Pennsylvania Invasion!

Today I'll be trying beers from the Erie (PA) Brewing Company, Troegs Brewing Company, Great Lakes Brewing Co., and... well, this last one is a surprise! ...and not a very good surprise.

Starting things off, we've got a brew from the Erie Brewing Company, out of Erie, Pennsylvania. They offer up a great 6.8% ABV malty brew called Railbender Ale, which from the looks of the bottle's label, the beer is brewed on a train. Known for delicious brews like the Derailed Black Cherry Ale (5% ABV cream ale with a cherry back to it) and (I kid you not) the Hard Cock Ale (6.8% ABV American Pale Ale).

This Scottish style ale is has a very sweet taste up front, a nice malt kick in the back and a great dark red/brown color. It has a nice smell to it, kind of sweet and malty- for sure unique to this beer. It's also one of the only brews I've ever seen with virtually no head at all- it was gone seconds after the pour. As for flavors, the malt was a bit strong, but you can manage to taste raisins, toffee and a nice smoky bit of caramel. This is a fantastic beer that I could drink all night long.

Let's move on to the OTHER Pennsylvanian brewery on today's menu, Troegs.

Troegs Brewing Company out of Harrisburg offers a variety of brews, from the Rugged Trail Ale (4.4% ABV nut brown ale with chocolate hints!) to the boner inducing Mad Elf Ale, an 11% ABV winter seasonal that combines chocolate, cherry and honey. In all seriousness, Mad Elf Ale is amazing and I can NOT wait to drink it again.

Today, I'll be trying the HopBack Amber Ale from Troegs. Described as the breweries "flagship" beer, this brew has an interesting story behind it.

HopBack Amber Ale derives its name from a vessel in the brewhouse called a hopback. As the "wort" is being transferred from the brewhouse to fermentation it passes through the hopback vessel. Packed full of fresh whole flower hops, the wort (liquid extracted from the mashing process during brewing) slowly circulates through this vessel extracting the essence of the aromatic hops. This vessel adds more time and more hop character that creates a fresh, spicy taste and rich caramel not that defines this signature ale.

A 6% ABV ale, HopBack has a great cloudy amber/red color to it. It's strange, when I first smelled this beer the one word that came to me was "clean". No idea why. Besides the cool color, HopBack has a nice sweet smell, kind of citrusy/hoppy with pine notes. A great malt/hop combo taste, it has some very floral hops when it all comes down to it. A bit creamy with some spice, but not too much- I've never tasted an ale quite like this before. I did notice that it's pretty dry- after my first sip, I needed another one right away, and this time me being a drunk had little to do with it. A very crisp and refreshing beer, but not as hoppy as I had expected.

Moving on, Great Lakes, as usual, has another great beer to try: Holy Moses White Ale. I can never get enough of this breweries beer, so, seeing as I never tried this one before, I was pretty excited. GL describes the beer as:

A handcrafted White Ale with spices and chamomile. Named after Cleveland's founding father Moses Cleaveland, our with ale has a cloudy appearance and a spicy citrus flavor with hints of coriander, orange peel and chamomile.

Witbier in style, this brew offers up an impressive 5.4% ABV. Cloudy yellow in color, I would compare this to the Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse I had a few weeks back. The aroma on this one is interesting, sweet with scents of citrus (orange more than lemon) and spice (clove? or is that the chamomile?). The taste is just like the smell, citrusy with a nice spice kick to it and a distinct tartness upfront. Of course, being a Great Lakes beer, there is a certain hoppyness to it, but not as intense as other GL brews.

If I had to describe this beer in one word, it would be: refreshing. A nice seasonal Belgian style witbier, I would recommend it to the Belgian brew style fans or anyone looking to cool the fuck down on a hot day. Tasty!

And my surprise beer IS... Brava! The beer of the summer!

Ugh. The story behind this regretful purchase is: my old man and I went to some Canadian casinos for his birthday. I ended up winning at some slots (thank you, Alien Vs Predator interactive video slot machine) and on our way to the border, we drove past a Beer Store. Being a drunk, we had to stop and buy something and Brava Premium Lager caught my eye.

Mini rant: the number one beer in Canada is Coors Light (brewed in the US), which is strange because the number one beer in Buffalo, New York is Labatt Blue Light (brewed in Canada)... odd. A 30 pack of Coors in Canada is $38.50, while it's $22 here in the United States. Remember, the Canadian dollar (the loonie) is stronger than the US dollar is... it's a sad time we live in, friends. I must say, when I checked out the prices at the Beer Store, I was glad to be from America.

Ok so, Brava Premium Lager is brewed by the Lakeport Brewing Company out of New Brunswick, Canada. It has a 5.0% ABV (directly related to my decision to buy this, fyi). This bad boy is yellow in color with a very malty smell and taste. It's refreshing in the sense that if you had nothing else to drink, this would it the spot. The ABV helped because I was drinking this beer for the sole purpose of getting drunk, but I would not drink it over other Canadian brews like Labatt Blue Light or Molson Canadian.

Brava 5/10
Holy Moses 8/10
Railbender Ale 8/10
Troegs 6.5/10