Featured Beers - August 2012

Brewed in the Vienna Lager style, but using a hybrid lager/ale yeast, Flying Bison advertises this brew as a “Vienna style amber beer.” Expect a ruddy amber color on the pour with nice clarity and a sizable head that drops some light lace as it recedes. We really enjoyed the nose on this beer, with toasty malt aromas leading the way along with light notes of caramel. Look for a touch of white grape juice and a bit of spicy and somewhat floral hop... Read More

Sprecher has done an admirable job of producing their hefe-weiss in a traditional Bavarian style, which is somewhat of a rarity among American brewers who often put out various “pale wheat ales” that offer none of the characteristics of a true German wheat beer. Hefe-weiss, meaning literally “yeast-white,” is a reference to the very cloudy appearance of these beers due to the yeast left in suspension. Also known as hefeweizen, meaning “yeast wh... Read More

Flying Bison’s newest offering pours an attractive hazy orange capped with a creamy head. On the nose it engaged us right away with a sweetly fruity, floral character overlaying nice caramel malt notes. The Galaxy hops with which this beer was dry-hopped are an Australian variety known for citrus and passionfruit aromas, and indeed, the tropical fruit and mild citrus impression that this beer offers up really impressed our tasting panel. On th... Read More

It may seem a bit early for Oktoberfest beers, but we say it’s never too early!  Actually, Oktoberfest-style beers, known also as “märzen,” are so popular as to be produced by many brewers year-round.  For Sprecher, their Oktoberfest is a seasonal, but it’s a wide season – this brew is available from July through December.  Anyway, expect good clarity on the pour from this medium amber colored beer.  As we expect for the style, the nose tends tow... Read More

Heather ales were brewed in Scotland for over 4000 years, but the style was almost forgotten until the Williams Brothers revived it using a 17th century recipe. A type of Scottish “gruit” ale, this style predates the use of hop flowers as a bittering agent in beer, so other agents were used instead – hence the heather. Brewed with heather flowers and bog myrtle (also known as sweet gale – doesn’t that sound better?), Fraoch Heather Ale is a uni... Read More

Pilsners are often not given enough respect because of the horrendously cheap imitations that have spread throughout the world like some kind of plague of poor taste. The Würzburger Pilsner, however, is an example of exactly how the style is supposed to be done. In fact, we feel this German-style pils (there are Czech-style pilsners as well) is a great example of why the style became so popular in the first place. On the pour, look for a fairly c... Read More

Many Bières de Garde are wonderful examples of “hybrid” beer, quite like Germany’s Kölsch. In this case, the hybrid description refers to a beer being top fermented (like an ale) yet cool-aged for an extended period (like a lager). The result is a beer with great depth of flavor, smoothed out by time and low temperatures for 6-10 weeks. Indeed, we’ll advise right upfront that this beer is impressively slaking for a beer of nearly 16 proof. A vari... Read More