Summer Beers: Satsuma vs Red Sky at Night

Satsuma is a wheat beer from Abita, brewed with fruit and spices. There are oranges on the bottle so I'm assuming that's the fruit, but it doesn't say. Red Sky at Night is a Belgian farmhouse style wheat beer from the people at Heavy Seas . I admire Heavy Seas because they like to put more alcohol in their beer, 7.5% here. They are my friend. The Satsuma pours out a pale orange juice. Seriously. It has a citrus, tropical fruit,and mild hop nose. Red Sky is clear straw with a strong bitter, apple and yeast nose. The Satsuma tastes like a classic white ale, which is a shame as I dislike this style in general. There is citrus a bit of hop and that strong off yeast flavor I hate. It's O.k. I guess if you like this stuff. No wait, the more I drink the less I like it. Every bottle of this garbage should be poured in a ditch. Did I mention how much I like summer beers. Any way. The Red Sky is very fruity with mild hop throughout,and some caramels. The flavors are strong, but it has a bit much farm in it for me. It's a drinkable beer although I can't conceive of why they put this out as a summer beer. This is clearly a spring style for me. Neither of these beers is worth much. The Red Sky is at least decent, though. Oh well, the only summer beers that have stood out so far are the Wacko and the Summer Solstice. I'm gonna take one more look at those, then I am done with these awful summer beers.

Summer Beers: Summer Ale vs Blackberry Wittbier

These are both Sam Adam's products . One is the standard summer Ale, made with douche of paradise, and some lemon or something. The Blackberry Wittbier is a bit more interesting.The Witt is clear straw with a hint of color. The nose is blackberry and mild hop tones. The Summer is straw with honey and spice. The Witt is nice and crisp with fresh berry, honey and tingly hop throughout. This Witt is pretty nice. It's very drinkable, refreshing and flavorful. The Summer has honey, citrus and a weird spice flavor. It has that left out in the sun flavor and is everything I dislike in most summer beers. I don't much care for this beer, but if you like unpleasant off flavors you might like this. The Witt is worth checking out , but it is only really good compared to this other mess. Still I might pick up a six.

Summer Beers: Wacko vs Odd Notion #10

Both of these beers are from the pot smoking hippies at Magic Hat. Wacko is a summer ale made with beet juice. Yes, I said beet juice. Odd Notion #10, I hated #9, is an ale made with ginger. Both are pretty wacky styles, but are they any good? Wacko pours out a pale pink. Yes, I said a pale pink. It has earthy caramel, a nice stringent hop and a hint of beet. # 10 is a slightly cloudy straw with a caramel, strong crisp hop and dry ginger nose. The Wacko is very crisp and refreshing. It has nice caramels, tingly hops throughout and a pleasant sweetness. This is really good stuff, I could get my beet on all day long. # 10 is like a ginger beer except with the alcohol. There's hop and caramels here, but the dominant force is the ginger. It really lingers on the palate. This is a nice beer, but I couldn't imagine having more than one, the flavor is really strong. Though I bet there are some amazing food pairing possibilities out there. Still the Wacko is really good and dominates this pairing. The # 10 is a novelty beer. On to the next pairing.

What They Left, Volume One:Bud Select 55

During the summer we entertain a lot. So people come over and leave a couple of whatever they brought. So I decided to taste what people leave no matter what it is, good or bad. I promise to choke down at least 50% of whatever. I do reserve the right to make it as cold as possible. The first edition will be Budweiser Select 55. O.K., 55 pours out a nice gold with weird fake looking bubbles. The nose has some barely detectable caramel and maybe some hop, maybe. Well it tastes like a slightly beer flavored water.There is a little bit of hop tingle and very slight mild caramel. This is very inoffensive as there is little here to be offended by. It's actually an easy drinking beverage and I recommend it for anyone who wishes a hint of beer with their water. I could easily finish this but I'm really pining for a beer. Can't wait till I see what they leave next.

