Brewery Website: http://www.magichat.net/
Type of Beer: American Amber / Red Ale
Alcohol Content: 5.4%
Beer Review -
Appearance: Pours an attractive crystal-clear, golden-amber hue. The two finger, off white head that looked so nice when pouring the beer dissipates rather quickly leaving behind a creamy film on the beer. There didn’t seem much to any lacing. The one aspect of this beer that does stand out is the carbonation; even with a heavy pour the carbonation bubbling off the bottom of the glass is very noticeable.
Smell: Smell is what you expect from an Oktoberfest; sweet,toffee, malty and biscuity. The smell is nice and strong which I believe is due to the heavy carbonation. There is also a hint of something else in there, a fruity/melon scent. It’s not prominent but if you look for it you’ll notice it.
Initial Taste: The taste is one of familiarity as it tastes a lot like the other craft oktoberfests on the market. However there are a couple discernible differences. Starts off mild and sweet with toffee and caramel flavors dominating the palate. There is a slight hoppy bitterness that helps gives some energy to the sweet flavors. The carbonation is still pretty heavy taking away the smooth creamyness that this beer could have had lots of. The scent of melon (maybe cantaloupe) has made it’s way into the flavor as well. It’s a funky flavor that is extremely hard to pin down. It doesn’t hurt the beer by any means, instead it adds a little mystery which makes you want to keep tasting it. The finish is a little dryer than I would have liked.
Thoughts:It’s important to remember that this isn’t your typical oktoberfest lager. It’s an ale (amber ale) with oktoberfest style ingredients. Magic Hat is well known for making slightly odd-ball brews with flavors you normally wouldn’t see in beers. Hex fits in very well to their lineup of strange brews. This “hybrid” oktoberfest or as they put it “Ourtoberfest” is a mild beer that tastes mostly like a Marzan with it’s sweet flavors and buscuity maltiness. There is only a slight hint that this beer isn’t a lager as the hops make the beer a little dryer than what you would normally see in an oktoberfest marzan style lager. The is also a special ingredient they fail to mention. I personally think it’s some sort of melon but you will have to taste to determine for yourself. The flavors are quite mild making this is a worth session beer. I would have liked a little less carbonation, more flavor and a little more balance to the sweetness but overall it’s a decent beer that I will certainly buy again. Cheers!
Brewery Website: http://www.saranac.com/
Type of Beer: Märzen / Oktoberfest
Alcohol Content: 5.4%
Beer Review -
Appearance: Clear amber-copper complexion with fluffy, two-finger, off-white head. Sadly head retention was just ok, lasting only a few moments and then settling to a thick film. Lacing was pretty much non-existent with only a skeleton of a spider web remaining on the glass. The mass of cascading bubbles show what should be some decent carbonation.
Smell: Scent is clean with a grainy, bread-like malt smell. Lots of sweetness comes through with notes of caramel and toasted sugar. Small sampling of hop spiciness makes it’s way across the nose but it’s only a wisp and grows more faint as you drink.
Initial Taste: Starts off pretty mild and sweet with vanilla, caramel malt and toasted sugar flavors hitting the tongue first. The flavor then starts to dry out with a hop bitterness that is spicy more than floral. While the hops are certainly present they only make a dent in the malt-heavy backbone. Finish is somewhat dry with little to no aftertaste.
Thoughts: Saranac has created yet another very drinkable seasonal brew. The flavor is what you would expect; heavy on the malts, just like most other American Oktoberfests, with a hop bitterness that tries to balances out the sweetness. This is a solid, middle of the road Oktoberfest that is easy to drink and pairs well with German food. While the flavor isn’t really all that provocative this is forgivable as the lager is really sessionable. I believe this to be an acceptable trade off. I recommend this beer as it’s usually easy to find (and drink) and sure to please even the most untrained palates. Though if you you are looking for an Oktoberfest beer with lots of flavor you are best to look elsewhere. Cheers.
Brewery Website: http://www.atlantabrewing.com
Type of Beer: Amber Ale
Alcohol Content: 5.70%
Beer Review -
Appearance: Unsurprisingly the color of this amber ale is…amber! Clarity is about 100% and poured with a nice two finger white head that didn’t hang around long leaving behind some fairly decent lacing.
