The Spring Beer Tourney: # 4 Vinyl vs # 5 Pandoras Bock

      The # 4 seed is Magic Hat's Vinyl, which has a stupid name and a bizarre bottle, but I liked it last year.  The # 5 seed is Breckenridge Pandora's Bock, which has a great name and a lovely bottle.  Both pour out a light brown amber.  Vinyl has a rich caramel, mocha and citrus nose.  Pandora has a slightly sour caramel and herb nose, kind of weak.  Vinyl has quite a bit of mocha to its caramel, with some tingly citrus herb.  It's good, but I remember it being better.  Pandora has caramel, mocha, honey and a nice rich mouth feel.  There's some hop tingle it's nice and creamy and very good.  The Vinyl seems to improve a bit it has some body and it's flavorful.  But Pandora has a full body and  big complex flavors.  I'll try some sip for sip action.  The Vinyl can't hold up here, Pandora is to strong.  Pandora's Bock moves on easily to the Elite Eight.

Magic Hat Howl Winter Lager

      Ah, the hippies at Magic Hat bring us their strange Winter offering, Howl.  Another odd label that sure makes it look like a Halloween Beer.  Of course, with the bales of pot they smoke up there, they probably don't know what time of year it is.  Howl, the shirtless werewolves favorite, pours out quite black and has a very nice mocha caramel nose.  Howl has crisp hop, strong mocha and coffee flavors.  It really hits on your coffee based flavors and that's about it, except for the nice hop flavors.  I like it quite a bit, but you have to like your coffee.  This is on the nice list.

Octoberfest wrap-up: Saranac Octoberfest

      Saranac is the last of the Octoberfests, for now, to decide the best of the season.  Saranac is made somewhere, blah, blah, blah.  It pours out a light amber with a dry caramel and light mocha nose.  The hops hit a little with this one but in a very good way.  There's strong, but not sweet, caramel here as well as strong mocha.  This is quite good I like the higher hop, which is still fairly mild by some standards.  I would rate this a touch higher than the Sam Adam's.  So just pop a Saranac then a Sam's, lather, rinse, repeat. Alright, here's the list.

1. Saranac
2. Sam Adam's
3. Brooklyn
4. Magic Hat
5. Coney Island
6. Leinenkugel's
7. Otter Creek

Magic Hat Hex: Ourtoberfest

      First, let me say Hex is a very good name for an Octoberfest, Seasonal and cool.  But, calling it " Ourtoberfest " is so hack and annoying it destroys all my goodwill.  One again the bails of pot they smoke at Magic Hat has addled their brains.  O.K. then.  Hex is a light amber with caramel and mocha on the nose.  It opens up with some up front hop and more on the finish , with the middle revealing its sweet caramel and light mocha flavors.  This is  pretty decent I would put it a notch lower than the Brooklyn but well worth drinking.  I could enjoy this fine, still hoping for better.  Worth a try.

Wacko vs Summer Solstice

Of all the summer beers I tried only two stood out to me as interesting or even any good. Wacko, a beet beer, from Magic Hat and Anderson Valley's Summer Solstice. These are both beers you should go out and try, but there can be only one. Wacko still pours out pink and has heavy caramels, a hint of beet and some sweet hop on the nose. Solstice is copper to light brown and has some mocha and citrus with its caramels. But how does it taste you ask? The Wacko is strong on the lush caramels, with a hint of mocha and honeyed beet. There is something here that just works. Balance between sweet and bitter, etc. What about the Solstice. Wow, chocolate, caramel, and a milky, creamy flavor. There's also a nice hop bite that lingers, but is not at all bitter. This beer is full of yum and really different in a very good way. Same can be said of the Wacko. I'm gonna start hitting these sip for sip. Both these beers stand up well to one another, but the Solstice is so good and really unique. I think the Solstice is the clear winner for me. However, I could tip either of these back all day long. Of the other summer beer, the Blackberry Witt and Odd Notion #10 were pretty decent and the Summerfest was O.K. The rest sucked.I hate you summer beers.

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.

