About
Comments on beers tasted, seen, or brewed, new brewers, stores,
business mergers, festivals, food to go with beer.
What I'm thinking and drinking.
Email me
here
Subscribe
Subscribe to a syndicated feed of my weblog,
brought to you by the wonders of RSS.
Links
These are a few of my favourite links.
Mon, 25 Jun 2007
Wachusett - Country Ale (11:10)
This is Wachusett
Country Ale, the third of the assorted six pack I an trying.
Their web site calls it a pale
ale, and doesn't tell me the alcohol level, although it is called a
"light pale ale." This sample was server at about 40F in a 0.5L mug.On the pour
A nice yellow color, not quite as red as the image on the web site, at least as displayed on my color corrected display, but pleasing. The head is nice, about 1/4 inch (or a cm in Canada), mostly small bubbles but a few somewhat larger bubbles. I only mention this because I've been drinking a few other things which had all tiny bubbles, and the difference came to mind. The arome is a nice malt, not heavy but tempting and slightly sweet. My wife agreed on the aroma, but passed on a good opinion on the taste due to being in the middle of a glass of fruit juice when I asked her for a "smell and tell" opinion.
The first taste
A lot more hop than I would have suspected from the aroma, not big hop like an IPA, but there's no doubt that this is a pale ale. They don't identify the hops, I'm guessing Cascade or Simcoe, but as a former boss used to say, "I made that up." In any case, not enough hops to drive off any serious beer drinker, but certainly enough to be interesting. The aftertaste, or "finish" if you prefer, is a slightly swet malt flavor, very pleasant and refreshing on a warm day.
Overall impression
I added this to my shopping list after the first taste, this is the best brew I've tried so far from this brewery, and one I want to keep on hand to share with friends who enjoy robust brew with less hop character than my usual personal choice. I can't tell you how the head lasted, there was a trail of foam on the sides of the mug, but it was the first on a hot day, after a moderately active morning, and total drinking time was only a few minutes.
This is going on my very short list of brews to bring to a picnic or party when I want to wean people off megabrewed commercial beer. The only negative is that they currently distribute only in Massachusetts and New York State, so if you aren't here a specialty supplier may be needed.