I’m Down with Downtime

Sam Adams Downtime Pilsner

I found myself in one of the most horrific and dire situations known to humanity: I was out of beer. I don’t know how it happened. It’s just one of those things that maybe once or twice in your adult life sneaks up on you when you’re not looking. It was dinner time, and we were having burgers. There are two foods that I particularly love pairing with beer - pizza and burgers. Not that I don’t like pairing beer with almost any food, but burgers and pizza are made to have beer with. I open the fridge to grab a brew and … there was no beer in sight. What? How? When? 

“Are you sure?” I asked myself. 

I looked again, “Nope. No beer.” 

OK. No need to panic. Fortunately, I live within a 5 minute walk of two places that sell beer. I knew my choices would be extremely limited, however. One place is a convenience store. I’ve been there before, and have seen their beer selection. I knew it would be a last resort. The other place is one of those “beer and tobacco” strip mall type places that sells lottery tickets, beer and cigarettes. I had never been there before, so I bravely strike out to give it a try. I walk in and suddenly realize how old and out of touch I am. I walk past the assorted “pipes” and other paraphernalia that aids in your “smoking pleasure”. I’ve been around the block a few times… I had an “interesting” youth, but I couldn’t even figure out what some of that stuff could be used for. And don’t get me started on the vape-wear and accessories.

I looked past all this and saw a cooler wall straight ahead. I know what that is used for! I get in front of it and start scanning… Bud, Bud Light, Coors, Coors Lite, Miller, Miller Lite…. panic was creeping in. “Have they no beer?” I silently scream in my head. “My burger is getting cold!”

Then I look to my right. Another cooler! Scanning… Angry Orchard, Mike’s Hard Cider… A ray of hope! I see Sierra Nevada! I had tried all of those before… scanning… I see some Blue Moon (OK, but I’m over it), then I see this Downtime Pilsner from Sam Adams… hmm, I hadn’t see that one, so I grab it and get in line behind some tattoos with people under them (not that there’s anything wrong with that). I check out and manage to get back home while my burger is still warm. Whew!

OK, it’s another brew from Sam Adams. Yes, most beer snobs don’t consider them to be a “craft” brewery, but (as I’ve said before) I credit Sam Adams for nudging the craft brew “movement” to the wonderful heights it has become. Plus, they make good beer and Downtime Pilsner is one of them. 

I poured it into my favorite beer glass. It didn’t hold much of head, but it was a nice color, a little cloudy.  It’s a refreshing, spot-on summer brew. It’s low alcohol (5%) and tasty. A combination that, as I’ve experienced on several occasions, is not easy to attain. It has a hint of citrus, a nice malty flavor and finished clean. I don’t know how they do it, but some of these beers I’ve “tested” manage to finish in such a way that it programs your mouth for another mouthful. This is one of those. So, if you’re looking for a great beer to have at a cookout or with a burger, I think Downtime  Pilsner is a solid choice.

Straight Outta Rocket City

6 Alberts

I picked up this beer for all the wrong reasons: I liked the art on the can, I thought the name of the brewery was kinda fun, and they were running a promotion at my favorite beer store where you could win a "Straight To Ale" bicycle. In addition to that, it was a brewery just down the road and over the state line in Huntsville, Alabama (Rocket City). Hence, the monkey in a spacesuit (I guess).

Well, without much hesitation, I would tell you to avoid this brew. It's not very flavorful and it finishes very bitter. I don't have a problem with beers that have a bitter finish, but there is good bitter, and bad bitter. This is definitely bad bitter. I know it must be difficult to brew a session IPA that has a rich flavor and isn't overly bitter. But it can be done. I've had several.

I poured it into a chilled glass to see how it looked and smelled. It looked nice. Yellow color with just a little cloudiness. The head was about two fingers and seemed to last a decent amount of time. It smelled very nice, which is why I was disappointed with the taste. It starts with a nice faintly sweet citrus flavor but quickly deteriorates to something that tastes like nothing, then that dark bitterness creeps in and will not go away.

