BEST SUMMER BREW™ REVIEW: SHIPYARD SUMMER ALE

To me, summers in Maine will always mean warm days on a white sandy beach, cool sea-breezy nights spent being bitten to death by mosquitoes, all the while knocking back a few ales--what could be better? Well, I was kind of disappointed by this Shipyard Brewery offering. In the past, I've recommended this one to everyone who's looking for a good easy drinking summer brew. Maybe it's gone downhill in the past few years that they've contract brewed it (they used to make everything at Federal Jack's Brewpub in Kennebunkport, but now they also make it in Portland), or my tastes have changed.

It poured a nice orangey amber color, with a white head that dissipated leaving some wispy lace. CO2 bubbles abounded in the bottom of the glass. The odor was lemon, alcohol and . . . soap. Yes, soap. No, I wasn't hallucinating and poured a big glass of Sun Light Dishwashing Liquid. The biggest problem is when I tasted it; there was a nice malty bitter bite to it, some spicy hoppy notes, some citrusy sweetness . . . and soap. GODDAMMIT. I couldn't get it out of my mind, so I kept tasting it. I had to have another one, maybe that was a bad batch (this one had a "best by" date of 10/06), or I used a tainted glass.

Take #2, poured into new glass rinsed with copious amounts of water. Fuck. It's soapy. Screw it, I guess it's just not that good. Sure, it's easy drinking, with a medium mouthfeel and a crisp, dry finish, but I just can't recommend quaffing a whole bunch of these. I'm calling this one Soapyard Summer Ale from now on. Oh well.



P.S. I would recommend their Blue Fin Stout in a second, but not as a summer brew.

BEST SUMMER BREW™ REVIEW: THURN AND TAXIS WEISSBIER

Following JK's review of a German Weisse, I finally got around to opening mine up for a taste.

Thurn und Taxis (it looks like an "R" on the bottle, but apparently it's an "X"), is a Weissbier that is from the city (as far as I can tell from the bottle) of Regensburg, which is somewhere in the independent country of Germany.

It is a "Hefenweizen," which is a type of wheat beer. It's much darker than other wheats that I have had the opportunity to taste (basically limited to Hoegaarden and Bruges). 5.3% alcohol by volume, 50 cl bottle, and of course it conforms to the 1516 Bavarian purity law.

As you can see from the picture, the head is nicely formed of a light white-to-off white color. The head is surprisingly resistant...It's been about 20 minutes since I poured this into the glass and I still have a 1/2 inch head or so. God bless those Germans.

It's quite good (although I've always like wheats in small quantities - too much (even 3 or 4 pints) makes me feel quite sick). Julie seconds this opinion. She picked up the glass with some hesitation, but was surprised to like it.

I caught a tiny hint of bubblegum somewhere around my 5th sip, but since its been elusive. Very yeasty in the beginning, but I guess once you get used to it, the yeast becomes less of an issue. I'm not good at describing taste, but I can tell you what I like and not - this I do like. The aftertaste has just the smallest bitterness to it.

Overall a decent Weisse. 8 thumbs for the Germans.




Here's the ratebeer.com review.

BEST SUMMER BREW™ REVIEW: SCHNEIDER WEISSE

This Hefe weisen was served in a 500 mL brown bottle accompanied with a nifty Schneider Weiss glass, with a slice of lemon on the rim. Pouring from the bottle was tricky, since it was heavily carbonated and produced a huge white head, so the slower the pour the better. Once it settled, it left very little head but produced a hazy, dark amber color, much darker than I anticipated. It had a nice wheaty, lightly spicy nose. My first sip revealed a well-balanced wheat beer with a pleasing light fruity flavor, and a not-too-overwhelming clove taste. Smooth and easy to drink, and I would have had several of these if the bar (Stuff Yer Face in New Brunswick, NJ) didn't have such a fantastic selection of bottled beer. The Germans sure do know their Weisse, and this is a fantastically drinkable summer beer. In fact, if you're in southern Florida, I'd choose this as your Miami Weisse. (Get it?)

