Saturday, July 16, 2011

Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project's American Darling Pale Lager


Pretty Things, or as pronounced in the South, Purty Thins, started up in Yorkshire, England and was inspired by some old ass church that had some pretty messed up shit carved in the walls. Messed up in the 1800s fashion but completely normal by today's standards. Example being that Lewis Carroll allegedly wrote several pages of "Through the Looking Glass" here.

Dann Paquette, booze snob and mustachioed hooch aficionado, began brewing when he was 22 and since then has set up shop in Buzzard Bay's brewery in Westport. He's drug his wife and about half a dozen other guys with him to make his booze.

The project themselves is based out of Somerville, Massachusetts and their beer can be found in the Boston area in convenience stores and bars, and on tap if you are lucky. It is unlikely you will find them in the hands of homeless people as they run about $6 for a double-deuce. Most commonly you will run into their Jack D'Or but they currently have about 6 beers in the arsenal.

This beer in their American Darling Pale Lager. What drags people to this beer is the label which looks pretty neat, to put it poetically. Also, it's 7.0% ABV which with get you drunker than, say, a punch in the mouth. They use German Pilsner malts and a caramel Pilsner malt and mix it with three differerent hops; Saphir, Perle, Hallertau. Pretty much all that stuff comes directly from Germany so if you consider how expensive it'd be to get all that stuff and make the beer yourself, it'd just be cheaper to drink this. Plus I'm sure Customs would be a pain! It's IBU is 45 so its easy on ingestion. The Perle hops give the beer a slightly fruity taste and smell and the Pilsner malts they jack into it give it a great, full bodied, malty taste. The rest of the hops might give you a slightly bitter aftertaste but nothing worth worrying about. It's refreshing, that's for sure, and it's a great beer to have on a balcony with a few friends as you rip into some baseball cards.

In conclusion it's a little expensive to get into a serious habit of drinking, but when you consider a bottle of Bud Light runs about $2.50 at the store and it's half as strong, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to say this isn't the worst deal on the block. Try it out and enjoy it with some friends or buy a bunch of them and drink them in front of your enemies and don't share them at all; I got your back!

Other Pretty Things Reviews:
St. Botolph's Town Dark Ale
Jack D'Or Saison Americain

Drinkability: 6/10
Taste: 6/10
Value: 6/10
Curb Appeal: 8/10

Overall: 6.5/10

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