I am not deterred from trying other brews from Straight To Ale. They must be doing something right. They're expanding in order to increase production. They're on the road to becoming Alabama's largest brewery. So I'll definitely give them another chance... especially if I win that bike. I won't be getting 6 Alberts again, but I look forward to trying one of their other brews.

"Ring, ring..."

"Hello, you've reached The Beer Store."

"Do you have 6 Alberts in a can?"

"Yes, we do."

"Well, you should not let them out!"

Thank you. I'll be here all week. Tip your waitresses.

Let's Meet Up for a Nooner

Sierra Nevada's Nooner Pilsner

Sierra Nevada has been around a long time and has produced many beers. This is definitely one of them. I love all the summer session beers that are popping up. One of my favorite past-times is searching for that delicious, low-alcohol, drink-more-than-one-or-two without the typical "side effects" of an alcoholic beverage.

This one is a noble effort by our California friends, but it misses the mark. Not by a lot. It is an easy drinking German style pilsner. It's a lovely shade of yellow. It has a fairly nice aroma. All good stuff.

I was disappointed that there was basically no head. I poured it pretty much straight down the middle of my chilled (not frozen!) glass. Before I could position my camera, what little head was there had dissipated. 

The label describes Nooner as having "...floral and spicy hop flavor balanced by a crisp and dry finish." Well that sold me. Unfortunately, although a good, solid pilsner, I didn't detect much of a spicy hop flavor, nor a dry finish. Maybe a hint of the floral, and a touch of crisp, but I think their description was stretching it a bit.

I'm not recommending you try this beer, but I'm also not NOT recommending it. It's an "on the fence" beer for me. I definitely wouldn't turn one down if it was offered to me, and I'm not totally ruling out buying it again if the circumstances required it. It is FAR superior to those mainstream "beers".

Would I buy this beer again? See above

Ding Dong Bell's

 

Wow. March already. Daffodils are blooming and trees are budding. Soon the summer ales will be hitting the shelves again. Ahhh... One more reason to love summertime.

I tried a brew from Bell's a while back and reviewed it here. Two Hearted Ale. It is one fine beer. So I thought if that one was so good, maybe I should try another one from Bell's. They have an entire end cap of all the Bell's brews at my favorite beer store. I stood there and deliberated over which one to try next. After much reading and studying (and wondering if the employees were beginning to get suspicious of me lingering there so long) I finally just reached out and grabbed one at random. It was the Midwestern Pale Ale. Like the Two Hearted Ale, I wasn't a fan of the label design (the curse of being a professional artist for 30 years is that you let your design sense overpower rational thinking sometimes).

– Just a side note about the label art on the Midwestern Pale Ale bottle: It's a painting of a red barn. I don't necessarily have anything against paintings of red barns, but this particular painting looks like something your semi-talented Aunt Betty would paint after she's been taking painting classes at Viv's Art Nook on Wednesday nights for a month. Not the quality of something you'd expect to see on the label of a nationally distributed beer. Plus, all of Bell's labels look like they were designed as high school graphic design projects. The look doesn't reflect the quality contained inside the bottle.

But with the tired old saying of "don't judge a book by its cover" playing in my head, and the fact that I didn't like the Two Hearted Ale label art either, I took it to check out.

The next day I popped open my first Midwestern P.A. to have with dinner. We were having cheeseburgers and sweet potato fries. What better dinner to have a beer with? I took a nice long sip.
Initially, I thought it was OK. Then immediately an overwhelming twang of bitter weirdness, followed by an unpleasant aftertaste of a whole other level of bitter weirdness. I almost hate to say it, but it tasted very close to a mainstream beer like Bud or Coors. It's been a while since I've tasted one of those, but that was the taste this beer recalled. I thought I must be drinking it wrong. So I took a bite of my burger and another healthy sip of M.P.A. ...Same thing. So I blamed the sweet potato fries.

A couple of days later, I thought I'd give it a second chance, except this time I would have it without eating anything. I cracked open number two to have while I was preparing dinner. Big sip. Same taste. I had to declare the sweet potato fries innocent.

