Friday, September 30, 2005

Seasonal beer

Saw and bought Dogfish Punkin' Ale at Whole Foods today. I am happy to report that it is good. With most of these pumpkin beers you get a big smack of clove and cinnamon followed by crap beer flavor. Here the fall flavors are mild, but slowly build as you drink the beer. Since it is Dogfish you know the beer is good. So if, like me, you find yourself unable to resist stunt beers, then try this one.

Stunt beers generally are crap. I am thinking of the many chile beers, coffee beers and other liquid misfortunes that have come our way. I came within a hair's breadth of buying Rogue's Chipotle Ale, until I realized I poured out the last chile beer I had purchased. Still it is Rogue... Even though I know I probably won't like these stunt beers, I still buy them. Just like I buy the seasonal candy. It's bad when you realize you have a problem, but you still do it.

Look out for the Crystal Light Slurpees. The Strawberry Banana one is just plain nasty. You may as well go for the high test Slurpee instead. Drinking one of the Crystal Light ones is like drinking Robo to get drunk, not the same and not worth it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

t- spiced and pumpkin beers have apparently been around for a long time and while many that we see on store shelves are produced by suckas, the ones that are produced by the true craft brewers can't really be relegated to the 'stunt beer' bucket. Smuttynose from new hampshire has got a good pumpkin ale if a little thin. harpoon puts out a winterwarmer that people go nuts for. i'll drink anything from dogfish head (they are kinda leading the way with this whole extreme brew trend ,witness the 60,90,&120 min IPAs,) and same goes for rogue who can do no wrong in my eyes.rogue has done the extreme beer thing for a while with their XS line. speaking of rogue, there was some gawd-awful shite made by cave creek (i think) that pushed me away from chili beers for a long time, but the rogue chipotle is NOTHING like that. rogue's, as you'd imagine from the name, has this savory smokey-ness balanced with the right amount of hop and a slightly spicy finish tingling in the back of your throat that makes you itch for the next sip to soothe the heat. good shtuff.
keep an eye out for the seasonals.
. . Sierra Nevada's Harvest and celebration beers are awesome. Anchor has a cool new seasonal recipe every year. and make sure you find some Ayinger Oktoberfest (german import) which you can probably find on shelves right now.
NBK

Tripp said...

Yes the 90 minute IPA is currently my fave beer of all. I didn't mean to impugn the good beer companies with good seasonals. OK, maybe a little, but it is good to hear you like the Rogue chipotle.