Brew Review: Blue Point Spring Fling

I hate to admit it, but that punk groundhog Punxatawney Phil was right. Winter is still here. But as I endure my first snowicane, I’ll take this second chance at reviewing a spring seasonal in hopes of beckoning the season to come early—if just a little early at this point.

Blue Point Spring Fling Ale

Long Island’s Blue Point Brewing Company has released its Spring Fling Ale, a beer in the neighborhood of Magic Hat’s spring seasonal called Vinyl Lager that I told you about a couple of weeks back. Unlike the weirdos up in Burlington, the folks at Blue Point have chosen to make it obvious that this is indeed a copper ale you will be drinking by labeling it as such.

Spring might mean budding flowers and warming temperatures elsewhere, but the seasonal beers brewed here in the Northeast make it seem like we can only take a half-step away from the fireplace. This beer, like the Vinyl Lager, is much heartier than typical spring ales. The Spring Fling is very bitter. I mean that as a full compliment since normally copper ales have an off-putting amber sweetness. Though the Spring Fling doesn’t quite match Blue Point’s Toasted Lager when it comes to long-term drinkability and originality, that shouldn’t be construed as put down. The Toasted Lager, after all, is one of  BNY’s top five New York brews.

—RT

Thirsty Thursday: Mission Street India Pale Ale

When I mentioned to a grad school friend that the last cheap beer I wrote about on Thirsty Thursday cost me $2.99 for a six-pack, she told me that should have been my entire review: “$2.99 for a six-pack.”

Mission Street India Pale Ale

In retrospect, that approach probably would have been more effective than pillorying the beer for 250 words and praising its can design for another 25. But my friend’s suggestion spurred me to expand my cheap beer horizons. After all, the cost of living here in Beer, New York is something like 62 times the national average. I’ve been known to utter phrases like, “Oh yeah, let’s check out that place. I hear they have $4 Bud pints during happy hour!”

So a six-pack of Mission Street India Pale Ale for $6.99 met my ever-evolving definition of cheap. Granted Mission Street by Paso Robles, California’s Steinhaus Brewing Co. has a price point more than double some of its Thirsty Thursday predecessors. But it not only kicked their collective butts, it became the Platonic ideal of what I think an India Pale Ale should be. It packs a malty sweat first taste with a clean, hoppy finish. In the glass it has a pretty amber hue at its center with blond peaking out at the edge. And at a 6.8 percent alcohol, it’s a great deal when it comes to price-per-proof.

So what do you think Beer, New Yorkers? How much does a cheap beer go for these days?

-Ross

Thirsty Thursday: Red Oval Classic Lager

Sipping Red Oval Classic Lager takes me back to my first (accidental) gulp of beer. I was a grade schooler and stuck aboard a rented houseboat on Kentucky Lake during a week-long family vacation. Some careless adult had left a golden lite beer sitting around, and I—in youthful idiocy—grabbed it thinking it was a glass of apple juice. Seriously, I wasn’t rebellious enough to actually want to taste beer.

This glass of lukewarm funk didn’t give me a desire to grab another beer for years. Flat. Stale. Unexpected. Weird.

Those are all words that came to mind when I downed the Red Oval. I confess an affinity for its minimalist can design, with red, gold and black popping off the white background and an inexplicable hibiscus emblem. But I can’t abide by the lager within. It smells a bit like yellow easter egg dye and looks kind of like it too.

Now I realize one tends to become overly critical when focusing undue attention on a brew that runs $2.99 for a six-pack. It’s possibly unfair to linger too long on the flavors of a beer meant to be enjoyed one after another after another. But seriously, for three bucks you’re better off buying a quart of apple juice and waiting for it to ferment.

Brew Review: Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA

It’s always been hard enough for me to keep an IPA straight from a double IPA and a double IPA straight from an Imperial IPA and so on and so forth. So I got a bit perturbed at the folks at Sierra Nevada Brewing Company when they went off and created an IPA category of their own called the extra IPA.

I give the brewers at Sierra Nevada a certain amount of leeway since they have perfected the plane ol’ Pale Ale. So I overcame my initial perturbed-ness and grabbed a bottle of their Torpedo Extra IPA.

