Monday Beer Review of The Week: Tap Room 21

This week I tried Tap Room 21′s Pale Ale with one of our other reviewers, AlexisArlington which gave us mixed results about the beer. To be honest we had differing views on this beer, I thought it was middle of the road while my colleague thought it was an excellent beer. Therefore, we will dive right into it and let you be the judge of this pale ale. I poured it into a small glass to check color and aroma; I did like the color reddish amber color when it poured. However, it gave off very little aroma and almost no head which tells me two things, it has a weak flavor and will warm quickly. Now the real debate comes in the flavor profile, I thought the flavor of Tap Room 21’s Pale Ale was rather weak for the style, that the hopps and barely should have been more pronounced and that the yeast and grapefruit notes were too forward. However, Alexis really enjoyed those aspects of the beer, “if you are just getting into IPAs this is a good starting point”. This is definitely a good summer beer, but it is not a beer that either of us would sit back with and drink more than one. In the end, it comes down to the fact that each person needs to try it and decide for yourself.

Rating:

• Drinkability – 3 out of 5
• Flavor – 3 out of 5
• Refreshness – 3 out of 5
• Smell – 1 out of 5
• Overall – 10 out of 20
• Price –$7.99 per six pack
• ABV – 5.3%
• Style – Pale Ale

Monday Beer Review Of The Week: Samuel Adams Noble Pils™

Samuel Adams® Noble Pils™ is, as the label states, very unique in the fact that it is brewed with all 5 Noble Hops; “the term Noble Hops traditionally refers to the four varieties of hop which are low in bitterness and high in aroma.” (Wikia, 2010) These European Hops are named for the cities from which they originally were cultivated, much like that of wine grapes, such as Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot, but I digress. The hops are Hallertau Mittelfrüh, Tetnanger, Spalter, and Saaz. The Saaz hop is Bohemian; the other three are German as one might expect. (Wikia, 2010) These are the foundation of hops across the board. In a sense, these are the direct ancestors of the Adam and Eve of “hop-dom”. Fun fact: Hops are a dioecious relative to Cannabis Sativa, (Bella, 2009) meaning that hops are related at the genus level to marijuana.

This beer is brewed with all four of the aforementioned Noble Hops – which is similar to making a blended wine of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Zinfandel, and Chianti – a very rare brew, indeed. Noble Pils Lager is replacing Samuel Adams® previous spring seasonal, White Ale™ (Philly, 2010) and has a terrific flavor.

Noble Pils has the taste of green – if you can taste green, it would be this beer. It makes me think of spring. With a bitter front taste and a smooth finish, this lager speaks the language of spring – in like a lion, and out like a lamb. The color is bright yellow and completely clear. This is a tremendous brew to start a spring day off with.

Rating:
• Drinkability – 4 out of 5
• Flavor -4 out of 5
• Refreshness – 5 out of 5
• Overall – 13 out of 15

My sources of information:

http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/20100129_Joe_Sixpack__Why_you_can_t_make_ice_bock_in_the_U_S_.html http://www.bellaonline.com/ArticlesP/art52210.asp

http://beer.wikia.com/wiki/Hopshttp://www.samueladams.com/world_of_beer.aspx

Monday Beer Review Of The Week: Samuel Adam’s Coastal Wheat Ale

This week’s post is very late in the week, we have had a rough week for our family, but the show must go on! Samuel Adam’s Coastal Wheat Ale is an American Pale Ale style of ale, it has a very wheaty flavor with mild hops and lemon under tones. I will be quite honest, I am not sure how I feel about this beer. I enjoy the flavors of the beer, but I find it to be flat and uninteresting. I would at least recommend this beer be tried by those that haven’t had it before. I hav e had much better examples of wheat american pale ales before, actually Sam Adam’s Summer Pale is a prime example. I am going to keep this one short and sweet for now, let me know what you think of Coastal Ale and we have a few.

Rating:
• Drinkability - 2 out of 5
• Flavor -2 out of 5
• Refreshness - 2 out of 5
• Overall – 6 out of 15

Monday Beer Review Of The Week: Arcadia Sky High Rye

Arcadia’s Sky High Rye is an excellent spring/summer beer to sit back on warm summer evening and watch the sunset while chilling with some friends. It has an initial mellow flavor of sweet hops and then a strong citrus flavor on the back-end that is almost grapefruit in sourness. I tried this beer while helping my buddy Gino refinishing his basement, this pale ale was super cold, between the chill and floral aroma that comes off the beer, I found this drink to be very refreshing and energizing.  While being only 6.0% ABV it packs a great flavor without a the big alcoholic punch that some pale ales provide. I really enjoyed this pale ale, it was very crisp and refreshing and as I stated before would be a great spring and/or summer beer that I think would go very well with burgers or ribs, heck I would just drink this for the meal and just enjoy the sunsets.

Rating:
• Drinkability - 4 out of 5
• Flavor - 5 out of 5
• Refreshness - 4 out of 5
• Overall – 13 out of 15

Monday Beer Review Of The Week: Roscoe’s Hopp House – Pale Ale

I was at my local beer store day the other day, which is a pretty decent beer store, there is a better beer place in my area, but this store has a good selection, prices and is a family owned business. Anyways, I was looking around the coolers and shelves for something and interesting to try beer wise. That is when I ran across Roscoe’s Hopp House,Pale Ale variety. I am a big fan of pale ales so I thought this might be cool to try and so I purchased it and took it home. I cracked open on the pale ales and poured it into a pilsner glass, it poured with a very light color similar to that of a lager and a short head giving off a strong wheat aroma.. This beer while having a pungent flavor could be hard to pair with milder foods, leaving it best paired with steaks and other strong flavors. In the end this is a great beer, if you can find it and like pale ales, give it a try.

Rating:
• Drinkability - 3 out of 5
• Flavor - 3 out of 5
• Refreshness - 3 out of 5
• Overall – 9 out of 15

Monday Beer Review Of The Weeks: Bell’s Pale Ale

Bell’s Brewery is one of my favorite Michigan based breweries, I have been a long time fan of the their Oberon beer. Well, I know have another one of their beers to add to my top ten list; Bell’s Pale Ale. This pale has  a very distinctive flavor, vibrant bitter hopps and wheat taste. Bell’s Pale Ale pours with a wheat aroma and thick head holding in the flavor and temperature. This is definitely a beer that should be kept in the beer fridge or on tap at all good drinking establishments and household watering holes.