blog, I promise to go back to writing about a beer.


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Thanks for reading. Sláinte!

Lord Hobo Pineapple Glorious IPA

Shopping for beer to bring on a weekend getaway always seems to take me way longer than it needs to. It has gotten to a point that I can’t do it with another person because they quickly lose patience while I ponder what would work best. I swear, I can switch the beers I am going to bring multiple times before I finally settle on what I consider are the beers to bring. Even when I’m given guidance and am told to bring cheap, sh—ty beer, I can’t bring myself to do it. If I am drinking beer all weekend long and sharing it with friends I want it to be something good.

Before this past weekend’s trip, I spent about a half hour in the beer aisle before I finally made a concrete decision on what to bring. There were a ton of great options but I decided to go with a couple of my local summer favorites: Three Heads Couch Tour Cucumber Sour and Genesee Lemon Strawberry Cream Ale. I love both beers. They are delicious, crowd-pleasing, low ABV session beers with a fantastic price point. I felt great about going with just those beers until I saw Lord Hobo Pineapple Glorious IPA. For some reason, I could not pass that beer up even though there were a few red flags attached to it. The first being Lord Hobo’s catalog is very hit & miss. The second being pineapple beer is also very hit & miss. Seeing “ale with natural flavor” was the third red flag. Then finally the price point for the beer was a bit more than you typically want to spend for a beach beer but I decided to go for it anyway and hope for the best.

Lord Hobo’s Pineapple Glorious IPA certainly delivers the pineapple. The aroma is full of it, along with peach, passion fruit, grapefruit, grass, herbal and floral notes, and bread dough. The first sip was a little disappointing due to the artificial taste of pineapple. The use of natural flavoring does not always get the best results and here is a perfect example of that. It is by no means a drain pour but it’s nothing special either. Peach, citrus, grass, doughy malt, and passion fruit go fairly well with the pineapple flavoring before an aggressive finish of bitter grapefruit rind and black pepper. In future batches I hope they soften the finish a bit.

It took a couple cans but I ended up kinda liking Pineapple Glorious IPA. However, I can’t bring myself to recommend you go out and purchase it at its current price point. I, for one, will probably not buy it again without a fairly dramatic price drop. I also can’t say it’s an upgrade over the base beer Glorious. As I mentioned earlier, Lord Hobo’s beers are hit & miss. Overall, I would list this one as a miss. At 13 dollars a 4-pack, you should expect better.

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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Thanks for reading. Sláinte!

Shiner Lemon Pils

The Shiner brand first got on my radar in 2007. I was sitting in a movie theater watching characters in Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof enjoying a beer I had not seen before. At that time in my life I bought into whatever Tarantino was selling. I thought he was the absolute greatest thing to happen to movies and if he put his endorsement on a beer, I had to try it. Product placement worked on me and I began my quest to find Shiner Bock as soon as I left the theater. It took a few years, but I finally came across a 6-pack in Wisconsin. As I sipped it while tailgating a Pearl Jam show later that day, I remember thinking it was a solid beer. It was not the magical libation I thought it was going to be but it was a good beer. Fast forward almost a decade later, and it is still the only beer from the Shiner brand I have enjoyed.

My feelings on beer from Spoetzl Brewery come from years of disappointment. I keep trying their beer with the hope that I will find one that I enjoy enough for a repeat purchase, but outside of the Bock that has yet to happen. For this blog I wanted to take the time to vent about how I felt about the Shiner brand, but also review one of their latest offerings that I had yet to try in hopes of possibly finally finding a beer from them I could say something nice about.

Shiner’s Lemon Pils lined up with my current drinking habits. It’s a warm weather, sessionable lager with a hint of citrus. I had the hope that it would work as a summer crusher. I had no aspirations that this was going to be a world class beer, I just wanted a beer that would work well as a “lawnmower” or “beach” beer. The nose of Lemon Pils gave me some hope. It had a touch of citrus, particularly lemon, bready malt, grains, and a nice touch of floral notes with an herbal spiciness. While the aroma worked for me, the first sip was not what I had hoped it would be. Lemon Pils is surprisingly sweet up front. Lots of bready malt, and cereal grains before lemon and citrus come in. The finish is spicy and bitter with a lemon rind note that is a bit more aggressive then necessary. There is a disappointing metallic note in the finish as well. Lemon Pils is also extremely watery. Sadly, there is just not a lot to like here and this just turns out to be another mediocre beer from Shiner. I can't even recommend it as a "lawnmower" beer because there are so many better options out there.

Honestly, at this point I am not holding out hope I will find a beer outside of Shiner Bock from the Spoetzl Brewery that is worth purchasing again. I will give anything a try, especially for this blog, but even for blogging purposes my money is better spent elsewhere. I recommend you spend yours elsewhere, as well.


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Thanks for reading. Sláinte!

Founders Más Agave

Lately I have been all about the lighter, more refreshing beers that are best enjoyed with warm weather. That is clearly reflected in my previous blog on Naturday. For the past week or so, I have been drinking that and Genesee’s Ruby Red Kolsch. Both of those beers are refreshing and great values, and as much as I want to continue to look at lighter beers that compliment the warm weather, I can’t pass up an opportunity to blog about the latest offering in Founders Barrel Aged Series.