A self-styled “big American IPA,” it’s much crisper and lighter bodied than many of the hopped up American IPAs on the market. It tastes piney, mildly herbal and there’s not a hint of sweetness anywhere to be found. There’s something medicinal about the Torpedo, but I mean that as a compliment.

-RT

Glutenous Minimus: New Grist Beer

Dave the Chimp reads the comments too, and he knows that Beer, New York readers are itching — not just from flies swarming around the puddle of banana-flavored Malibu on their stomachs — but itching for guest postings. As best he can, Dave will transcribe these offerings and keep his hands to himself. Today begins a semi-regular column titled Glutenous Minimus, featuring commentary on gluten-free beers.

As a regular music writer over here, I am often put to the test describing a band’s sound or genre. Hyphens get thrown around, and usually no one gets hurt too bad. I wish I could be as gentle when detailing my impressions of New Grist Beer, a beverage made from sorghum and rice extract (and absolutely nothing to offend my sensitive intestines).

As someone who hasn’t consumed beer regularly since Weezer released Maladroit, I credit Ben and Ross for taking time out of their busy schedule of viewing the 2010 Citi BCS National Championship game at my apartment to give me some pointers on how to critique beer. Regarding New Grist, which is brewed at Lakefront Brewery in Milwaukee, Ross informed me that it “smells like a wheat beer.” Ben squinted when the glass passed under his nose: “a sophisticated sort of skunky.” “I couldn’t drink it very long,” Ross concluded.

It might take a few more of these postings before I’m brave enough to use time-honored terms like “notes” or “finish,” but know that I wasn’t much more impressed than my colleagues. Two descriptors that came to mind were bitter and fruity, and they didn’t play nice together in my glass. This attempt at hitting two flavor centers on my tongue missed the mark completely. I have never had the Simpler Times Pilsner, but I think I know how Ross felt about it while drinking this beer.

I grew up in Minnesota, a place where you finish every bit of what’s in front of you — even if you’ve poured it yourself. As I choked down the last of my New Grist, I thought of a line from Beck’s “Beercan” off Mellowgold: “Now I’m wounded, now I’m drunk, now I’m runnin’ like a flaming pig.” If your beer leaves you that confused, maybe it’s time to leave your beer.

-DTC

Brew Review: Blue Point Hoptical Illusion

Hoptical Illusion is the kind of cutesy name that normally drives me nuts. I get it. Your beer has hops in it. Hoptical/Optical. Very clever.

Blue Point Hoptical Illusion

But with Blue Point Brewing Company‘s IPA the name actually makes some sense. The folks out on Long Island have figured out a way to brew an American IPA that doesn’t have the sappy stickiness so prevalent in pale ales these days. The beer hits you with a sweet, malty nose right out of the bottle. But the overwhelming first taste is a solid burst of bitterness.

The real magic trick here though is that the brewers have managed to make an IPA with 6.8 percent alcohol that doesn’t burn going down. The Hoptical Illusion is so light and malty that you really don’t notice what a punch it’s packing until you’re near the bottom of the bottle.

Thirsty Thursday Review: Bud Light Golden Wheat

Have you ever had the overwhelming desire to pour a bottle of Bud Light into a pint of Blue Moon? Well then boy do I have a beer for you.

Bud Light Golden Wheat

The good folks at Anheuser-Busch have taken the industrial perfection of Bud Light, added what seems to be a box of Wheaties, and muddled it with coriander and citrus peel to create Bud Light Golden Wheat. Indeed, Bud Light Golden Wheat is the only AB product I know of that comes with instructions: “Unfiltered wheat will settle. Roll gently to mix,” the bottle tells you.

I’m guessing the AB folks don’t expect many folks who’ve ever rolled the yeast out of the bottom of a bottle of Franziskaner to make the move to Golden Wheat.

Full disclosure here: I don’t like typical wheat beers. My favorite wheat beer is Sixpoint Crafte Ales’ Apollo, a beer that hits you with a burst of hops before you get even a hint of cloudy wheat flavor.