Excellent beer (made even more so since I had just played golf in brutal 90°+ weather). Highly recommended.

BEST SUMMER BREW™ REVIEW: MAGIC HAT #9 I.P.A.

Okay, I'm going to make this one short. Vermont hippie brewed Magic Hat #9 IPA is not my cup of tea. Let's start off with the hideous pseudo-psychedelic orange and brown label, which is what your puddle of puke will look like after drinking too much of this. Pouring this into a glass, it was a funky orange amber color, with a frothy white head that dissipated quickly. It was a little hazy, as if it had been filtered through a used pair of hemp underwear after a Phish concert. The aftertaste was no treat: it was fruity and hoppy (FROPS!?), and not at all pleasant, like there was a party in my mouth, and Israel and Hezbollah were invited. Not a beer you could repeatedly drink on a hot summer day, and for that matter, you wouldn't want to waste your time with this on a cold winter day either.

Better luck with #10, you silly hippies!

BEST SUMMER BREW™ REVIEW: HINANO

We're trying a new format for the beer review of Hinano. Jeff and I were chatting and Jeff had the idea to post the comments we had as kind of a stream-of-consciousness review.

[We now join this chat already in progress]

me: Check this out

Jeff: mmmm beer gun

me: that's one way to speed up slow delivery in the bar...making a gun that'll take 12oz bottles...tough

my f--king neighbors have a bird, and all it does, all day long is chirps...I swear...I'm investing in a bb gun

Jeff: There are a lot of good ones in the beer category

me: nice: This is probably one of the most creative - http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.worth1000.com%2Femailthis.asp%3Fentry%3D304440

Jeff: one word: defogger

just set it off when they're not in the apartment

love that

i can't stand those smug f***ing Apple commercials

me: yeah, the problem is that their windows are on the same wall as mine - so to get to this damn bird isn't that easy...

Did you read the review in Slate.com about those apple ads?

Jeff: no

why, should i?

or "why should I?"

Sent at 5:14 PM on Friday

Jeff: oh, i have to get some beer reviews up on the blog

me: I never get to see US commericals, so I get my news from stuff like slate...I don't even remember exactly what he said, but it was somewhere along the same lines as what you just said

Jeff: it's not like i haven't been drinking any, i've just been lazy

me: Part of his conclusion from Slate: And isn't smug superiority (no matter how affable and casually dressed) a bit off-putting as a brand strategy?

Jeff: Sierra Nevada Summerfest, Brooklyn Weisse, Magic Hat #9 IPA, Saranac Kolsch (which was AWFUL), Shipyard Summer Ale, all of these and more have been consumed!

EXACTLY

just sell your iCrap and shut up

me: Wow! I drank my Togolese beer, but I was at the beach and didn't pay much attentioni...Other than that I have a Weisse in the fridge and I NEED to go to the beer store soon b/c I'm all out

Oh, yeah, I drank a Fijan (fijian?) beer and it was awful...Bud in a different package...no taste...I didn't even review it

Jeff: And those were just the ones I had BEFORE work!

Fijian?

me: from Fiji

Jeff: What was with that weird animated smiley thing?

That scared me. But then again, I'm drunk.

me: I don't know - Gmail does it whenever you do THAT

Jeff: CREEPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jeff: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! MAKE IT STOP!!!!

me: wow, Google, taking over the world, one animation at a time

Jeff: You know someone was in a basement in Palo Alto working on that for 72 hours straight.

me: GET IT RIGHT DAMN IT!!! I don't want some 1/2 @ssed "Microsoft" image!

Jeff: MORE RED BULL I MUST CRUNCH CODE FOR INVERTING EMOTICONS

Sent at 5:21 PM on Friday

Jeff: There is no emoticon for what I'm feeling!

me: that beer I had was so underwhelming that I can't even remember the name, or actually confirm that it was from Fiji

Jeff: Fijiweiser?

me: Budiji?

