A fudging the rules Ale Adventure
One of the ‘rules’ of my Ale Adventure was that I would be drinking local and microbrewed beers, and so I feel slightly shifty including Magic Hat #9. Magic Hat, the brewery, is fairly local in its Vermont location, but it’s a fairly nationwide mainstay, which is pushing the boundaries of “micro”. In terms of quality, however, it fully deserves to be included on this list.
Magic Hat #9, as far as my research indicates, is technically an English style ale given its fermentation, but it drinks a lot more like a lager or a pilsner. I’m noticing more and more in my preferences in American beer that my favourites are the ones that stay true to their European heritage, and this beer does just that.
There’s a little podcast that I watch regularly (and have blogged about before) that uses the term “attack” when tasting wines. Attack is the very first, almost word-association-like idea that pops into your head when you take that first sip. The attack on this beer is phenomenal: very fresh, almost floral, almost fruity hops that somehow aren’t hoppy. If it wasn’t such a flamboyant cliche, I’d say that the attack was like a deep breath on a spring day. But it is, so I won’t say that. It must seem almost a contradiction that an attack could be well-balanced, and that’s why I really recommend trying this beer for yourself.
I had this on tap, and I was taken by the creamy effervesence that the body had – very bottle-like for a draught beer, which makes me think that there would be a very good translation of this beer between bottle and tap (unlike, say, Guinness, which is a mere shadow of it’s true glory when taken from bottle or can). This beer had almost no head, but that may have been a result from bad pouring at the bar – I don’t know. Colour was typical, if not a bit darker in hue, of most lagers and pilsners.
After the floralness, this beer’s main flavour was a hard to place citrus fruit. After two pints I’ve decided that it was orange flesh (as opposed to the Hoegaarden orange peel flavour), but wikipedia and the company website both cite it as apricot. I’ll gladly take this excuse to try it again, but that’s just not what I tasted.
Final verdict? If I could bring one beer back with me to the UK, so far this is top of my list. Head and shoulders above so much of what I’ve had here; this isn’t “good for an American beer”, it’s just a good beer.
Addendum (25/8/2008): I had this again tonight, and I will concede that it’s apricot all the way. Don’t know how I missed it before, perhaps keg freshness came into play.
Tags: Ale, Beer, Guinness, Magic Hat #9, Washington Square Tavern, Winelibrary.tv
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