Brewery Website: http://www.smuttynose.com/
Type of Beer: Belgian Pale Ale
Alcohol Content: 5.8%
Beer Review -
Appearance: This beer poured a deep straw yellow with a hazy complexion. There wasnt much head, maybe one finger and settled pretty quickly leaving ok lacing.
Smell: The smell is light and enticing. It’s clean and yeasty with some citrus and alcohol esters. Enough malt is present to make this a sweet smelling beer.
Initial Taste: What a nice beer. Flavors of grain, bready yeast and fruit are the first to hit your tongue. A nice clean citrus follows the bready yeasts cleaning the palate for the sweet malts. Some spices are present but are so soft they blend into the other flavors. What a wonderfully balanced beer. Flavors are clear and flavorful.
Thoughts: I always enjoy supporting a beer from my hometown especially when its made by a brewery as talented as Smuttynose. While New Hampshire isnt known for great beer Smuttynose is one of the top rated craft beers out there. These guys continue to make incredibly tasty beers and Star Island Single is no slouch. This beer is a great balance of flavor and drinkability. It has just enough flavor and sweetness to keep your tongue happy but finishes dry and crisp to leave you wanting more. While this isn’t the greatest representation of the style (Belgian Pale Ale) I recommend this as a session beer.
http://www.smithwicks.ie
Brewery Website: http://www.southamptonpublickhouse.com
Type of Beer: Witbier
Alcohol Content: 6.7%
Beer Review -
Appearance: Color is a pale gold. Clarity is cloudy as you’d expect from a witbier. Nice white two-finger head that receded slowly leaving very little lacing.
Smell: Very appealing. Good mixture of spices are very dominant; cloves, coriander and vanilla. Those traditional Belgian White Beer citrus notes are right there balancing the spices helping to create a damn good smelling beer. Has a bit of a grainy/ alcohol ester smell in there as well.
Initial Taste: Delicious. The baseline of wheat and grains are there to carry you into the waves of citrus and spice. Much more flavor than I expected from a witbier. Lots of yeast. Citrus and coriander spice are balanced to near perfection creating a witbier that is high in flavor and high in drinkability. Slightly tangy citrus finish.
Thoughts: This unassuming bottle of Double White Ale is a unique take on Belgian White Beer (witbier). This golden beauty is the beer-child of Southampton Publick House Brewery. They created this double style beer to add more than just alcohol to this Belgian style beer. They doubled up on all the flavors – “more complex orangey/citrusy fruitiness, a slightly fuller body, more alcohol and a more satisfying finish”. They achieved this perfectly. This Double White offers what other witbiers can not, lots of flavor with high drinkability. This has jumped to the top of my list of favorite witbiers. Highly recommend. Cheers!
http://www.smithwicks.ie
Type of Beer: Hefeweizen
Alcohol Content: 5.50%
Beer Review -
Appearance: Cloudy yellow-amber color with beautiful thick white head that lasts while you drink. Looks just like what a quality wheat beer should.
Smell: Soft citrus and fruit followed by a very nice wheat beer smell, delicious.
Initial Taste: Citrus hits the tongue first followed by delicious wheat and malt. Exactly how a good hefeweizen should taste.
Thoughts: Fantastic representation of it’s style. If you are looking for a quality hefeweizen that tastes of citrus and is very easy to drink with very little bite and nice wheat flavors…this is the one. We reccomend drinking this beer how it’s meant to be enjoyed, in a wheat beer glass. This glass can also double as your pilsner glass, a staple for beer drinkers. This is my personal favorite hefeweizen.