Jeff: Fijiller Lite?

Sent at 5:24 PM on Friday

me: Jebus...it was from Tahiti: http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hinano.com%2Findex.php

Jeff: I went to a place called The Map Room while in Chicago. If I wasn't already drunk and could read the chalkboard, I would have tried several more of their beers. I think I had an Ayinger Weisse but I can't be sure . . .

Tahiti???

http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.maproom.com%2F

Yeesh.

me: yeah...Who knew that ancient french colonies could make fake bud?

Jeff: It's probably better than drinking the water . . .

Sent at 5:26 PM on Friday

Jeff: I think I've drank so much bottled/filtered water over the past few years that I can't process regular tap water anymore--the water I had in the Catskills a few weeks back tasted like antifreeze

me: yeah...that's true...Hopefully the alcohol kills any bacteria still in the water when they make the beer

Sent at 5:27 PM on Friday

Jeff: eh i just closed the window accidentally

i'm so wasted . . .

me: Created in 1955, they noticed their problems early and in 1957 "Mr Robert Ledoux realised the first taste improvements"

Sent at 5:29 PM on Friday

Jeff: Huh???

me: I don't know either...it's a bad translation from French I'm sure

are you really still drunk?

Jeff: i wish

no i haven't had a drink all week

just talking my liver into tonight's festivities

i had a Summer Ale on Tuesday, and about 1/5 of that awful Saranac crap

I lied

me: We went out for some going away party for julie's coworkers last night and since I don't know anyone, I buried myself in the bottles and bottles of red and rosé thatt were at the table

I was ok this morning, burning headache was all

Sent at 5:33 PM on Friday

Jeff: nice

me: I'm still looking at the Hinano website, check out this entry from 1976: "The sales to China takes over the presale" WTF? I don't even understand

Sent at 5:34 PM on Friday

Jeff: 1965: Hinano lawyers determine mass deaths were not for the purpose of the lager found with at the party.

me: 1993 "New label improvement made more modern"

2006: "Sale of bad crap beer, still main interest of company"

Jeff: 2005: Plutonium bottle scrapped for aluminum one, for increased image enhancer potential.

Sent at 5:37 PM on Friday

Jeff: 1959: Smoking and beer taken together proven by top scientitians to be double enjoyment for Hinano lovers!

me: 2007: Cancer rates for Hinano drinkers decrease 2000%

Jeff: I was just LLOL and my boss came in and asked "What's the matter?"

I admitted I"M DRUNK . . . ON LIFE!

me: nice!

does your boss speak english?

Jeff: I immediately pretended to be really into an Excel spreadsheet

Yes, XingXing knows many English words, and will disclose them when forced to.

The first panda bear to ever be taught English.

me: well, at least you've got that going for you...you "can" communicate, in a pinch, if need be

Jeff: I might be drunk by the time I make it to the dentist's office.

Uhm, sort of.

Sent at 5:41 PM on Friday

me: well, pandas had to start learning to speak sometime...It may also be the first panda bear to lead a chemistry group...have to look into that

Sent at 5:42 PM on Friday

[...]

Jeff: You have full permission to use any of my jokes herewith at your discretion.

---------------------------------------------

Anyway, you get the idea, Crap Beer. Zero thumbs up

BEST SUMMER BREW™ REVIEW: LA BECASSE FRAMBOISE

I'm not going to waste your time with an image of this beer, and I'm not going to waste [much] time with this review.

La Becasse (the Woodcock) (AKA: Belle-Vue Framboise in the USA) is a Raspberry Lambic from Belgium and it is now an InBev production. After tasting La Choulette Framboise, I decided to taste some other raspberry-flavored beers, because I was quite happy with La Choulette. La Becasse can be had in the supermarket for about the equivalent of $3.50 for a 6-pack. It would be easier and more economical if I could buy this and be as happy with the brew as with La Choulette. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

Holy sweetness, Batman. La Becasse Framboise is too sweet. I can't tell you about the flavor, I can't tell you about the aftertaste, I can't tell you about the mouthfeel. It's liquid sugar, and that's not what I want for the summer. I shared a couple of bottles of these with Julie at the beach and we could [barely] finish them.

