So… Michelob. You think Ultra, yes? And Light. Fair enough. While my natural inclination is to scoff out of hand this thinly veiled offshoot of Zie Anheuser Busch family, well… a lot of Michelob beers are pretty good. Take its stalwart Amber Bock and its new forays into the world of Pale Ale. And then take me in the refrigerated beer aisle seeing a mixed wheat beer 12 pack on sale for $9.99 and we have ourselves a review of Michelob’s Dunkel Weiss.*

I’ll start with my principal criticism: there is almost no hop presence to this beer. Now I know, I know… you’re saying “But Captain Beer! It’s a wheat brew! There’s never a strong hop presence LMFAO! ROFL! BBQ! SOS!” Well… I should cut you. Granted that hops and wheat are usually distant cousins, but here we’re dealing with once-removed third cousin voodoo madness. I need more spice! That’s what I’m getting at.

Overall, though, this is a pleasing beer and a decent example of the style. Its active carbonation keeps the rich, nut brown beery flavors moving. Sweet but not saccharine and with a nice unfiltered mouthfeel, the head diminishes after a few minutes and the Dunkel’s highly drinkable nature means that the rest of the brew soon follows.

*the others will follow… if I don’t consume them all tonight.

http://www.sloshspot.com/blog/12-22-2008/How-to-Know-If-You-Are-a-Beer-Snob-92

Friends, it’s a happy time when a Sam Adams mix pack comes out. As you all know, darker, winter beers are this Captain’s favorite, but summer/spring beers are wondrous too. The most recent mixed 12er I picked up has 2 of each of the following: Boston Lager, Sam Light, Blackberry Wit (finally!), Hefewiezen, Summer Ale and Pale Ale.

I’ve chosen to review that Pale Ale today because I have about three minutes. And the review will be simple, as this beer is basically exactly what you’d expect from a good American Pale Ale.

It’s hop forward but without any sharpness. There is no specific note of pine, grapefruit, etc—now, at times this sort of “general bitterness” would be less, say, intriguing than I like out of a beer. But if you’re eating a good meal, cooling down after exercise, starting off your morning, etc, sometimes you just want a good, balanced pale ale. Not a Pliny the Elder that you’ll taste for hours. Not a Ruinator that will, well, ruin your taste buds for the rest of the day. You just want a drinkable beer. That’s what this is. It’s a pleasantly bitter, refreshing beer with subtle, bready malt and firm but not overbearing hops. Serve it cold when the weather’s hot and then get me three to five more and a sandwich. Turkey club. Mustard, yeah. But no mayo. That stuff’s wack, man.

It’s been a busy 2009 so far, beer readers. I’ve had time to sample some new brews, but I haven’t been able to tell you folks about them. My humble whatevah. Anyway, here’s a review for you. Enjoy with a side of beer.

Mission Street’s beers are very good. You may recall earlier this month when I discussed their Pale Ale. Well, what’s the logical progression? Yeh… India Pale Ale. These beers run you$5.99 a 6-pack. Good recession brew.

This IPA is a good kind of “standard bearer” brau.* Nice amber body and a dissipating white head in top. It’s very hop heavy, as is to be expected. Pine and floral hops dominate the aroma and initial flavor. The body has enough malt to stand up to the hoppy invasion** but this beer is not for those who don’t like hops. In the finish the character grows slightly more citrus in taste and the sip ends rather dry. The 6.1% ABV is surely adding a bit of taste to the beer but it’s subtle enough to remain anonymous. The active carbonation keeps the flavor movin’—serve it cold when it’s hot. Awwwwww yeah.

Those daring, beautiful people have done it again: Jim Koch and his Samuel Adams crew have made me scream like a little girl. Here’s an article (ahem) lifted from their newsletter. Why gild the lily, I asked myself. Read on. Oh, the beer of it all!

Pushing Beer’s Boundaries

In 1984 Jim Koch first brewed Samuel Adams Boston Lager® thus helping set the stage for American beer drinkers’ broadening interest in high-quality, full flavored brews. Now in 2009 we give you the Samuel Adams Imperial Series. Three distinct brews available in their own 4-packs, the Samuel Adams Imperial Series takes some of your favorite traditional beer styles and kicks them up a notch. Each is brewed with twice the amount of malt found in Samuel Adams Boston Lager. With more robust flavors these brews are intended to be savored and appreciated like you would a fine wine. This new series of beers will be offered year-round and includes Samuel Adams® Imperial White, Samuel Adams® Imperial Stout and Samuel Adams® Double Bock. Read on for a more detailed description of each…

9.2% ABV. Much bigger than your average stout, Samuel Adams Imperial Stout is a colossal beer inspired by centuries-old stouts. These traditional stouts were first brewed by 18th century English brewers for the Russian Imperial Court of Catherine the Great.

The first thing you notice about this beer is its color. It is black as night and almost completely opaque. Next is the cappuccino colored head: the aroma is filled with notes of coffee, smoky chocolate and licorice. And the taste delivers on all of those aromas, you can pick out each one.

Samuel Adams Imperial Stout was brewed with seven different varieties of malted barley, including Roasted Barley, Special B and smoked malt, each delivering its own unique flavor to the beer. But this beer is not a “malt bomb”. It is balanced by 50 BUs of East Kent Goldings hops that have a clean earthy aroma and pleasant bitterness. This is a colossal beer that should be savored and enjoyed.

10.3% ABV. Samuel Adams Imperial White expands the boundaries of the witbier style. While showcasing the traditional witbier aromas and hazy appearance, it delivers a bigger mouthfeel and body.

This beer has a lot going on. Brewed with 50% malted wheat and two-row Harrington and Metcalfe malted barley, Imperial White also includes a number of brewing spices, highlighted by the orange peel and coriander. The rest of the flavors come from the yeast and the alcohol. As this beer warms and opens up, you start to get complex flavors of dry fruits, exotic spices, and floral blossoms. These are flavors typically associated with wine and spirits, but they are showcased in Samuel Adams Imperial White as a bouquet of flavors. We knew we were going to enjoy watching this beer develop and we are thrilled with the result.

9.5% ABV. Over the past 20 years, Samuel Adams Double Bock has become one of the Samuel Adams Brewery’s most acclaimed beers. An enormous amount of two-row Harrington Metcalfe and Caramel 60 malts, half a pound per bottle, is used to brew this intense, rich lager. This beer is close to the idea of beer as “liquid bread.”

Samuel Adams Double Bock, as with all of the beers in the Imperial Series, is brewed using only first wort (wort that has not been sparged in the lauter tun) to obtain a liquid that has a very high sugar content, or gravity. This high gravity allows for a fuller body and higher alcohol content in the final beer. We age this beer for over 4 weeks to allow all of those intense flavors to develop and mature. For it’s inclusion in the Imperial Series, we’ve amped up the recipe for Samuel Adams Double Bock a little to reach 9.5% ABV, but you still get those complex rich flavors that define the style.

Its deep mahogany color, velvet smooth, rich yet slightly citrusy flavor and mouthfeel is a testament to the beer’s balance. In the past, Samuel Adams Double Bock has been available only for a short six-week period. The brewers have decided to make it available year-round with the other Big Beers in the Samuel Adams Imperial Series.