I thought I'd give it one more chance a few days later. I had been at band practice. I was hot and sweaty after a three hour rehearsal and loading and unloading my drum kit. I ask you - what better time to have a beer than after that? BIG gulp gulp gulp... Ahhhh! I was very thirsty. Let's just say it DID quench my thirst, but it tasted the same. Three strikes and you're out. I have three left if anyone wants to give it a try to see if I'm wrong.

Would I buy this beer again? I'm checking the "No" box.

Take Your Pilz

Trader Joe's Josephsbrau Plznr

We don't have a Trader Joe's market in my town, so when I go to a town that has one, I try to stop by and stock up on all kinds of goodies that aren't available at my local Kroger, Publix, Walmart, Target, etc.

It had been a while since I'd visited a TJ, and I noticed they have jumped on the craft beer bandwagon. One thing that's nice about TJ's is that you can get quality products for low or reasonable prices. Unlike Whole Foods, where I walk out with at tiny sack of groceries in my recycled organic hemp shopping bag with $150 less in my wallet.

They had a handful of different "store brand" brews, and they were cheap. About $3 - 4 less than what I was used to paying in my favorite beer store for a fine brew. So I grabbed a six pack of the "PLZNR" Czech Style Lager for $6.99. 

The next evening I popped one open, got my favorite beer glass out of the fridge (not the freezer - but that's another topic of discussion) and poured it. It made a pretty nice head. It began to dissipate rather quickly. As you can see in the photo, it had gone down considerably before I could line up the shot. It has a nice color. I raised it to my mouth... and that was when I got my first whiff of doubt that this was going to be a good brew. The smell was... shall we say... not good? But I wasn't going to let that stop me. I took a nice big sip, another nice big sip. Pause. Another nice big sip. 

Hmmm. How shall I say this? Was it awful? No. Was it great? Absolutely not. How about good? Was it good? Mmmm... no. Was it OK? Mmmm... yes. Light carbonation, bitter, a hint of citrus.

I guess the best conclusion I can come to is that it is drinkable. That's not saying a lot, but in all honesty, of the six I bought, there are only three left in the fridge too weeks later, so somebody's drinking them. And since I'm the only beer drinker in the house... Plus I could not, in good consciousness, offer a friend or family member one of these.

I would say if you want to try a very good pilsner, get a Lagunitas PILS or Blue Paddle by New Belgium. You can't go wrong there. I would avoid the Josephsbrau PLZNR. I love Trader Joe's, and I'll try some of their other store brand beer offerings, but I won't be buying this one again.

Would I buy this beer again? Not to be redundant, but no.

Three's Company

OMG have I had some great beer lately!

It's been a while since my last post, and even though each one of these beers should have their own individual post, I'm going to lump them all together, because I love them all three almost equally, and they are all three IPA's.

I'll start with the Sorta IPA from Tailgate Brewery. Tailgate is a Nashville brewery and I've reviewed one of their beers before (Blacktop Blonde). I was at a local restaurant and saw that they had Sorta on tap. I asked the bartender about it, and she offered me a sample. I took one sip and I knew before I'd finished the tiny glass she'd given me that I liked it - a lot. I ordered a tall 20-ouncer. Delicious. The perfect beer to have with wings, burgers, fried pickles, just about anything. It's a low-alcohol IPA, only 5%. All the better. I can have more! It's a mellow tasting IPA that's not bitter, has a bit of a citrus flavor and doesn't hit you upside of the head with hoppiness. Go get some now. Yes, it comes in a can, but don't let that deter you. I got over the "I must have my beer in bottles or from the tap syndrome" quite a while ago. 

The second is Bell's Brewery's Two Hearted Ale. Recommended by my pal, Sir Richard Hunter, who got me the Newport Storm Brews that I have raved about previously. I thought if he liked it, it must be good. Oh yeah. Was he ever right. I think they should re-name it "Magic Ale", because they must be using some kind of magic to brew this fine ale. It's got it all going on in just the right measure. The perfect balance of hops, malt, and pixie dust. I don't know if it's the water up there in Michigan where it's brewed, or what. But whatever it is, it works and I will be buying many more Two Hearted Ales.

