Penn Brewery's Penn Weizen

Poured a 12 oz bottle into an imperial pint glass.

An old label. Nowadays look for a woman carrying bundles of wheat/grain.

A glowing amber look. Decent lacing, not a lot of head.

Awesome smell of banana muffins. Yeasty.

Delicious taste - a good amount of wheat, a lot of sweet bananas. Clove.

A very nice medium body. A solid mouthfeel.

Definitely one of Penn Brewery's best.

Church Brew Works - Pious Monk Dunkel

12 oz bottle poured into nonic pint glass.

Very pretty dark amber brown. Silky lacing.



Smells of malty caramel & brown sugar. Grainy alcohol & brown bread.

A medium body with alcohol & hops taking the lead, then caramel & brown sugar coming through to the palate.

A very calm mouthfeel; hardly one thing to complain about. Enough bite to make it a beer, enough tenderness to make it a wife.

Pretty much a solid, all around brew. There's nothing I dislike about it. Highly drinkable, and from me, highly recommended.

CRAFT BEER CONSUMER PROTECTION ACTION ALERT:
Live in or around the Pittsburgh area?  Check out the Church Brew Works Brewpub in Lawrenceville, PA, or look for their beer next time you visit your local distributor/six-pack shop.

Samuel Adams' Summer Ale

I'm pretty sure I had this on tap last summer at the Capstone Grill in Canonsburg, PA, and I wasn't really into it then. I figured I'd give it another shot, and be certain that I've actually tried the brew.

I poured a 12 oz bottle into my nonic pint glass.


The appearance is disappointing. Overly carbonated, weak head, spotty lacing, and a yellow-amber look.

The smell is a little better. Pretty refreshing, very zesty, grassy, with a touch of wet dog.

The taste is sub-par. Oily/soapy hop character (reminiscent of Victory's Prima Pils), cardboard, lemon zest. A good light-medium body, nonetheless.

The mouthfeel is quality. Active, but not angry and obnoxious.

Personally, buying a single of Samuel Adams' Summer Ale to try it out is fine (I paid about $1.67), but I' m not going near a case.

Bell's Two Hearted Ale

This beer tends to receive a lot of general compliments online, so I decided to finally give it a try.

It shows a pretty amber glow, with a solid white top.


Smells of sweet citrus fruits on ice (frozen pineapple & grapefruit), floral hops, a hint of bready character, possibly a pound cake in the far distance.

Taste is very astringent, with the hops pushing the max on bitterness. The taste is extraneous and surprisingly unrelated to the expectations derived from the welcoming smell. Warming notes from the alcohol, and a teasing amount of the citrus flavors from the smell that I expected to find more pronounced in the taste.

The mouthfeel offers a silky tingle, and the finish concludes with a lingering grainy aftertaste.

Not at all what I was expecting. I was hoping the citrus and/or floral character from hops traditionally tossed in an American IPA would show in this brew. The bittering character was, in my opinion, too dry and lacked a friendlier compliment. But, if you are into American IPA's that pack a bitter punch and leave the flower giving for anniversary celebrations, this one just might be what you are looking for.

If Bar Crawlers Drank Better Beer

The bar crawl has become the thing to do in today's American binge-beer culture. Chances are, if you haven't partaken in the all night activity yourself, you know someone who has.

Early on in my beer drinking lifestyle (not that long ago), my friends and I would do the "South Side Crawl" in the South Side of Pittsburgh, PA. We'd hit up half of a dozen bars in one night, walking, of course. It was a great way to freshen the view while imbibing bland light beer after bland light beer, and it certainly was an expression of our excitement from being able to be served alcohol like an adult finally.

Nowadays, a few friends still stick to the routine, but I've grown out of it for more than one reason. First being, I'm a married man. Not only do I have no interest in going to several bars in one night, intoxicating myself to the point that I shouldn't drive, but a married man has no business acting like a bachelor, and behaving like a fool with no attachments. Secondly, I don't drink light beer. Light beer is the key to bar crawls.

