Tröegs Brewing Company's Pale Ale

This is another beer from my favorite country, the United States of America. Tröegs Brewing company pushes out a Pale Ale in their operations which is the focus, one of many, of this review. To learn more about Tröegs, click here when I reviewed their Dreamweaver Wheat Ale.

So Pale Ales are probably my second or third favorite types of ales. I like them because, just like John Stamos's hair, it's hard to mess up. It's sort of like going to a high school dance with a really loose girl; you may not brag about it but you're guaranteed to enjoy yourself and if you throw up afterwards, you know you had a blast. But then they keep calling you to hang out, and you can only use the "I gotta mow the yard" excuse so many times until you flat out gotta tell her that she's a skank. Then her new boyfriend Moose finds out about what you said and he wants to pound your face into custard! I mean, was it worth it to go through all that hassle? Yes; but not by much. It's like, "C'mon Moose, is she really worth it?"

Now, unlike skanky girls, this Pale Ale is dandy and wholesome fun for everybody. It's got an ABV of 5.4% and a swell taste. They use Munich and Pilsner (you know!) malts and Liberty and Cascade hops, with Full Leaf Cascade hops in their Hopback...of Notre Dame. Cascade hops are pretty much essential in the brewing of Pale Ales, as you might remember, and they certainly don't hold back of those. It's got a pretty malty consistency and a smooth taste. Bitter, as is the custom with Pale Ales but dry enough so it doesn't leave too strong of a bitter after taste in your mouth. It smells surprisingly mellow; no overbearing scents. A lot of Pale Ales will have a strong bitter or floral aroma, but Tröegs keeps it nice and subtle. It is actually pretty deceiving given the full bodied taste of the beer.

This is a great Pale Ale and compliments the variety pack nicely, which I picked up for $16. It's similar to their Amber Ale, but they use the Cascade Hops rather than the Nugget, along with a few other things. But it's great. It has an IBU of 45, which is pretty standard for a Pale Ale. When comparing it to the majority of Pale Ales out there, I wouldn't say it's outstanding, but it's as just as good as Sierra Nevada or you're run-of-the-mill local Pale Ale provider. The label is pretty "blah" but you are sure to make a bigger impact rolling with Tröegs than Sierra Nevada, especially if you are in Pennsylvania.

Drinkability: 6/10

Taste: 6/10

Value: 5/10
Curb Appeal: 6/10

Overall: 5.8/10

Other reviews from Troegs:

Dreamweaver Wheat

Hop Back Amber Ale

Summer Pilsner

Matt Brewing Company's Saranac Irish Stout

"I'm a little teapot that's what I'm all about, this is a review of Saranac's Stout."

That was supposed to rhyme. So I initially covered Matt Brewing Company here, who are the brewers of Saranac beers.

I was saving the Irish Stout for last on purpose when I picked up this variety pack for $14. Its not too shabby. I'm a fan of stouts and this is definitely not a beer you wanna down after eating a large turkey dinner, you turkey.

So this is a dark beer, as most stouts are, with an ABV of 5.5%. When smelling it, you get a very heightened sense of coffee and chocolate and the taste is no different. A lot of stouts taste similar, as these are not as vague as some ales and lagers. What I can say about this stout, in comparison of Guinness, who is the quintessential "holder of the flame" in the stout business, is that it is not as heavy or malty as a Guinness. It has a deep, rich flavor but not the full bodied taste that you would get out of a Guinness. Whether that is your steeze or not is your business.

When I get into a stout, nine times out of ten I don't wanna get off the couch after drinking three of them. This is a lighter stout, which in my case, is a bad thing. Now that I'm not gonna run the 110 meter hurdles after a sixer of these but I expect a little deeper, full bodied consistency when it comes to stouts. I also find the label on the bottle appropriate yet whack as shit. Really? Like a Celtic style clover? Stick with your forest and river labels! I find no reason to have American beer from New York trying to milk the Irish teet from across the Atlantic.

The use 2-row and Roasted Barley malts and Northdown and Golding hops. It has a slightly bitter aftertaste with a dry finish.

This is by no means a bad stout, but no means one that I would single out as "great". I've always found Saranac brews to be "decent" but nothing to write home about. As a whole, their variety packs are easily to slam and have a wide range of flavors that appeal to most palates. As far as a snobbery point of view, they aren't anything to get hung up on. They are great to have around when you're having a get together with people with a wide array of tastes. But don't expect them to rave about the brews the following morning and call you "Super King" or anything like that.

