Hanami Ale (Smuttynose Brewing Company)

Sushi, lucky cat thing, Mt. Fuji and some cherry blossoms, not many other beers have a logo like this one! Hanami ale is definitely one of the more unique offerings from Smuttynose. 

According to the Smutty site, Hanami "our spring seasonal, is inspired by the ancient Japanese tradition of hanami- cherry blossom viewing - when people throughout Japan gather in parks to contemplate the luminous, ethereal sakura blossoms, while consuming copious amounts of food and beer in a joyous, nationwide picnic." So there you go!

Pours a reddish amber color, much darker than expected. The head is a very faint pink hue with very small bubbles. Their seems to be quite a bit of carbonation with this one as well. 

Smell is not of cherries. Its actually a very malty smelling beer with a very slight and subtle sourness. Its bready and sweet and quite appealing.

Taste is very light with a definite, but not strong, cherry tartness in the finish. I can't help but think that this beer would be a great option for the ladies (not all ladies of course, just the ladies who like SA Cherry Wheat, Magic Hat #9, Ephemere etc...). Its light in taste and on the tongue with a higher carbonation and some fruit sweetness. It is, however, in no way cloying in my opinion. Its very drinkable and worth a shot just to say you've had it and because its a unique brew.

BEER FACTS

Name: Hanami Ale

Style: Fruit Ale

Brewery: Smuttynose Brewing Company

Location: Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA

Container: 12 oz. bottle

Malts: Pilsener, Carahell, Aromatic & Carafa

Hops: Styrian Golding & Sterling

ABV: 5.7%

IBUs: ?

Origin Pomegranate Ale (Schmaltz Brewing Co.)

Pomegranate appears to be everywhere these days, its uber-trendy. Its not all that much of a surprise that its found its way into several beers recently. However, Origin from Schmaltz is not like those other pomegranate ales that are following the anti-oxidant trend. In fact, this beer was first brewed 10 years ago.

The label reads:

Creation, 1996, C.E.: On the floor of a San Francisco Mission District loft, intimate friends squeeze luscious pomegranates by hand to brew the first 100 cases of the original HE’BREW Beer.

Evolution, 2006, C.E.: The culmination of the first decade of Shmaltz Brewing and a core offering for our second, ORIGIN renews this sacred covenant, sacrificing over 10,000 pomegranates for each precious hand-crafted batch.

So there is some history behind this beer and quite a bit of history and lore behind the lowly pomegranate. Check out the Schmaltz site for more. Who knew that the grenade got its name from the pomegranate due to its shape? Not me...

Pours a hazy, cloudy peachy color. Slight hints of ruby redness mix with the amber. The head is nice and rich. Its a good looking beer. Unfiltered and wholesome.

Smell is slight malt sweetness, some sour and some grassiness. If you read the specs on this one, its pretty amazing how many different types of both malt and hops are used to make this beer. They obviously lend a hand in the complexity of this unique creation.

Taste is interesting. Not sure why, but I was thinking it would be sweet. After taking my first sip, I wracked my brain to remember what pomegranate tastes like and remembered that its not a sweet fruit. Its rather tart and dry and that is the aftertaste I get from this beer. There is a lot going into the boil when this beer is being brewed. Its not a bad thing but to tell you the truth, I can't pick out all the different hops nor can I sort out all the different malts. An amber ale, even if its 8%, doesn't need to be quite so complicated. Nonetheless, its a decent beer. I like the tartness the pomegranate adds to it, it reminds me of a sour ale a bit.

Origin is worth a shot, even if its just to say you drank a strong ale brewed with hand squeezed pomegranate juice!

L'Chaim!

Beer Facts:

Name: Origin Pomegranate Ale

Style: Fruit Ale (Strong)

Brewery: Schmaltz Brewing Company

Location: San Francisco, California, USA

Container: 22 oz. bottle

Malts: 2-row, Caramel 30-40, Dark Crystal, Munich, Dark Munich, Wheat

Hops: Warrior, Centennial, Cascade, Willamette, Crystal, Mt. Hood

ABV: 8%

IBUs: ?

#9 (Magic Hat)

It only seems fitting that Magic Hat would have a flagship beer that is a "not quite pale ale" infused with apricot. You really can't expect anything less from such an eccentric group of people. Nevertheless, this was my first introduction to Magic Hat back in the day and I was a big fan.

Things have changed a bit when it comes to my palate. I am not such a fan of sweet, fruit laden beers. I do love the taste of apricots so that could be a big reason why I was originally drawn to this one.

