Smuttynose Farmhouse Ale (NH)

This is a Smuttynose Big Beers seasonal that I'm catching late in its run. Still, the bottle dating implies it will be drinkable through 2011, so there's no concern about staleness.

This saison pours coppery orange with a big white head. It's medium-bodied with wonderful soft carbonation. The taste is primarily fruity -- maybe apricots and peaches -- and secondarily spicy. There's a touch of sourness involved as well, but the aftermath for me leans more toward fruity and maybe sugary. It would be nice if it were drier, but still, it's very, very good, a warm weather beer with great depth of flavor. It's over 7% ABV and tickles the ribcage a bit.

Before this. I think I've only ever had two saisons: Ommegang Hennepin, one of my favorite beers, and Southern Tier's disappointing Cherry Saison. I'd rank Smuttynose right up there with Hennepin. I haven't tried them side by side, but I think Hennepin is more perfumey and perhaps a bit wilder, while Smuttynose's take is fruitier. It may be a little late in the season to be drinking saison, but if you find it, this Big Beer is worth two purchases: one for now and one for the cellar.

BTW, the brewery's current seasonal is the intriguing Wheat Wine Ale, carrying a back story of a labeling battle with the Tax and Trade Bureau.

Custom BrewCrafters EPA (NY)

This is kind of exciting: Custom BrewCrafters has started bottling their beer. Located about a half hour's drive south of Rochester in Honeoye Falls, Custom BrewCrafters creates private label beers for many area restaurants and bars. Under their own name, they've also sold growlers at the brewery and a few other places. Only recently have they expanded their facilities for bottling.

This English-Style Pale Ale is "a well balanced amber ale with a smooth, dry finish," according to the label. Those expecting something like Sierra Nevada or Anchor Liberty will be disappointed. CB's brew leans more toward malt sweetness than hop bitterness, and the hops are herbal and floral. The malt base is slightly caramel or maybe toffee (and, admittedly, a touch watery), but the finish still pulls back dry. It's supposedly 5.1% ABV, but feels lighter. It's also quite low on carbonation by US standards (good!). This strikes me as a decent interpretation of the style, which isn't to say it's what American beer drinkers are yearning for. However, I like it, and am glad they went all English on us.

There's still the issue of the name. "Custom BrewCrafters" accurately depicts what the company originally set out to do, but is all wrong for a craft brewery. The label also calls it "CB's," which sounds like a forced nickname . But now that they're selling six packs, it's probably too late to change.

Rogue Younger's Special Bitter (ORE)

Rogue produces not one but two bitters: Brutal and Younger's Special. The former is their imperial version and thus receives most of the attention. I supose most US breweries would simply have called them pale ales. The bottle claims Younger's as 12 degrees Plato, 75 AA and 35 IBUs. It doesn't list the ABV, but I calculate about 1.048 OG and 1.012 FG (75% attenuation), which is just below 5%, which is what it says online.

Younger's is a nice looker, coppery with a pillowy head that sustains pretty well. It's not adventurous or anything, just nicely balanced between caramel malts and bitter hops (Willamette and East Kent Goldings, according to the bottle). I detect slight citrus and floral, slightly American I think. It has a pretty good hop bite to it, but not by American standards. The finish is dry. Drinking on a warm afternoon, it is very refreshing.

The problem is that, at my beer shop at least, this costs as much as the rest of the Rogue line ($6+ a bomber). That feels like too much for a sessions beer, even if a nice one at that.

Ratebeer's Adolescence

Beernews.org has a neat post about ratebeer eight years ago. An old screenshot shows Orval as the third highest rated beer, but with only three ratings. Now it has more than 1,800.

The post is interesting to me not so much as it pertains to ratebeer, but as it relates to the internet as a whole: how young it is, how old it seems. We're right in the midst of our first presidential election with Youtube, which didn't even exist in '04. It seems like it's been around forever. Then again, this campaign season seems like it's been going on forever as well.

Schwelmer Weizen (GER)

This is most likely my last hefeweizen for about eight months. The brewer says, in somewhat stilted English, "Schwelmer Hefe-Weizen features a fresh taste, for not only the hot days of the year." For me, however, there are plenty of other styles that take precedence as the weather cools.

I bought this because I've always liked Schwelmer's pilsner. The weizen looks like it should, with an extra craggy white head. It smells of banana bubblegum. Taste-wise, I'd like to think I could pick it out of a hefeweizen lineup. It pushes forth a prominent clovey spiciness and finishes on the dry side. There isn't much, if any, lemony citrus here. If you want to drink something you've never tasted before, don't order a hefe. Still, Schwelmer isn't just like all others. No guarantee you'll like it, but I did.

Baltika Zhigulevskoe (RUS)

For some reason I couldn't pass this up: a light (4%) Russian lager in a 1.5 liter ("1 qt., 1 pint, 3 fl. oz.") plastic bottle with a name in cyrillic lettering. It cost $2.99, which comes to about 75 cents per 12 ounces. Shaming so many microbreweries who don't do the same, Baltika provides both a production date (05.03.08) and a best before date (05.09.08). I'm assuming these are given in "little endian" date format, used in most places outside North America. If not, this beer has a very short shelf-life.

The body is more light brown than yellow, which is a good sign, and is nicely clear. However, there's not much aroma, and not much taste. This is more of a flavorless pale lager than an offensively tasting one. There's a slight corn sweetness that becomes cloying if you drink too much of it, or if you let the bottle warm up. Slight hops, slightly grainy malts. No real hop bite, though, and no rich maltiness. Still, I didn't think it was all that terrible, but it really needs accompanying food and maybe hot weather to make it worthwhile. The plastic bottle allows you to drink half, then put the cap back on and squeeze the bottle so as to reduce surface area and retain carbonation. That's a plus.

Lowering age and weight

The movement to lower the US drinking age has broken out in the last day or two, with news organizations reporting on the Amethyst Initiative. University presidents are not yet openly advocating for change, but calling for the issue to be discussed. Mothers Against Drunk Driving is, um, mad.

In the beer blogosphere, Fermentally Challenge is hosting a contest for those too old to handle college levels of binge drinking. They're now trying to lose weight while still drinking craft beer. If I were to play, I'd have to cut off an arm to win. Lucky metabolism, perhaps, although I'm pretty good about diet and exercise. Good luck to them. Just stay away from the three S's: soft drinks, Starbucks, and salty snacks. (Stone and Sam Adams are okay.)

Ommegang Witte (NY)

Witte is one of five Ommegang regulars, along with the eponymous abbey ale, Rare Vos, Three Philosophers and (my favorite) Hennepin. I don't think they sell Witte in anything smaller than the corked 750ml bottle.

As per instructions on the label, I poured slowly to keep the yeast sediment in the bottle (the opposite of what, say, Hoegaarden recommends). Thus, the body is only slightly hazy underneath its puffy, lacy head. On the tongue, it's cleaner for the lack of yeast (and possibly less complex). Instead, its mostly sweet citrus and coriander spice. Tastes a little like orange marmalade, and for some reason made me think of ice cream (!?). Witte isn't cloying though. The body is light and spritzy. Just for kicks, I poured in some yeast at the end, and it really changed the taste, adding some tangy and earthy aspects.

This seems to have a reputation as being the least of Ommegang's offerings, but I thought it really hit the spot on a summer's day. I've been drinking Hoegaarden recently as well, and might say I prefer Witte overall, but it depends on what you want. Hoegaarden admittedly does have more going on.