Drinkability: 6/10

Taste: 5/10

Value: 6/10
Curb Appeal: 4/10

Overall: 5.25/10

Other Saranac Brews:
Pale Ale
Brown Ale
Irish Red
Amber Ale
IPA

Tröegs Brewing Company's Hop Back Amber Ale

As the early Kevin Bacon said to the late Chris Penn in "Footloose", "HOP BACK!" Okay, he actually said "Jump Back" but you get the idea. The idea being that this is called "Hop Back Amber Ale". Clever name? Some may say. It's amber in color, so there's nothing clever about that. The "Hop Back" refers to the vessel used to transfer the wort to the fermentation containment unit that has the hops in which this flagship ale gets it's hopicity. I made that word up.

You might have remember I talked about Tröegs Brewing here when I reviewed their Wheat Ale. So if you're looking for any info on these hippies click up there. Other than that, Tröegs annually does a benefit for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, which is a foundation focusing on the treatment and cure of scarring and cyst formations on the pancreas; duh. It hosts 35 breweries, one is probably the Appalachian Brewing Company, also based out of Harrisburg. Actually, Tröegs is planning on moving their operations to Hershey, Pennsylvania in the fall of 2011, at which time the Harrisburg brewery will be decommissioned.

This is their amber ale. They use Pilsner (PILSNERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!) and Munich malts, Cascade, Williamette and Nugget Hops and Whole Leaf Nugget and Mount Hood hops in their Hop Back. This 6.0% ABV baby has an IBU of 45...45? No, 55. So I mean they use like 4 different types of hops so if you're surprised at that you must be as smart as Clay Aiken's girlfriend.

The Munich malt gives us a tinge of taste of a bitter Pale Ale. The Cascade hops add a medium bitterness and a decent amount of floral taste, whereas the majority of those flavors and bitterness spawn from the Nugget hops and the Williamette gives it a touch of spicy aftertaste. This is a surprisingly floral Amber Ale, whereas I'm used to a more caramel and sweet flavor. This holds the 55 IBU to its title. The fact they add more Nugget in their Hop Back definitely adds to the floral taste and no doubt added the Mount Hood for even more spice. This IBU is more common around a strong Pale Ale or a single hopped IPA, so this should appeal to mild IPA aficionados and the 6.0% ABV should appeal to the inner boozehound in all of us. The smell is strong in the floral department with a hint of sweet caramel. In a blind taste test I could almost mistake this for an IPA, and by "almost" I mean "easily" and by "a blind taste test" I mean "all honesty".

In review this is a decent beer, nothing I'd expect out of a Amber Ale but tasty nonetheless. This is a great beer for someone looking for a sweet IPA or someone who is looking for a very floral tasting beer. I wouldn't slam many of these after dinner because they sit a little heavy and have a rich, malty full bodied flavor. I wouldn't get it again but again, I like my IBUs below 50; but if it was above 9.0% ABV like Hoptimus Prime I can see myself knocking these back on a regular basis. I think they should just market this as an IPA and call it a night. I picked up a variety pack of 12 for $16.

Drinkability: 5/10

Taste: 5/10

Value: 6/10
Curb Appeal: 5/10

Overall: 5.3/10

Other reviews from Troegs:

Dreamweaver Wheat

Pale Ale

Summer Pilsner

Matt Brewing Company's Saranac Pale Ale

Matt Brewing company puts out a decent amount of beers out each year and this is their Pale Ale. You might remember Matt Brewing Company was initially reviewed here when I covered their IPA, so if you wanna know more about them just click on that you big wise guy!

Pale Ales are obviously a pretty common beer for breweries to make. It's about as common as Crocs at trashy waterparks like Waldameer or as common as me eating too many fries at The Potato Patch...at Waldameer. The important thing to remember is that french fries are delicious, but like most things in life, must be taken in moderation. Also, In-And-Out make some great fries. I can literally put down about 4 orders. So for this one they use English Pale Ale malts and Cascade and East Kent hops which yields an ABV of 5.5%.

Now Cascade hops are pretty common in beer popular in the West Coast of the USA; such as the ever-famous Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. This obviously yields a moderately bitter and floral taste to the beer whereas the East Kent Goldings will add a touch of spice that the Sierra Nevada does not. There are also citrus undertone as in most pale ales, so that's pretty common. It has can uncommonly sweet scent to it, which is in contrast to the bitter taste. There is a slight aroma of the hops as you'd expect.