Sorry, InBev, but "The Woodcock" doesn't fly here.

1 star 'cause I didn't throw up (in my mouth or otherwise). (It does manage a 43rd percentile on Ratebeer.com)

BEST SUMMER BREW™ REVIEW: AKERBELTZ (BASQUE FOR BEER)

I don't think I've ever tasted Basque beer before. It is prohibitively expensive (gotta fund ETA, I guess) and there are not too many varities to chose from. Since we decided to do some summer beer tasting, I figured, Basqueland - it borders France and Spain, two of the hotter European countries, why not give it a go. My local Carrefour had Akerbeltz in 3x33 cl packs or 1 pint bottles. I opted for the pint bottle to see how it was.

Now my Basque-language skills are zero-to-none, but looking at the bottle, I think that Akerbeltz may mean "Goat." I can tell you very little about the beer, while in theory it is written in French and Basque, it means nothing to me. The Basques don't follow any "normal" word formation rules. Just to show you I am going to write the English translation of the French address and then the Basque address that [I guess] corresponds:


Akerbeltz Basque Beer
Brewery at Licq Atherey
Soule Province
Basqueland F-64560
Open to the public

and now in Basque:
Euskal Herriko Garadardoa
AKERBELTZ Garagardotegi
XIBEROA
F 64560 Ligi Atherei
Deneri Idejia

See how easy the Basque language is? Anyway, long story short, I have no idea anything about this beer, other than the fact that it is an amber beer with an ABV of 5.5% made in "Ligi Atherei."

The beer is surprisingly good. I didn't know what to expect, but it comes across as almost a pale ale, in terms of bite and crispness. Imagine a PA with a sweet aftertaste and you have Akerbeltz. It pours well, with a nice amber color and a fine off-white head (which unfortunately does not last long before fading away to nothing). The smell is sweeter than the beer is; which is good. Sweet beers aren't good for summer IMHO and that's what we are here for: SUMMER BEERS. Therefore, the first sip is a bit of a [pleasant] surprise in that you think you are in for a much sweeter taste than you actually get.

The aftertaste is sweet at first that gives way to a kind of empty mouthfeel (I sure hope I am using this word correctly!). It does, it gives way to a kind of sweet nothingness.

Overall, the beer is very good. I find very few Pale Ales/IPA in the South of France, so I am happy when I can get my hands on anything that resembles these epitomic summer brews.

Interesting: As the beer warms (yeah, I'm writing this as I'm drinking my pint) the bite is giving way to a much sweeter taste. Definitely a beer that needs to be drank (or is it drunk? damn my high school English teacher would kill me) cold and fast!

After all this, I am really liking this beer. However, the cost is going to make it lose a couple of thumbs, 'cause the fact of the matter is, a summer beer is generally to be consumed en masse and therefore price is important. Therefore, taking the the supermarket price of €3.50 for a pint in to account I whole-heartedly give this beer a 7 thumbs up. If you can find it in the states, TRY IT!

BEST SUMMER BREW™ REVIEW: GOOSE ISLAND SUMMERTIME

In my possibly neverending search for the Best Summer Brew™, I realize that the New York area may not be big enough, and I will eventually have to expand my drink radius. So I proactively booked a flight to Chicago during the July 4th weekend just for this reason (well, that and to visit a friend out there for the first time in a decade), and I quickly discovered the Goose Island Beer Company's summertime creation called, well, Goose Island Summertime. The side of the tap informed me that this was a German Kölsch style beer, and I don't know what that means but anything with an umlaut must be respected, at the very least.