Summer Beers:Beach House vs Rope Swing

Aaawwwww, look at that both these beers have cutesy summer themed names. Isn't that precious. Anyway we have two summer pilsners here, Old Dominion Beach House and Red Hook Rope Swing. Beach House pours a slightly cloudy straw with herbal hop, caramel sweetness and a bit of yeast. Rope Swing is a clear straw with fresh sweet caramel and a tinge of hop on the nose. Now the taste test. Wow, The House has really strong hop, that would put an IPA to shame. This has that huge herbal, pine tree flavor that has ruined other beers for me. No other flavors here, just bitter herb that ruins your mouth forever. Hateful. O.K. The Swing has some hop crispness, but you can also taste some honey, caramel and citrus The hop is more forceful on the finish. Seems balanced and refreshing. Actually, the more I drink The Swing, The House just got poured down the sink, the less I like it. Perhaps The House ruined it for me, but I'm getting an unpleasant aftertaste. The last sips of The Swing and I guess it's decent, but I would never buy it again, there's so much better out there. Well these summer beers have been huge disappointments. Did I mention summer beers generally suck. If you see Beach House shun it like a plague victim. Rope Swing you can merely pass by. Both these beers are out.

Summer Beers: Summerfest vs Summer Solstice

O.K. I'm not a big fan of most summer beers. To me they are not as good as the hot weather beers that are already out there. Like mexican or Thai or Plillipino beers. Anyway I'm going to taste a couple that look promising in pairs to compare and contrast. First up is Anderson Valley Summer Solstice and Anchor Summerfest. Summerfest is a pale gold with light caramel, citrus and a bit of candy ( sweet tart) on the nose. Solstice is amber with rich caramel, light mocha, and crisp sweet citrus on the nose. The Fest is crisp with hop and caramels, strangely none of the sweetness I found on the nose. It's pretty bitter on the finish, but is a nice refreshing classic lager. The Solstice is very sweet with really rich caramels. It's like a dulche de leche beer. Actually, it seams like a take on a Dos Equis style amber, but better. There's some good hop here, but the malts really shine. This is really a unique, delicious beer, I have not had anything quite like it. The Solstice is a clear winner here, but the Fest is a good beer and could slip in to a second round. If I do a second round.

Gluten Free Beer Challenge: Part Two

In part two of the Gluten-Free (GF) beer tasting we look at two very ambitious beers from Greens. Greens Endeavor Dubbel Dark and Quest Tripel Blond. The Dubbel pours out a medium brown and has little nose, a bit of smoky caramel. It's very crisp and fresh with a tad of the smoky malt and weak caramels. It's one of those very light refreshing style dark beers. The body is really too light and the flavors are a bit weak. The Tripel pours out straw with a caramel citrus nose. The flavors are much stronger here with honey, citrus, caramel and maybe a bit floral. It tastes a bit mead like and also a little like a good sweet sparkling white wine. It also packs a lovely 8.5% ABV, which is right up my ally. This is really good and compares favorably with other Trippels I have had. The dubbel not so much. This Tripel would be a super treat for friends on a GF diet that like beer. I was impressed.

San Miguel Dark

I so liked the regular San Miguel that I had to try the dark. It pours out a nice medium brown and has a nice mild chocolate and hop herb nose. The flavor has a mellow mocha with a little crisp hop, but much less than their normal beer. This is a lighter bodied dark beer and I think it's O.K. Let's try some more. It grows on me. I like this beer just fine, but not as much as their regular beer. I will get this again.

Pike Stout

Boy, I have been a big fan of the Pike beers I have had so far. I sure hope this is another winner it looks right up my ally. It pours out black as pitch and has a strong bitter black coffee nose with a touch of mocha and hop. Wow, this stuff has very, very strong flavors. Tons of, I mean TONS of very bitter coffee flavor. At first I thought they were killing this beer with hops, but I think the malts are so darkly roasted, that its off the charts bitter. There's a really smoky, burnt flavor here, but not in a good way. You could taste this for hours in your mouth. I love big, bold flavors and I love coffee, but this is just too much. You can't even discern the 7% alcohol. You probably could not tell, until later, if it was double that. I would call this a failure as it's nearly undrinkable, but it fails in the direction of being too bold and I'll give them props for that. Skip it.

Red Stripe

Red Stripe is the Jamaican beer in the chubby little bottle. Every now and then, I like to try the best known beer of various nations. I really liked San Miguel from the Philippines. So here's Jamaica. Red Stripe pours out a light gold and has a hop and light caramel nose. Boy this stuff is really fizzy. There's caramel and a touch of citrus with hops straight on to the finish. Did I mention its too fizzy. It's still a nice beer and would go down well on a hot day. You could also easily put down about twenty. But, there's nothing to get excited about here and its still to damn fizzy. Boy that disappeared very fast, I can see the allure of this poundable potable. Still to fizzy.