This baby has some nice head on it. As far as pale ales go, its right around the median. If you like a spicier pale ale, this might be right up your alley. Me? The bitterness is nice, but I'm not much of a spicier type of guy. If you are a guy caught in between IPAs and Pale Ales, this is for you. If you are a more citrus, smooth maltier Pale Ale guy, I'd steer clear. I would definitely drink this again, but I wouldn't be in any hurry. This beer is average, for me, from the top the the bottom. A nice addition to the 12 pack, which I bought for $13.99, but I don't think it could stand on its own and Matt Brewing might want to dig a little deeper to make an exceptional Pale Ale.

Drinkability: 5/10

Taste: 5/10

Value: 5/10
Curb Appeal: 5/10

Overall: 5.0/10

Other Saranac Brews:
Irish Stout
Brown Ale
Irish Red
Amber Ale
IPA

Tröegs Brewing Company's Dreamweaver Wheat Ale

Every so often there's a brewery that almost wants to make it hard to type their name, and Tröegs is certainly one of those. Now I'm ALL about the extended Latin alphabet as everyone who's ANYONE knows, but let's face it you turkeys; you brew beer in Pennsylvania, not Germany, Sweden, Iceland, or any other countries that use umlauts on their "O's". Just to bring this all full circle, for all the aspiring language majors out there, this particular umlauts is the trema whose primary objective is to piss me off. Put that in your thesis!

That aside, Tröegs have been gracing the world with their hooch since 1997. Apparently these two brothers, Chris and John Trogner (real original) were raised in Mechanicsburg, PA; which is around Harrisburg, the capital of the commonweath of Pennsylvania. They were separated, one living in Philly and the other in Boulder, but would talk often about brewing schemes, as they both got into this around the same time by chance. They decided to start a brewery after taking some management classes in Colorado and brewing class in the Keifer Sunderland School of Booze, or some shit, in England. Next thing you know, BAM, they started up a brewery in Harrisburg under the name Tröegs; which is like if the words Trogner and kroeg (Belgian-Dutch for pub) got drunk and made some mistakes under the high school bleachers.

These rascals have about 9 regular beers in rotation but are always concocting shit Willy Wonka style. You can try out some tastings of their small batch miracles at their brewery, tours start at 2:00 every Saturday and you can even talk to Slugworth about it afterward without John and Chris getting all pissed at you. They also maintain a blog that discourages people like myself from starting a brewery because it really seems like way more work than I'm capable of...though I am really lazy but their operation is impressive. They also do a shitload of beer tastings over the Mid-Atlantic, like Boston to DC, that area.

Their Dreamweaver Wheat is clearly named to the booze they drank when making their website, or so I tend to tell myself. Its got some Vienna and Pils malts and 35% Wheat, which I'm guessing, its a wheat malt...? Judges? The also use Saaz hops and German Wheat yeast. The Saaz hops give it a spicy flavor, as it will typically do. There is definitely a wheaty taste to this and a low bitterness, hitting 15 IBU's. There is a very dry finish to this beer, though not unappealing. It has a slight citrus taste and a strong citrus scent complimented by the robust smell of wheat. It doesn't suggest putting fruit in it but I will just for posterity:

So it has a very strong lemon scent now and a slight lemon taste. In conclusion, if you put lemons in it, it smells like lemons AND, wait for it, tastes like lemons. It;s not overbearing and I'd suggest it to anyone drinking this. It can stand alone but if you want to tone down the strong wheat taste, of any wheat beer that is, you can gamble a lemon slice.

Overall a great beer, bolder taste than the Abita so if wheat is up your alley, this is a great beer for you and a lemon in the bastard will appeal to women and children also. It only has 4.8% ABV which is a blow, though wheat beers tend to be on the lower side. I got this sucker in a variety pack of Tröegs for $16.00 for 12, so this is a better deal than going roshambo with someone or some Russian Roulette. I am slightly miffed by their label and merchandise; there seems to be a lot of hippy shit going down in Harrisburg. Your street cred will go up with this lesser known tasty brew but you might find yourself playing footbag in a drum circle! So watch out.

Drinkability: 8/10

Taste: 8/10

Value: 5/10
Curb Appeal: 6/10

Overall: 6.8/10

Other reviews from Troegs:

Hop Back Amber Ale

Pale Ale

Summer Pilsner

East African Breweries Tusker Lager

This is the first African beer to be reviewed on ILTS. We don't have anything against Africans or anything, it's just that there aren't many African beers out there. At least not that I know of, cuz I'm just an ignorant white American male.

East African Breweries Limited  is a huge consortium of many smaller breweries and distilleries, and they even own a glass company. Not crystal meth glass, but I think real glass like you'd have in your car windshield, if you have a car windshield that is. Somehow they are in bed with Smirnoff, and they even have a graduate programme (correct spelling). I'm pretty sure you would get a PhD in African beer-ology if you complete it, which is a helluva lot better than the one I have (#humblebrag).

