Mike Loves Beer

Name – Aphrodite
Country – United States
Type – Fruit Beer

It can be quite a treat finding a beer on the shelves that you’ve never seen, or even heard of, before.  This happened a few days ago with Ommegang Aphrodite.  I didn’t recall reading about this one coming out in the beer news.  No one locally told me anything about it so I was a bit taken back.

The bottles said it is fermented with brettanomyces, raspberries and pear.  Sounded interesting enough to me so I had to grab a bottle.

So I popped the cork and poured it into my Funky Buddha snifter.  It pours out a ruby red color with a big pink colored head.  I’ve seen a few beers with this color head before but it always looks cool every time.

The nose right away had raspberries in it.  There was a slight yeasty funk to it but I say the raspberries power through the most.

In the taste you are immediately hit with a nice tart raspberry taste.  The brett can be picked up for sure with some funky notes in there to boot.  It finishes dry and crisp with little to no sign of the 8.9% ABV in there.  Dangerous!

This beer drinks so well.  And not just as a sour fan but I believe you could get a few people that have never tried sours hooked on this.  The tartness is not overboard and extremely approachable.

I wish Ommegang made more sours.  I’ve liked everyone I have tried from this to Zuur all the way back to Rouge.  They seem to know what they are doing with them but don’t do them all that often.  Just great stuff.

So if you are a sour fan I think you should try this.  If you are new to sours and want to try one you should try this.  You might end up hooked on the pucker of sour ales like me.

Apologies for the image quality. Damn iPhone.

Grade - A-

Name – Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy
Country – United States
Type – Fruit Beer

Appearance – Pours ultra murky pale yellow with a big fluffy white head.

Smell – Well you definitely get lemon.  It actually smell a lot like the lemonade powder you might get at a store to make lemonade.  There is a hint of wheat as well in there.

Taste – Sweet lemonade flavor up front and a that’s really it.

I saw this on the shelves all summer and finally bit on it.  I figured I’d give this beer with lemonade in it a chance.  For what it is the beer isn’t bad.  It is exactly what it says and I can see this being ultra refreshing after working outside or being out in the sun all day.  I know a lot people will poo poo on it and I don’t think it is the best beer by any reach but I think it is straight forward in what it was suppose to be and there is nothing wrong with that.  If you haven’t had it yet I would say just give it a try as the summer is winding down.

Overall Grade – C+

Name – Magic Hat #9
Country – United States
Type – Fruit Beer

Appearance – Poured a clear orangish color with a big frothy white head.  It did leave a good amount of lacing.

Smell – Apricots and peaches are what I mostly get.  There is some malty smells to it as well.

Taste – The sweet tastes of apricots and peaches are in the taste as well.  A bready malt taste and ever so slight hopiness in there as well.

I’ve had #9 a number of times since arriving in the South Florida at bars and friends’ houses but never gotten around to giving it a review.  Magic Hat calls it a “Not Quite Pale Ale” and I can see that but the fruit tastes are so present that I think Fruit Beer is just right.  This is a really easy to drink beer and think it’s perfect as a gateway for people wanting to get into craft beer.  It doesn’t attack your senses with anything crazy but has more flavor than almost all macros available.

Overall Grade – B-