Smell: Not a whole lot going on with the smell on this ale. Toasted caramel and bready malts dominate the nose. Quite a sweet and light smelling beer. There is a very slight earthy hop smell on the end.
Initial Taste: Starts off with nice toffee sweetness picked up from the caramel malts along with soft bread-like yeast flavor that helps mellow out the sweetness. The light flavors that kicked this beer off gave way to a slight bitter hoppy profile. The earthy bitterness continues to the finish leaving you with a somewhat dry aftertaste.
Thoughts: There is actually a story behind this beer. Laughing Skull beer was a special beer brewed by Red Brick Brewing (formerly Atlanta Brewing Co) for The Vortex restaurant in Atlanta. The beer was discontinued in 2005. However in 2009 after a few years of upset beer lovers and letters to the brewery Red Brick decided to bring this uniquely named beer back to the market. However this time it has been released as an Amber Ale and not a Bohemian Pilsner like the original. Sadly this beer is only available in the Southeast. Red Brick states that since it’s re-release this beer has been their biggest seller. There is good reason why this beer is so popular, the flavor is sweet, mild and pretty well balanced with a nice earthy hoppiness. There is not offensive about this beer, just a nice (low flavor) ale that makes for great drinkability. So as an Amber Ale there are much nicer beers out there but as a session beer, this does just fine. I highly recommend.
Brewery Website: http://www.starrhill.com
Type of Beer: Irish Red Ale
Alcohol Content: 4.80%
Beer Review -
Appearance: The color is a deep red honey. Clarity is great but the color is just a bit too dark to see through. Poured with a nice two finger fluffy off-white head that dissipated to a film that lasted during drinking leaving little to no lacing.
Smell: As in true Irish Red Ale style the smell is sweet and malty. The first scents that come wafting through are caramel and bready malts followed by subtle dark fruits. There are little to no hops in the nose of this beer making it smell like quite the malty Irish brew.
Initial Taste: Like the smell the flavor of this beer light and sweet. The smell is mainly sweet malts and toasted sugar. Even though this is predominately a sweet malty beer there is still a nice hoppy bitterness that helps cut through the malt and balance the beer (with the scales still on the malt side). There is a slight graininess to the beer as well which plays nicely with the other flavors. The finish is slightly sweet and yet dry enough to make this a great session beer.
Thoughts: Irish Red Ales have always been hit and miss for me as the balance of malt and hops can easily become one-sided on the side of the malts making the beer overly sweet for me. Thankfully the brewmasters over at Starr Hill have come up with an award winning recipe that maintains a strong malty sweetness and has enough hops to help balance the scales. This beer has won the Silver Medal at the 2005 Great American Beer Festival, which is quite an honor. The beer is well rounded and what I believe to be a fantastic session brew due to the sweet yet dry finish that leaves you looking for the next bottle. I highly recommend this beer to malt and ale lovers alike.
http://www.smithwicks.ie
Brewery Website: http://www.lagunitas.com
Type of Beer: American Amber Ale
Alcohol Content: 5.9%
Beer Review -
Appearance: Color is a beautiful copper, rich and bright with a slightly hazy complexion. Poured with a two finger head that receded quickly leaving good lacing.
Smell: Talk about a sweet smelling beer, this puppy is bursting with malty goodness. The dark malts give a nice toasted brown sugar and chocolate sweetness and we can thank thse crystal malts for the delicious toffee smell. I also noticed there was a bit of a spicy raisin finish. One of the best smelling beers I’ve reviewed.
Initial Taste: While not as intensely sweet as you might expect from the smell, the malts certainly make themselves present. On the first sip, toasted brown sugar and caramel flavors cover the taste buds. The sticky sweetness slowly slides off the tongue making way for the hops with a touch of lemon and pine. The finish is well balanced (a little on the sweet side) and a bit dry giving this beer good drinkability.
Thoughts: After smelling this beer you almost half expect to taste a heath bar when trying this copper style beer for the first time. However, this beer does not disappoint. Lagunitas has a great reputation for delivering quality full flavored beers and Censored Ale is just that. With only 25 IBU’s the hop presence is pretty low. And even though this is probably the sweetest beer that Lagunitas has brewed they have done a good job with building the sweetness and still keeping the drinkability of a lighter beer. I highly recommend to sweet lovers and hop-heads alike.
http://www.smithwicks.ie