Poured into a frosted pint glass, this brew was a cloudy, golden colored concoction with a short-lived head. The first few cold sips were quite enjoyable, and eventually I was able to taste some light spice notes and lemon flavors. This one finished with a crisp, refreshing bite, unlike some other beers of its ilk that I've sampled. Pleasant drinking, not sweet, and no aftertaste.

Honestly, the situation surrounding my tasting of this brew helped to enhance my enjoyment; it was a hot day, and the Northside Tavern in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago was not only offering this brew at an unbeatable $3.50 a pint, but they were also showing the city's two baseball teams in widescreen HD pummel each other senseless, en route to a 15-11 Cubs win). On top of that, the pulchritudinous female waitstaff rivaled that of Bourbon Street in Nyack, I daresay.

In closing, this was easy to drink, and hard to stop at just one. I give this a 6.


P.S. I also had a bottle of Goose Island Honkers Ale at O'Hare Airport on my way home, but because it was $7 at some abortion of a restaurant called "Chili's Too", it was less than satisfying and will not be rated here.

BEST SUMMER BREW™ REVIEW: LA CHOULETTE FRAMBOISE

Ok, I lied. Coors Light is not the best beer for summer.

I'm not usually too big on "flavored" beers. I like my beer to be "beer-flavored." However, since we are in a quest for the best summer beer, I figured I would give a raspberry-flavored beer a try, just to see what happened. It turns out that this makes for a very good summer beer.

La Choulette (FR only) has been a family brewery since the end of the 19th century in the Nord-pas-de-Calais region of France, an area that includes Calais and Dunkerque and borders Belgium. The brewery is probably better known for the "Sans Culottes" beer than this offering, which contains raspberry extract to give it that refreshing summertime taste.

As you can see, the bottle is brown, with a simple off-white label containing a few images of raspberries and the beer's name and a brief description. The best part is it contains a generic white cap - nothing says artisanal like bulk purchases of caps. The beer pours a dark reddish color with a large but fluffy head of off-white/reddish. The head dies quite quickly and becomes a sort of thin film that would more likely be associated with superfund water site.
The scent is overwhelming raspberry - not bad - I just was incapable of smelling anything else.

I expected it to be sweet. Many fruit flavored beers that I have drank are debilitatingly sweet from the extract (or maybe its the sugar) that they add. However not this one. First taste is not bad and at 6% ABV, there is no real alcohol flavor to deal with. There is a crisp and clean taste to this beer. The more I drank this the more I could imagine spending afternoons hanging out in the yard or by the pool having a solid stock of these brews on hand. It is very refreshing - something about fruity flavoring makes the beer very conducive to warm-weather quaffing.

The aftertaste is not bad, per se, just strange. It tastes almost like old raspberries, not necessarily rotten, but the crisp raspberry taste gives way to a more bitter, less satisfying aftertaste.

I would not order one of these in a bar, but would definitely consider in on an outdoor terrace in the middle of a July afternoon. Extra points are given because we are looking at these beers from a summer stand point. It is probably above an 8, but I don't want to go all the way to 9. So, I will round down. Excellent summer beer for passing your time in the great outdoors. 8 thumbs up.

NB: While I do not want to read the reviews on Rate Beer or the Beer Advocate before I write my own, I will do my best to link a review from one or the other (probably rate beer, because I already have an account there) once I have completed my review. Here's the review from Rate Beer.

BEER REVIEW: ALLAGASH WHITE

I'm currently searching for the perfect summer beer: something easy to drink with a nice bite of flavor, but nothing too heavy, spicy or complex, must taste good cold and have a relatively low %ABV (lower than 7). So I decided to buy a few different types of beers to see how they hold up to my criteria: a couple of India Pale Ales, a Belgian wheat beer (or witbeer, for you beer queers out there), an ale, and a lager. It doesn't have to have "summer" in the name, but it sure makes my decision making in the beer store much easier.

