Wells Banana Bread Beer

I keep seeing Wells Banana Bread Beer all over the place near me, but I had some reservations about trying it -- it seemed like a love it or hate it kind of beer.  But, when I went out for dinner with my husband and a friend of ours, it was on tap at the restaurant, so I decided to gopher it:

Vittles:
Fruit Beer
5.2% abv

Score:
Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 20/25
Taste: 35/40
Mouthfeel: 7/10
Style: 5/5
Drinkability: 8/10
Overall: 82/100

Impression:
I can never get a decent pour when I go out for drinks -- there's almost never any head on the beer by the time it gets to my table.  I'm pretty sure it's at least partly due to the fact that they use detergent to clean the glasses (don't get me wrong, I prefer the glasses I share with strangers to be as sanitized as possible), and surfactants do detract from the head formation and retention, so the beer's almost never "pretty."  Anyway, the aroma delivers exactly what you'd expect from a banana bread beer -- heaps of banana, bread, yeast, and a warm nuttiness in the background.  The flavors match the aroma almost exactly, but the nuttiness, caramel, and yeasty-breadiness are more apparent on the tongue than in the nose.  It's fairly sweet but nicely dodges the cloying bullet.  I found my beer to be a little under-carbonated, but that could be due to the bar that served it rather than an inherent fault of the beer itself.  I'd like to try this one again, maybe from a bottle so I can compare.

Cheers!

Blue Moon Blackberry Tart Ale

I've had a couple Blue Moon varieties in the past, but I haven't yet had a chance to taste their Blackberry Tart Ale:

Vittles:

Fruit Beer

5.8% abv

9 IBU

Score:

Appearance: 9/10

Aroma: 17/25

Taste: 30/40

Mouthfeel: 7/10

Style: 4/5

Drinkability: 7/10

Overall: 74/100

Impression:

I can't say I'm overly impressed.  It tastes like their basic Belgian White with blackberry flavoring added in, to be honest.  Granted, this version is clear and the Belgian White is cloudy, but aside from that, the base aroma and flavor profiles are very similar, with blackberry being the only real distinguishing point.

The beer poured with a decent head, but the head settled out in seconds and left no lacing on the glass.  The nose held mostly wheat, bread, and fruit/berries.  The flavor is much the same, but more tart than I expected, despite the name of the beer.  It kind of tastes artificial or chemically or something -- not quite a natural fruit flavor.  With a light body and a slightly bitter-dry finish, t's not as refreshing as I would have thought, either.  It's certainly not the best Blue Moon variety I've had, but it's not the worst, either.

Cheers!

Curious Traveler Shandy

Summertime is the perfect time for a shandy.  I used to make a delicious shandygaff with whatever pilsner I had on hand, mixed 1:1 with ginger beer.  But, I don't always have pils and/or ginger beer handy, and my husband seems to have an affinity for different kinds of shandies, so I wind up trying them when he buys them:

Vittles:
Fruit Beer
4.4% abv

Score:
Appearance: 6/10
Aroma: 18/25
Taste: 32/40
Mouthfeel: 7/10
Style: 4/5
Drinkability: 7/10
Overall: 74/100

Impression:
It doesn't really look all that impressive, with very little head and even less in the way of head retention.  The beer itself looks so dull, though I have seen other shandies that appear very brilliant.  It kind of looks like murky sink water.  The aroma smells artificially sweet and lemony.  I do catch a faint whiff of wheat, but it's nearly drowned out by the more prominent artificial scents.  The flavor is decent, though it also tastes very artificial.  It tastes like they made a weak wheat beer base, then stirred in a bunch of lemonade powder mix.  Unimpressive lemonade with a bit of a kick is the best description I can think of for this beer.  The only decent thing about it is that it leave virtually no aftertaste.  If you're into shandies, you might like it, but if you're looking for a good, solid beer, you'll probably want to look elsewhere.

Cheers!

Horny Goat Watermelon Wheat

Watermelon Wheat sounded like it could either be very tasty or absolutely disgusting.  I decided to risk a couple bucks on a bottle and see what it was all about:

Vittles:
Fruit Beer
5.3% abv

Score:
Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 19/25
Taste: 34/40
Mouthfeel: 7/10
Style: 4/5
Drinkability: 7/10
Overall: 79/100

Impression:
My first whiff was grainy, sweet, and fruity, but I wouldn't have thought watermelon -- it smelled more like berries.  I was sort of surprised that I tasted more watermelon than anything else.  It tasted like straight watermelon juice with a hint of wheat in the background.  My husband had a couple sips and said he couldn't taste the watermelon at all, but it was extremely prominent for me.  It wasn't an overpowering taste, just unmistakably watermelon.  I actually thought it was fairly tasty, and as it warmed to room temperature, the fruit and wheat flavors seemed to even out a bit more.  I'm glad I gave this one a shot, and I'd probably have it again sometime, but I wouldn't go out of my way for it.

Cheers!

