from the twisted minds of snm
From the current summer variety pack, SN’s Kolsch, German style ale. Pours a clear light yellow with small head. Pretty strong hop aroma and bite. The bitter does eventually taper off and yield a bit of grain finish. Light, dry mouthfeel. A pretty decent beer, but it’s assertive hops makes it nicer if paired with an assertive food to counter.
It just makes 3 out 4 kolschy monkeys.
Next up in their summer variety pack is this pilsner. Pours a clear bright yellow with moderate head. Hop aroma and bitterness right off the bat. Bright and dry with a light mouthfeel. With its pretty strong hop, the bitterness stays on but thankfully does not suffer from skunkiness. Was never a big fan of strong hops so pilsners and especially IPAs did not appeal to me, although I’ve had some pilsners that I thought were good. This particular pils I’d say is alright. It’s usually the skunk that really turns me off, that’s actually a sign of mishandling, hops that’s been lightstruck, but this does not suffer from that. This beer would be good with some food, alone it doesn’t excite me.
It’s prob better than a 2 but I’m giving it a 2 out 4 pils monkeys.
Sierra Nevada’s summer variety pack, the Kellerweise is a “Bavarian-style wheat”. Pours a cloudy bright yellow with moderate strong head if you follow the recommended final swirl. Fairly strong hop initial like their pale ale with following bitter. Then there is the spice finish. It’s like a more hoppy Hoegarten. Medium mouthfeel aided by the yeast. If you are a fan of this style of beer, I think you will enjoy it.
3 out 4 weise monkeys.
Summer season from Sierra Nevada, blurb saying its a Czech style lager. Pours a clear bright yellow with small head. Some floral hop aroma, but not strong. The hop bitter stays even and lingers. Pretty light and bright beer, with a likewise moderate mouthfeel.
It’s odd how I wasn’t impressed with the first bottle, then found myself liking it on a later day on next bottle, and then with this bottle wavering somewhere in between. I guess I’ll give it just making 3 out of 4 monkeys. A nice “session” beer and something to have as you’re cooking up some food.
Finishing off the Guinness variety pack is this “Holiday Ale”. Pours a dark clear amber with strong head. There’s an initial bit of fruit, but not citrus. Kind of some dark stone fruit, like prune or cherry. It feels like there’s some of the alcohol aroma, even though at 5.6 ABV it’s pretty low. The dark roast flavor is very subdued and bitterness pretty low key and even. Mouthfeel is pretty light, not something you’d expect from a dark beer from Guinness.
All in all quite pleasant, 3 out 4 generous monkeys.
Another selection from the Guinness variety pack, this pours a deep red brown with strong head that quickly subsides. A touch of peaty aroma and taste of a red beer. The subtle smoke lingers throughout. This may be dark, it’s actually quite low in bitterness. Not much of a hop note. There isn’t actually a whole lot going on with flavors. It’s probably a good introduction, a gateway dark red beer if you will, but on the flip side it’s not a complex beer. It’s also a low ABV at 4.something.
I’m not sure how many monkeys to give this, I don’t think it quite rates a 3, but it’s better than a 2 monkey.
A new beer that has shown up in Foodland over the past few weeks, they had a product promo girl tonight giving tasting samples. No, she was not hot, but she knew her product well. This is this Oregon breweries version of a Heffe. Pours a very cloudy medium dark yellow with light head. As promised, this is stronger on the hops than your usual heff, however the aroma is not too strongly floral. It’s more citrusy with a bit of bitter bite, even though the IBU isn’t extreme. The wheat and grain flavors are pretty subtle and hard to detect. Touted as a “session” beer, it’s ABV is low, at below 4%. Medium mouth feel.
Not sure how much I like the hop forward heffe, but it’s not objectionable. I’ll give it just making 3 out of 4 hop confused monkeys.
I fell for the clever marketing. It had a cool label and I never saw it before. Upon closer look I saw the “blue agave infused” blurb. Pulling the pack off the shelf I saw that it was in clear bottles. Almost put it back but decided, the heck, might as well try it. Pours a clear light yellow with small head that dies down quickly. Aroma? There’s so little detectable hops that being in a clear bottle is maybe not a problem. That also keeps it low on bitter. There’s another blurb on the label, “blended with beer aged on tequila staves”. “With beer”. That’s right, this isn’t beer. If you try really hard you might detect some beery grain notes lingering in the middle. As for the barrel staves part? I can’t tell. There might be some tequila like notes there, or its just the marketing placeboing you into thinking so. Light mouthfeel. At 6% ABV its middle of the road for beer, enough to feel it on an empty stomach. Yes folks, this is not beer, it’s a malt liquor quite like Zima, remember that? You might call this a beer cooler, what wine coolers are to wine, this is to beer.
As a beer this gets one monkey, as a alcoholic drink maybe a generous 2 monkeys. It’s not abjectly horrible, I can actually finish it. There have been a few beers in my lifetime where it was so bad I could not finish them and threw it away. But on the other hand, why waste good money and time on this when there’s many other better alternatives. And yes, the pricing was in line with other microbrews. I’d much rather have a case of Speights for a couple bucks more than a six pack of this as a knock back while manning the grill bevy kind of thing.
In the Guinness variety pack. It’s a pub draught can with the nitrogen capsule so pours with extremely strong creamy head, initially looks a light amber but that’s from all the bubbles. As it calms down, it becomes a clear brown with amber tint. Perhaps my sense of smell hasn’t recovered yet, but there isn’t a very strong aroma signature. There’s some of the roast and subtle hops that comes in the middle leaving a slight bitter to linger on the tongue. Medium heavy mouth feel. Smooth and easy drinking.
3 out 4 nitro monkeys.
yes, there are breweries in Utah. Pours clear medium amber with medium head. Floral hop aroma and initial flavor, but not overpoweringly strong. The hop carries over into a bitter but then a nice nuttyness finishes. Fairly light mouthfeel. This is actually a pretty nice drinking ale where the hop doesn’t overwhelm and offend me.
maybe it because it’s a half day of snowboarding beer therapy, but this gets a solid 3 out 4 monkeys.