If you have been reading my blog for awhile now, you know I am a big fan of the Barrel Aged Series. My favorite part about it is how creative Founders gets with each new release. While I have liked some more than others, I really enjoy a brewery that continues to take chances, especially one on the scale of Founders. 

With the classics(CBS, Backwoods Bastard, KBS) taking up the last few months of releases, Founders’ Barrel Aged Series returns with an extremely fun & creative take on a beer version of a margarita. Más Agave is an imperial lime gose, brewed with agave and aged in tequila barrels. From the moment this beer was announced, I started counting the days until I could get my hands on some.

It’s fair to say I had high hopes for Más Agave and I was not disappointed. The aroma teased that Founders was successful with their take on a beer margarita. Lots of zesty lime on the nose, with agave sweetness and salt, with a touch of tequila & vanilla and spice. On the palate, Más Agave is a touch syrupy. Tart lime and sweet agave dominate the flavor. The barrel comes through as well, adding a touch of oak, tequila and vanilla. The flavors are strong here and leave little subtlety. The finish adds the perfect amount of salt, which brings a touch of balance to the sweetness and really makes this margarita-style beer work.

With a 10% ABV, the latest entry in the Founders Barrel Aged Series is deceptively easy to drink. I personally am a huge fan of it. I plan on making this the first of many 4-packs in my refrigerator throughout the summer. I also think this is the strongest entry(aside from the classics) in the barrel aged series in quite some time. Founders has crafted a fun, fantastic beer here and I highly recommend you pick it up.


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Thanks for reading. Sláinte!

Natural Light Naturdays

When I first read about Natural Light Naturdays I thought it was a joke. I took it about as seriously as a snail flavored beer announcement of April Fool’s Day. Then when I found out it actually was a real beer, I instantly dismissed it. I knew I would try it at some point, but I thought for sure my low expectations would not be met and I would end up dumping the remainder of it down the drain.

When Naturdays started getting distribution to Western NY, I found myself  in no rush to buy it. However, I was stunned by how quickly it was flying off of shelves. Then, in an even more surprising turn of events I started hearing positive things from fellow beer enthusiasts. I was still skeptical but I decided to accelerate my time table for trying it and purchased a 30-rack. I justified that purchase because it was extremely inexpensive and  I was having a get together over the weekend. I thought most people there out of curiosity alone would give it a try. Later that night, I opened a can and got the biggest surprise of all.

After I took my first sip of Naturdays, I found myself staring at the can, stunned. I took another sip, then another, and before I knew it the can was empty and I was reaching for another. I could not believe how smooth, refreshing and easy to drink Naturdays was. It beautifully blends together strawberry lemonade and a light lager. Both are present and neither dominates the flavor. It is not overbearingly sweet either, and I was thrilled about that. The finish is crisp and clean, and that concluded a shockingly good drinking experience.

There is no need to dive deeper into more subtle notes of Naturday. I do not believe one spends less than 20 dollars on 30 beers to do that. I will just say that Naturday is a really fun, refreshing, crowd-pleasing summer beer. One that goes very fast at a party and one that I can’t believe will be taking up real estate in my refrigerator all summer long.


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Thanks for reading. Sláinte!

Dogfish Head Super Eight Super Gose

From the moment that Dogfish Head & Eastman Kodak's collaboration beer SuperEIGHT Super Gose was announced, it was only a matter of time until I blogged about it. I am a fan of Dogfish Head's beer and I am the son & nephew of long time makers of Kodak film products. For that reason alone, I could not pass up an opportunity to try this beer as soon as distribution hit Western NY. 

What makes SuperEIGHT fun is that it is a 2-for-1 beer. It is a light, fruited session gose and it also develops Kodak's Super-8 film. It pulls this off by having a low pH which means that SuperEIGHT is going to be a touch acidic but that should work perfectly for the style.

As the can says, SuperEIGHT pours a vibrant red. Besides the beautiful color, the lemon, lactic sour aroma was the first thing I noticed as I poured the beer. The aroma is also very fruity, grainy, and a touch floral with the berries and prickly pear really shining. The pear added a really nice note of watermelon and that is the first thing I noticed and loved about my first sip. Raspberry and watermelon really come through in the flavor before a touch of malt and grain. The finish is very tart, with a touch of salt, bubble gum, green apple and lemon rind. The lemon rind lingers on the palate long after the beer is gone and to be honest is not ideal. Also, I can't say all SuperEIGHT ingredients are noticeable. The mango in particular seems MIA which is disappointing but there is still a lot going on here and this beer is a lot of fun. 

SuperEIGHT is one of those beers where Dogfish Head's unrelenting creativity pulls off something really cool. Sometimes, their use of adjuncts goes a touch a overboard and while this beer is no different, I found myself really enjoying it. With summer just around the corner, SuperEIGHT would serve as a wonderfully refreshing beer to both make and develop summer memories. I highly recommend picking it up.

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Thanks for reading. Sláinte!