The Beer Critic

This is the fourth episode of The Beer Critic TV. On this special episode we pay tribute to some American craft Irish style beer. We have Rogue Irish Style Lager, Hooker Irish Red and Harpoon Irish Red. We hope you have as much fun watching this as we had making it. Sláinte and Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

Brewery Website: http://www.harpoonbrewery.com/

Type of Beer: Märzen / Oktoberfest

Alcohol Content: 5.5%

Beer Review -

Appearance: Pours a copper-red with a two-finger, off-white head. Head recedes slowly leaving behind incredible lacing that looks like it’s been painted on. Very attractive looking beer.

Smell: The first thing I noticed was the hops, they are quite fragrant but in no way do they seem overwhelming. The sweetness from the 3 different styles of malt helps to add some balance to the nose. There is a subtle fruitiness in the finish.

Initial Taste: The malt sweetness comes through first creating a very smooth and creamy mouth-feel. Much like what you would expect from a Marzan. The malt gives way to the hops that give a welcome but gentle bitterness that gains a little momentum towards the finish. The flavorful mixture of bready malts, bittersweet chocolate and citrus hops create a balanced and very tasty Oktoberfest beer.  Finish is dry and clean making this high in drinkability.

Thoughts: Like many of the other American craft Oktoberfest beers this is an American style Oktoberfest. Which really isn’t a true German Oktoberfest beer but rather a Marzan boosted with hops (us Americans love our hops!).  That being said, this beer is one of the best available for the style. Harpoon has created a perfect balance with what is traditionally a malty beer. They have mixed three different kinds of malt (chocolate, Munich and pale) with tettnang hops that give a spicy flavor that balances out the sweetness. The end result is a beautifully smooth beer that delivers on both the sweet and hop front making this a great session brew. This easily has become my go-to beer for American Oktoberfests. I highly recommend to Oktoberfest and craft beer lovers alike.

Type of Beer: Spiced Ale

Alcohol Content: 5.90%

Beer Review -

Appearance: This winter ale pours a rich chestnut color with a one finger thick light tan head. The head lasted OK and left little to no lacing.

Smell: I can sum this up in one word; Christmas. As strange as it may sound this beer reminded us of the Christmas season. Mainly it smells like gingerbread, nutmeg and cinnamon. Quite spicy yet really alluring. They hit the nail on the head with the bouquet of this one.

Initial Taste: Well those spices we smelled definitely carry over into the flavor of this beer. The cinnamon spiciness is almost overwhelming…quite disappointing. Once you wade through the spices you find a little bit of sweetness from the malts and a hint of nutmeg. The beer ends with a soft hoppy bite and some alcohol flavors.

Thoughts: This would be one of my favorite winter craft ales if it wasn’t for the taste-bud numbing cinnamon. If you look at some of the other reviews of this beer online you will notice there are quite a lot negative reviews due the overwhelming spices. Harpoon used to use traditional spices in this beer but due to the complaints of too much sediment in the bottle Harpoon switched to liquid spices. Other brewers do not like to use liquid spices do their nature to be overly strong. Sadly the addition of liquid spices to this particular beer make the smell nothing short of fantastic but pollutes the balance of this beer making it much too spicy. However, if cinnamon and nutmeg are two of your favorite things…then it’s possible this may become one of your favorite seasonal brews.