Shock Top Lemon Shandy

Last summer, my husband and I shared a beach house with my folks.  We wanted something light and crisp to bring to the beach with us, something sessionable that wouldn't leave us too dehydrated after a long day in the sun and surf.  My husband wound up getting a case of Shock Top Lemon Shandy cans, and he liked it quite a bit.  So, when Lemon Shandy hit the shelves at the distributor near us, he bought another case of it:

Vittles:

Fruit Beer

4.2% abv

Score:

Appearance: 7/10

Aroma: 18/25

Taste: 30/40

Mouthfeel: 7/10

Style: 4/5

Drinkability: 8/10

Overall: 74/100

Impression:

It's really just adult lemonade with a wheat base.  The aroma is mostly lemony, but it seems like too sweet or artificial of a smell.  You can kind of sort of make out some mild wheat aroma, too, but it is much less obvious than the lemon flavoring.  The taste is sort of like lemon-flavored PEZ with wheat in the background.  None of the flavors are very strong, which is a plus, since it makes the beer light, crisp, and somewhat refreshing once you get past the overly-sweet lemon flavor.  It is fairly easy to session this beer, though, and it does somehow work very well on a hot, sunny day.  We'll probably get it again to enjoy on the beach when we go down the shore later this summer.

Cheers!

Sam Adams Longshot Strawberry Lager (Dave Anderson)

I have often wondered by breweries don't release their own mixed 6ers.  I wasn't even sure why most variety packs seemed to come with only 3 different beers, though recently I'm starting to see them with up to six different beers.  That's an amazing improvement, in my eyes, though I'd still like to see that trickle down to the 6ers.  So, when I saw a 6er that had 3 varieties in it, it caught my eye.  And the varieties all came from a homebrew competition -- I'm all about supporting homebrewers, so long as they brew good shit.

Sam Adams Longshot Strawberry Lager (by Dave Anderson) is the first beer I tried from the Longshot 6er I picked up earlier in the week.  I've been having a whole bunch of IPAs lately, so a fruit lager seemed a good way to mix it up:

Vittles:

Fruit Beer

5.5% abv

Score:

Appearance: 8/10

Aroma: 18/25

Taste: 24/40

Mouthfeel: 7/10

Style: 5/5

Drinkability: 6/10

Overall: 68/100

Impression:

The aroma was very appealing, dominated by a strong smell of strawberries.  I could smell something citrusy, as well, and there's a faint toffee hint in the background.  However, the taste was disappointing.  It certainly has strawberry flavor, and I could taste the toffee as well, but the two flavors just did not jibe.  Part of the problem for me is that the strawberry flavor is very prominent, but it lacks any sweetness to cut the acerbically bitter edge.  The strawberry flavor just isn't as palatable without at least a degree of sweetness to offset it, and it kind of jars on the tongue.  When I smelled this beer, I really wanted to like it, but the taste just doesn't pan out.  I'm not saying this needs to be an overly sweet beer, but as it is, it's not well balanced.  I would not buy this beer again.

If I had bought a 6er of this brew, I would've been very upset, so I'm glad there's only one more of these beers in the 6er.  My husband can have it.  Or I'll cook with it.  I have yet to drain-pour a beer, and I'm not about to start throwing money down the drain now.

Cheers!

Magic Hat #9

Today's selection is an old stand-by.  Years and years ago, Magic Hat used to be one of the few breweries we would actually buy sampler boxes from.  #9 was always one of our favorites because it's got a nice flavor and it's easy to drink either by itself or paired with dinner:

Vittles:

Fruit Beer

5.1% abv

20 IBUs

9 SRM

Appearance: 8/10

I was a little disappointed when I poured this beer because very little head formed atop the golden-amber body.  Low effervescence was also an unexpected, since I remember this being a moderately bubbly beer in the past.  I don't use soap on my beer-only glassware, since it can leave behind a residue that impairs head formation and retention (or so I've heard), so I'm not sure why the head was so unimpressive this time around.

Aroma: 22/25

Malty and fruity are the two best descriptors for this beer's aroma.  And I like the level and intensity of both. Neither one overwhelms the senses, but they're nicely balanced in the nose.

Taste: 33/40
Malt and apricot again carry the day.  It's mildly sweet, and there are floral and bready notes as well.  Again, the flavors aren't very strong, but they're in balance.  There's very little aftertaste, and the slight bitterness that does linger doesn't hang around for long.

Mouthfeel: 7/10
On the one hand, it's dry, crisp, and refreshing.  However, the medium-light body and lack of carbonation didn't add anything for me.  I'm not sure I ever really paid attention to the mouthfeel of this beer before, or maybe this is just a one-off bottle (which could explain the itty-bitty head, too).  Either way, it's a little lackluster.

Style: 4/5
Since Magic Hat bills this beer as a "not quite Pale Ale," I'm assuming that that's the underlying style for this fruit beer.  If that's the case, the IBUs and the bitter flavors are both a little on the low side.

Drinkability: 8/10
I could drink this beer back-to-back very easily, and I have done so before.  It's not a beer you have to sip and savor, nor is it one to keep your taste buds on edge, but it's very refreshing, especially during the warmer months.  I tend not to find this beer as enjoyable in colder months.

Overall: 82/100
#9 is a pretty average beer, all things considered.  It holds a bit of a special place with me because it's one of my gateway beers -- one of the beers that got me interested in craft, and for that I will always be grateful.  If it weren't for easily accessible, non-snobby craft beers like this one, I might still be drinking Red Dog, Pennsylvania Best, and the like.  We all have skeletons in our beer cellars.  Now you know one of mine.

Cheers!