The third is Lagunitas Maximus. This is another one of those happy accidents that occur sometimes. My lovely wife (who is not a beer drinker) mentioned she was going to stop by my favorite beer store (to pick up a bottle of wine) and asked if I wanted her to pick up some beer (by the way, the answer to that question is always "yes"– even if I have beer in the fridge). I had tried a Lagunitas Chzec Style Pils that I really liked, so I asked her to pick up a six pack of that. I spelled "Lagunitas" for her, and "Pils". I told her it has "PILS" huge in all caps on the carton. Then I made the mistake. I told her it has a little dog's face on the label and the carton. Well, when she went in the store, she was looking for the beer with the little dog's face. Of course, Lagunitas puts the little dog's face on all of their brews (of which there are many), so... she grabs the first one she sees with the dog's face and brings it home.  It was Maximus Ale. I read the label and it sounded like something I wouldn't like. She offered to take it back the next time she was out, but I thought I'll give it a chance. If nothing else I could take with me to the next holiday get-together I attended and leave it in their fridge. 

I finally cracked one open a few days later and "ding ding ding ding ding" we have a winner! I was expecting an overpowering, smelly, bitter ale and it was none of those. There are hints of pine and hops, and they have kept it all reigned in and made one fine brew. It's got a rather high alcohol content (8.75%), so it should be enjoyed in moderation, but it's one tasty brew.

There's no way I'm going to be able to pick a favorite of the three. It's like choosing your favorite child or your favorite Beatles song. It's just not possible. I would say definitely try all three. If you're not an IPA fan, or you're on the fence about IPA, maybe go with Sorta IPA first. If you like that one, you'll LOVE the other two.

Would I buy this beer again? Big YES on all three

All three score BIG on...

Not Just Any (New)Port in a Storm

I can't seem to let go of summer. I never want it to end. Therefore, as a way to hang onto it a little longer, here's a review of a Summer Hefeweizen in mid-October when most beer drinkers are well into the fall beers.

I'll start off right away by saying this is a fine Summer Hefeweizen from Newport Storm. Brewed by Coastal Extreme Brewing Company in Newport, Rhode Island. When I say "fine" I don't mean "fine" like your teenage daughter says "fine" when you tell her to turn off her cell phone and do her homework. I mean "fine" like it's used when you describe certain automobiles, old-world craftsmanship or Corinthian leather.

I have a "special place in my heart" for Hefeweizen. It was the first type of craft beer I'd ever tried. It's because of Hefeweizen that I became aware of all the great craft brews out there. It was my "gateway beer".
I've sampled several "Hefe's" since then, and I have to say this one is way up there on the Chart of Deliciousness. I poured it into the glass. A nice chunk of sediment drifted down to the bottom.  I recommend you always pour Hefe's into a glass as opposed to drinking it out of the bottle if you can. That way you're sure your getting all the sediment that adds to the special taste. I immediately noticed the darkish yellow color. Not a "bright" yellow/orange like some Hefe's. The fluffy, white head dissipated quickly. It was half gone by the time I got my camera on and trained into position. But no matter. I could smell the citrus aroma from a foot away. It has a very rich, smooth taste. And no, I didn't drink it with an orange slice or lemon slice. I'm OK with people that do that, but it's not for me. Why sprinkle a spoonful of sugar onto a slice of cake? The cake is better without it!

This is one delightfully tasty Hefeweizen. I gotta hand it to the guys up there in that little bitty state. They know how to make a tasty Hefe.

I have to acknowledge Richard Hunter (aka "Sir Richard) for the unbelievable effort he underwent to get this beer to me. It's only available in summer in certain parts of the northeast. He saved it and packed it with his other luggage when migrating back south from his summer vacation home in Rhode Island. I live in middle Tennessee and he lives in south Alabama on the Gulf Coast. We have a mutual friend in south Alabama who I visited last month. Sir Richard met us in Mobile, AL to make the hand-off. Not only did the package contain this particular beer, but three others from Newport Storm, all of which I plan to review (an Amber Ale, a Pilsener and an IPA). Super duper huge thank you to Sir Richard!

Would I buy this beer again? If only I could

Hoppy To See You Rating: 4.5 | 5
Highest possible rating: 5