I was hashing this review out while chatting with Kris earlier, and I realized that I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to tasting beer. That's not to say my tongue doesn't work properly, it's just that I sometimes can't exactly put what I'm tasting into words. At first, we thought it might be easier to describe what qualities it DOESN'T have, such as:

Me: "No dog shit smell, doesn't taste like toothpaste . . . "
Kris: "no lingering asphalt mouthfeel"
Me: "throat did not burn upon swallowing"
Kris: "slight to no swelling after ingestion"
Me: "skin on roof of mouth did not peel off, like when you eat a really hot slice of pizza and the cheese sticks to it"

But I knew that wouldn't fly. So bear with me, because this might not make any sense whatsoever. Here's my review of Allagash White, "an interpretation of a traditional Belgian wheat beer", by the Allagash Brewing Co. of Portland, Maine. Didn't see the %ABV on label, but Ratebeer says it's 5.5%.

Okay, on to Step 1: take the bottle out of the refrigerator. I poured out the 12 oz. brown bottle into a tapered pilsner glass (which is probably the wrong vessel for a white beer such as this, but screw you--should I spend my money on beer or fancy glassware?). Appearance: straw colored cloudy pale amber color, with virtually no head to speak of (even after following the "pour, swirl, pour yeast" instructions), light carbonation.

At first, it didn't smell or taste like anything. Even more alarming, there was no mouthfeel--I couldn't feel it in my mouth! But as it breathed and warmed slightly, it gave off a yeasty odor, with a hint of lemon. (Maybe the fridge is too cold? No way to know without a calibrated NIST traceable thermometer.)

As for the taste: yeasty/bread-like with a distinct alcohol tinge, not overtly sweet or hoppy. A little lemony, and earthy, like grass. It says "brewed with spices", but I couldn't detect much, unless you consider grass a "spice". Or maybe it's lemongrass? (And what's the difference between an "herb" and a "spice" anyhow? Is one a leaf and the other a seed? That might be a discussion for another day.) There was no appreciable aftertaste, and finished smooth but unexciting.

For a summer beer, I don't think this particular one cuts it, since it doesn't really taste like anything when it's cold. You certainly wouldn't want to drink one of these right after mowing the lawn, because it tastes like, well, the lawn you just mowed. I'll have to look for their summer brew in my travels (uhm, I suppose Maine would be a good place to start). It's a respectable brew, however, well-balanced and easy to drink, I'm just not a huge wheat beer fan. I was going to give it a 6.5, but Salo couldn't figure out how to make a half a thumb in Photoshop. I give it a 6.

BEST SUMMER BREW™ REVIEW: DELIRIUM NOCTURNUM (UPDATE)

(Update 1: 11:46pm - Jeff wanted a picture of the beer, and generously sent me a picture of said beer, but me, after reading of McCain and Feingold's new restaurant and their great strides towards transparency and "truth," have decided that whenever possible, I will try to post a picture of me with the beer. I could say that I tasted Trappist Westvleteren, but that's probably not going to happen any time soon. That's right folks, Open Hockey, your new homepage for integrity in blogging).

I'm pretty sure that this means the beer will make you delirious at night in one of these European languages and I'm pretty sure I know why (the dancing pink elephant on the bottle, helped me determine this as well). At 9% abv, this stuff has as much alcohol as nearly 2 pints of Guinness, and it shows.

Pouring this reveals a very dark, nut brown colored liquid with a large foamy head that is off white. Its olfactory properties include hints of nutmeg and other spices that I can not describe in words. It also smells of alcohol. This stuff is like wine. Thick and sweet is the name of the game once you taste it. The mouthfeel is...well, I don't know, I just wanted to get the word "mouthfeel" into this review. Strong, strong alcohol taste that does little to convince this drinker to "drink."

I'm sure this beer rates well on ratebeer.com and the beer advocate because it is a well developed Belgian triple, but as a summer beer I can only say, no way.

It's undoubtably a good beer, but I wasn't in the mind set for it. I should've had something lighter (like a Guinness). In any case, I don't want to skew the ratings against this beer too much. On the one to 10 thumbs-up scale, I give it a 7.