Light beer is the key to bar crawls for two reasons. One: light beer allows one to drink excessively all night, so walking to bar after bar to limited selection bar after limited selection bar isn't a problem. Secondly, and this really points to why bar crawls are so "fun": light beer is boring, and as a result, people that drink light beer tend to not enjoy staying in one place all night.

Light beer drinkers don't much like conservation either, unless it involves texting someone on their cell phone, discussing sports, or something else that is on a big-screen TV while at a bar (for the time being...). But after hanging around with someone in the same bar, even when a sports game is on (and that is pretty much always), after a little while the instinct for conversation rears its ugly head and the awkwardness of social obligation forces the light beer drinker to suggest, "Hey, how about we go to the next bar?"

This is where the craft beer drinker should step in and say, "Actually, I was kind of thinking I'd try that curious beer on tap that is flanked by Miller Lite & Budweiser. I heard it's a witbier. Want to give it a shot?" From that angle, as long as the crawler bit the bait, the possibilities for social interaction and--one can only hope--better beer drinking are pretty intriguing. Wouldn't you agree?

Wolaver's Organic Brown Ale

I poured a 12-oz bottle into a Czech Pilsner glass.

The brew is a nice brown mahogany with a lacy walnut-colored head.

The smell is deep, offering an immediate malty character, aggregated with lots of caramel & brown sugar, while the scent of alcohol sits way in the back.


Toasted malt, caramel, brown sugar, alcohol, all the qualities in the smell are found in the taste, but the alcohol comes through a bit stronger.

The feel & finish is slightly grainy, with noticeable bitterness from what I can only assume is the presence of hops, though the overall character is hard to discern.

Overall, I really enjoy this beer from Wolaver's in Middlebury, Vermont. It has a moderate body, a healthy malt presence, and enough bittering units to more than satisfy the intrigued beer drinker.

A Tripel: Weyerbacher's Merry Monks' Ale

I've seen Weyerbacher brews prior to picking this one up.  In fact, I've used their empty 4-packs to carry out a variety of singles on more than one occasion.  Late last week, I finally decided to give them a shot.


I went with their brew, Merry monks' Ale  (about $2.04 a single).  It sits at 9.3% ABV.

A nice yellow-golden look with a healthy head and fairly decent lacing that falls back in the pool after a few seconds.  I smell an enormous amount of yeast, some alcohol, and ripe banana.

The taste is yeasty; definitely alcohol chords coming through due to the high content, and easily some fresh bananas.

A nice medium body, with a bitter mouth feel that surprisingly isn't too over the top.  For 9.3% ABV, Weyerbacher has pulled it off by offering up a great tasting brew--which reminds me of Franziskaner's Weissbier (but much stronger)--that at least matches, if not out does, the high level of alcohol.

Bell's Oberon Ale

12 oz bottle poured into nonic pint glass.
 

Appearance: Almost solid gold with a number of tiny, grayish-black floaties near the bottom. Quality lacing & refreshingly appealing head.

Smell: Faint oranges on top of toasted wheat bread.

Taste: A nice balance of wheat grains, slightly oily hops, & citrus chords. Grainy-hop presence is a bit astringent. Finishes with a lingering quality that fades out just in time.

Mouthfeel: Bitter up front with a silky lathering on the roof & tongue.

Drinkability: Medium body with a lighter taste. I definitely could enjoy more than a few.

Penn Brewery's Kaiser Pils

A few notes on Penn Brewery's Kaiser Pils:

I bought a case in California, PA for $28.59 before tax.

Drank some homemade elderberry wine in celebration of my grandfather-in-law's 91st birthday before I tasted this brew, which unfortunately threw off my taste buds.

I didn't much care for it last night, so I opened up a bottle today to give it another chance and let it breathe in a nonic pint glass. The result was in the positive direction.

There's no freshness date on the bottle, so who knows if the age of the brew is effecting the quality. The head has disappeared, 3/4's of the way in.

The look is yellow-golden; typical pilsner. The taste offers very oily, bitter hops. The smell is a little grassy, pretty refreshing, with a hint of barley.

Medium body, decent mouthfeel, but personally a brew I'll drink less of. I prefer Penn Dark, Penn Gold, & Penn Pilsner over Kaiser Pils from the brewery in the north side of Pittsburgh, PA.