The optimists among us smile as the wintry mix pelts them in the face and say, “Spring is just around the corner! Can’t you smell it in the air?” The pessimists among us pull the covers closer and vow not to emerge from our bedrooms until June. May we suggest a middle ground? Spring beers! A way to celebrate the upcoming season and simultaneously drown your wintry woes.
The award for springiest-looking beer goes to Smuttynose’s Hanami Ale. “Hanami” is Japanese for the act of admiring flowers, cherry blossoms in particular. So it is only apt that the beer pours a gentle red, almost pink color. It smells fruity-sour and greets your tongue with a hoppy tartness. Hanami does have a sour cherry flavor about it, but the cherry is subtle. Some will not like this beer for its tart taste, but none can argue that the label isn’t just the cutest thing ever.
Of course, there’s always going to be some disappointments in the assortment. This time around Magic Hat and Otter Creek Brewing let us down. Magic Hat’s Vinyl, an Amber Lager, has a lovely caramel color, but smells odd…old, like “vinyl from the attic” quipped one taster. The overall consensus is “bland.” Otter Creek’s Spring Ale is a German-style Kölsch. A Kölsch should be pale in color and somewhere in the middle as far as hop bitterness is concerned. Otter Creek achieves this plus a fresh smell and a pleasant tingle of hops along the side of the tongue. However, this isn’t enough to impress. Basically it is, as one taster succinctly noted, “inoffensive.”
More springy beers after the jump!
Photo courtesy orphanjones on Flickr using Creative Commons License.
The surprise beer of the evening was Samuel Adams Noble Pils. We were at first suspicious of its clarity and very light color, but it came through on its promise to be a solid Pilsner. Hops flow all around the tongue resulting in a light and almost delicate feel. It is not overwhelmingly citrusy, but has a tart lemony kick. Highly drinkable.
Paper City’s Goat’s Peak Bock is another good find. This is a strong traditional German Bock, darker in color than the others up till now. The smell is warm with light hops and the taste is the same. Malty, but with just enough hops to even it out without getting in the way. The taste and smell are reminiscent of fragrant wood.
An IPA disguised as a Saison, Ithaca Beer Company's Ground Break is truly an “American-Style Saison.” The first whiff is strongly floral, reminding the drinker of the fresh greenery the beer’s name implies. Like the smell, this beer has a more powerful taste than any of the others. It too is floral, but complex and hard to pin down. The descriptors range anywhere from rosewater to cardamom. Like Hanami Ale, Ground Break mimics spring with reverence and truly embodies the label Spring Beer.
Lastly we have Berkshire Brewing Company, who put out something unique for the springtime: a Raspberry Barleywine-style Ale. Because it is a Barleywine-style Ale, rather than straight-up Barleywine, this cloudy, reddish-brown beer goes down a lot easier than its namesake. It looks like a raspberry, smells like a raspberry, and tastes like a raspberry. The fruity fresh-off-the-vine taste fills the top of your mouth while the hops play on the back of your tongue. Well balanced; it’s not at all overwhelming, but as one taster suggested, it does say to the drinker, “Yo. I’m a fruit beer. Deal with it.”
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