Pours super clean, clear and rather dark apricot in color (can I call it that?). Anyways, this is a nice amber colored beer with absolutely no imperfections in the glass. Its super clean with a nice thick white head. The smell is actually kind of like hay infused with fruit syrup. I can't think of a better way to describe it. The actual apricot smell is not overly detectable, its a sweet fruit smell but to make it out as a apricot would take some skills.

Taste is immediately sweet and fruity with a drying slightly hoppy aftertaste. Its definitely apricot-ey once it gets in your mouth. But, I think that is a good fruit for beer. Its not overbearing or overly sweet and doesn't take all the other qualities of the beer away. I guess once you are over the apricot taste of this beer, there isn't a whole lot left. Its not a bad beer, it is what it is. If you've never had it, give it a shot. There are worse fruit beers out there and if you went by the amount of beer sold, this one is a winner for Magic Hat!

If you like Magic Hat's #9 be sure to check out these closely related beers:

Dogfish Head Aprihop

Pyramid Apricot Weizen

Middle Ages Apricot Ale

BEER FACTS

Name: #9

Style: Pale Ale, Fruit Ale (Apricot)

Brewery: Magic Hat Brewing Company

Location: Burlington, Vermont, USA

Container: 12 oz. bottle

Malts: Pale & Crystal
Hops: Cascade & CTZ

ABV: 4.6%

IBU’s: 18

Bar Harbor Peach (Bar Harbor Brewing Co.)

There are lots of fruit ales available nowadays. Mostly I see blueberry, apricot and raspberry flavored beers, so I thought I give this peach one a shot and see how it compares. 

It pours way darker than I was expecting.  I really expected this to pour a very light color. It doesn't have much of a head on it and what is there goes away rather fast. The smell is definitely peachy. It reminds me of those gummy peaches I loved as a kid. It also has a bit of an apple juice smell to it.

The taste is interesting. The peach is definitely there, but the taste is not as strong as the smell would lead on. Its got a medium sweetness (if it was stronger it would mask any other tastes you might get from this beer). Its got a nice bitter dry finish that would make it the perfect beer for a hot (or warm, I'll even settle for not cold) day here in Maine. 

This is not your typical overwhelmingly sweet fruit beer. Still, I split the bottle with my wife since 22 oz. of peach ale is a lot for my palate. Give it a shot, it will make you think of warm days ahead.

BEER FACTS

Name: Bar Harbor Peach

Style: Fruit Ale

Brewery: Bar Harbor Brewing Company

Location: Bar Harbor, Maine, USA

Container: 22 oz. bottle

Malts: ?

Hops: ?

ABV: ?

IBUs: ?

Brewed in Maine

Longshot Grape Pale Ale (Samuel Adams)

I know what you're thinking. What the hell is a "grape pale ale"? Well, it's a pale ale brewed with grapes. Go figure! This one was created by Lili Hess, a Sam Adams employee from Hawaii. It was also one of three winners of this past Samuel Adams "Longshot" Homebrew Contest. 

The other winners were a weizenbock and a double IPA that unfortunately didn't make it into production this year due to the worldwide hop shortage (it must have been pretty hoppy as it was 9.6% and over 100 IBUs). So there are just two styles in this year's 6-packs. You can get them anywhere they sell Sam Adams and a 6'er retails for $7.99.

According to the bottle:

As Lili describes it, "It's like you are drinking a pale ale after biting into a green seedless grape". 

Intrigued? I was. It pours darker than I thought it would. I was expecting a very light colored beer. The smell was sweet but not like grapes. I really don't think green grapes have a lot of taste or smell, other than a subtle sweetness. Maybe thats what I was smelling along with some maltiness? 

The taste was nice. It had a very refreshing quality too it with a really subtle taste. It kind of reminded me of Magic Hat #9 but with about 1/4 of the apricot sweetness. Its a very unique beer in that it was brewed with "natural grape flavor and maple syrup" but its not an overly flavorful beer nor does it have to be. It would make a great beer on a hot day. Too bad those days are still far off here in Maine. 

I can't help wishing that Lili had done something with pineapple to make this beer a little more Hawaiian. That would have been pretty cool! Maybe next year!

BEER FACTS:

Name: Longshot Grape Pale Ale

Style: Fruit Flavored Ale

Brewery: Boston Beer Company

Location: Boston, Massachusetts

Container: 12 oz. bottle

Malts: ?

Hops: ?

ABV: ?

IBUs: ?

For more about the 2007 Sam Adams Longshot Contest winners go HERE!

To enter the contest for a chance to see your homebrew in production go HERE!