All that being said, I don’t like Golden Wheat but I understand where someone else might. It’s taste is true and clean. It’s fresh like all AB products and it delivers the wheat flavor that some folks seem to like in their beers. I think those are the same folks who also like a slice of orange in their pints as well.

—RT

Brew Review: Schlafly Pale Ale

Oh, Schlafly Pale Ale. The beer that started my love affair with highfalutin beers. The medium bodied English-style ale brewed by The Saint Louis Brewery is unavailable here in New York—at least I haven’t been able to find it here. That means I’ve gone years without getting a taste of my first great beer love. When I came across a six pack at Roof Brothers Wine & Spirits on the south side of Paducah, Kentucky over the holiday, I worried that my predilection for the hop-heavy American style IPAs being brewed out in Colorado might mean I no longer have a taste for the milder Schlafly Pale Ale.

Schlafly Pale Ale by The Saint Louis Brewery

Thankfully, a great beer is a great beer no matter how much one’s personal tastes might change. The folks at The Saint Louis Brewery have perfected this lightly hoppy amber-colored gem. It’s a worthy flagship for the Schlafly brand. As central as St. Louis is to American macro-brewing being the corporate home of Anheuser-Busch, I wish the Schlafly line of beers was more widely available to show off the exciting things going on in the city at the micro level.

If you’re ever in town, be sure to check out The Saint Louis Brewery’s Tap Room downtown or their Bottleworks in Maplewood. Shoot, go to both if you have the time. And be sure to down a pint of the Pale Ale. As good as everything else is, the Pale Ale is a little piece of Midwestern brewing perfection.

–RT

Brew Review: Trader Joe’s 2009 Vintage Ale

Yes, I admit it. I have a Trader Joe’s addiction. But where else can I find a store with an entire shelf dedicated to single beers? The alternative to picking up a single sample beer at TJ’s would be to break up a happy six-pack. I’ve been called a lot of things in my day, but I am not a six-pack wrecker.

Trader Joe's Vintage Ale: Best enjoyed while playing euchre.

So after I spent a great portion of my first two Thirsty Thursday reviews bashing the cheap beers offered at Trader Joe’s, I decided I should give TJ’s a fighting chance by trying one of the store’s upscale offerings. I grabbed a pint of Trader Joe’s 2009 Vintage Ale, a dark ale on lees brewed by Quebec’s Unibroue.

To start off, this is a beautiful beer to look at. It’s an deep brown color that verges on black and it pours with a coffee-colored foam. The “ale on less” means there is yeast in the bottle giving the beer its carbonation. On this drink that meant a fizzy, crisp bite to go along with deep burnt caramel flavors. Trader Joe’s suggests you can put this beer up to age like a fine wine, but I think it tastes just fine as is.

At 9.2 percent alcohol, you would expect this beer to be a beast. But it’s surprisingly easy drinking, so find a buddy and splint the pint for safety’s sake.

Thirsty Thursday Review: Simpler Times Pilsner

Last week I introduced a new feature here at Beer, New York: the Thirsty Thurday review.  Since in the inaugural cheap beer review I pilloried the Simpler Times Lager, I decided to give the folks who make it at Minhas Craft Brewery another chance.

I went back to Trader Joe’s and picked up a single can of the pilsner Simpler Times makes up in Monroe, Wisconsin. After last week’s lager debacle, I refused to pay $3.99 for the full six-pack.

Just in case the pilsner proved to be as rough as the Simpler Times lager, I decided to drink it while also taking in the comic stylings of Will Ferrell in “Elf” to take off any unwanted edge.

Thankfully watching "Elf" took some of the edge off Simpler Times Pilsner

Things started promisingly enough: Simpler Times’ pilsner smells like apples during the pour. Unfortunately the pilsner does not hold a head and it tastes nothing like it smells. That’s especially true on the back end which is weakly sour before it hits you with an out-of-place alcoholic bite. Coming in at 5.5 percent alcohol, Simpler Times pilsner packs too strong a punch for a pilsner.

At this point, it’s going to take a really good ale to get the brewers at Simpler Times off my naughty list.

-RT