Magic Hat Odd Notion #9

The last Magic Hat beer I had was the ridiculously named Vinyl, which was quite good. But I've always found Magic Hat to be very hit or miss. Let's hope this is a hit. Odd Notion is a cloudy straw color with a citrus caramel nose. The flavor is as advertised, odd. it's got some caramel, but the hop flavors are just not good. They are not too strong, just bad. There is no balance here and I'm not sure what this is supposed to be. I tried it with the burgers I'm enjoying and it's terrible with food. They must have smoked bales of pot before making this mess. Avoid this stuff, whatever it is.

Spring Tourney Wrap and Vinyl Revisited

I thought about some of the beers that got knocked out of the tourney early and the one I kept thinking of was Vinyl. Vinyl is an amber lager from the potheads at Magic Hat in hippie Burlington Vermont. I wanted to try it again and then rate the best of the Spring beers. Vinyl is a cloudy dark amber lager with caramel and a hint of mocha on the nose. The flavor is very good, strong caramel with a hint of mocha and great hop balance. This is a crisp classic amber lager. This could be a flagship beer for any company. They should put it in their regular line. Of course it has a stupid name and an ugly bottle. I also see no Spring connection, but they smoke so much they might have thought it was Fall. Here is my list, in order, of the best Spring beers I've tried this year.

1 Spring Buck

2 Vinyl

3 Rising Moon

4 Anchor Bock

5 Aprihop

There it is. I know you can find some contradictions here, but after all this drinking is that so shocking. I wanted to add a couple more, but you have to limit yourself to make real decisions.

Magic Hat

#1 Aprihop vs #8 Vinyl

In our first look at a #1 seed, it's Aprihop versus Vinyl, in the battle of the weird names. The #1 seed is Aprihop, an I.P.A. brewed with apricots from the Dogfish Head Brewery in Milton, Delaware. The #8 seed is Vinyl, a spring Lager from Magic Hat in Burlington Vermont. By the way, I don't read the small print on bottles till after I do tasting notes, so I don't get their ideas of what the flavors are into my head. That said, I read the bottle and there is bizarre rambling about "mysterious melange" and "chaotic Chemistry", but no explanation as to why you name a beer vinyl. They smoke a lot of pot in Burlington. The palate cleanser is 6 hour slow roasted shredded pork. Alright time to actually get to the beer.

They both pour out a dark amber, but the Vinyl is pretty cloudy, while the Aprihop is clearer. The Vinyl has a nice hop bitterness, and sweet caramelized pear on the nose. You can smell the apricot in this Aprihop, but it's not too strong. There's also loads of bitter hop and grapefruit that all balances out nicely. Let'stake a sip, but first some pork. Wow, this does not taste at all like vinyl, it's a very traditional amber lager. There's light malty caramel and really nice balanced hop bitterness. Chomps down some pork. The Aprihop has a significant apricot flavor up front which intensifies before you get this rush of bitter hop. There's also a slight burnt flavor that's kind of pleasant. The Aprihop is amazing with this pork.

Now to get serious with the head to head match-up. First, a bit of pork cooked it's own juices with just a dry spice rub. The Aprihop is really concentrated and delicious, it also serves up a nice 7% abv. Damn, I wasn't supposed to eat another piece of pork, but I couldn't help it. Start again. The Vinyl has great balance it's a near perfect amber lager. I was afraid of this. I gave the Magic Hat an eight seed, because of it's stupid, inexplicable name and the hit or miss nature of their beers. But this is a real hit, it should have gotten a higher seed. However, they did give their beer a weird name, and how is this a spring beer, it tastes more like an Octoberfest. More pork. The aprihop is a bit of a novelty beer, but it goes great with pork. The Vinyl is ahead late in this game. Oh my, the glasses are at the same level, it's going into overtime. Still no winner and the glasses are almost empty. There it it goes the last sip of Aprihop. The winner on a questionable call is Aprihop. There's some controversy here,I really think Vinyl got jobbed. Aprihop moves on to the second round, but of all the losers Vinyl is by far the best, go get some now.