Tusker has been made by EABL since 1923, when one of their founders, George Hurst, was killed by an elephant during a hunting accident. They then named the beer "Tusker" in honor of the murdering beast. I don't know about you, but I think this story sounds fishy. I bet old George was into some sort of elephant-bestiality-salad-tossing-thing, and when he wasn't doing a good job, the elephant got bored and sat on the poor bastard. Elephant-bestiality sounds innocent enough kids, but always make sure that you are in a safe position and can't get squished! Despite poor George's demise, Tusker has gone on represent 30% of Kenya's beer market. Again, this ignorant white American male does not know what the other 70% is, but there must be other African beers that people buy down there.

The Tusker Lager is a weird kind of beer, something of an enigma if you will. It is classified by the United States Library of Congress as a lager, but it is quite dark and tastes rather like a stout or a bock. You can really taste the malt in this brew, even though it is really light tasting and pretty easy to drink at only 4.2% ABV. I'd imagine an African Elephant could drink 75 of these no problem (but the Indian Elephant could only drink 52, what a pussssayyyy). I got one of these in 12oz bottle format for $1.79 at the co-op, which is a pretty nice deal for an African beer. Imagine the shipping costs! The curb appeal is sky high because there is an elephant on the label and its named after a killer elephant. Is there a Jaws beer out there?

Let's keep expanding our horizons, ILTS brethren, and try this and other African beers. It can only make you a better person.

Drinkability: 6/10

Taste: 5/10

Value: 6/10

Curb Appeal: 8/10

Overall: 6.25/10

Mistakes We've Made: Manipulating 40s.

Mistakes We've Made is a biweekly editorial feature about, well, booze related mistakes that we've all made and what to learn from these all too familiar situations. First up: the mistake that adding something to a 40 somehow makes it less disgusting.

There's a point in every booze fan's life where drinking forty ounce beers happens. This usually starts around late high school and, God willing, usually wraps up about a year or 2 after college. 40 nights happen for all sorts of reasons, ranging from economic hardship to purely racist parties but generally end up with some sort of hungover regret. After a few solid weeks of scraping together change to catch a buzz, you yearn for something new. Something exotic. That's when you hit Google or ask a friend for new twists on old favorites. Results are downright terrifying and best left to professional homeless. We'll stick to the big 3: the Brass Monkey, the Redeye, and whatever the hell the cool name for adding Sylvia's hot sauce to Olde English is.

The Brass Monkey is, well, to put it nicely, downright awful. First rearing its ugly head to me somewhere around 2003, the Brass Monkey is concocted by drinking an ice cold Olde English to the top of the label, filling it with tropicana orange juice, mixing, and continuing drinking. When written down, none of this sounds like a good idea, but when someone suggests it at 8am before a tailgate, it sounds somewhat appealing. Do not believe your inner-thoughts. This sucks. It basically tastes like bootleg Blue Moon with a hell of a lot more malt liquor. The orange juice takes the edge off, but adds hours upon hours of agonizing heartburn to your drunk. 2 of these suckers and you're about ready to give it up behind a van in some alley. Which to be honest, is probably where you belong anyways.

A red eye is basically the same idea as the Brass Monkey, except endorsed by old people instead of hip city folk. Grab a High Life or Bud Light, drink about 1/4, fill up with some Clamato juice, and swill away. Homeless bloody marys are probably the best way to describe the taste, with the clammy tomato juice mixing oh so delicately with the beer. Ask an old person and they'll swear by the medicinal qualities of the red eye for a wicked hangover. Ask a normal, rational human and they'll do everything in their power to prevent you from trying this. Oh yeah, Budweiser execs drink these so much that they decided to pre-bottle it and sell it right next to the forties, taking out all the guesswork.



Lastly, and certainly the most disgusting, is the whack assumption that hot sauce makes everything better. While this is generally true for food, the belief that it can be carried over to booze it perhaps the biggest mistake you can make. No idea who told me this, but it was someone employed by Penn State Housing Services in 2004ish. Basically, this is exactly what it sounds like: you crack open some malt liquor in 40oz form (I tried Colt 45), add a few shakes of Sylvia's hot sauce, mix around and indulge. No clue who decided that this was a good plan, but it tastes worse than anything imaginable. Basically bottled and liquified burps after you eat a dozen hot wings and down 3 beers. Again, some exec somewhere decided this was the future, because you can buy it premade.

Next time: the many dangerous varieties of jungle juice, and why college wouldnt exist without it.