Stone Brewing Levitation Ale

I’ve been enjoying Stone’s beers for several years now, but Levitation Ale has always escaped me, until now. Levitation is Stone’s version of a “session beer.” The term “session beer” comes from the traditional English pub and implies a low-alcohol, easy to drink beer that can be consumed in relatively large quantities (i.e. over the course of an evening or “session” at the local pub) without completely inebriating the drinker or totally fatiguing the palate. As such, session beers tend to be light-bodied, balanced (too much malt or hops can fatigue the palate quickly) and, of course, low ABV.

Stone’s Levitation is an American Amber style weighing in at 4.4%ABV and 45IBU’s. IBU’s can be somewhat misleading as they are in direct proportion to the amount of malt in the beer. For example, double IPA’s tend to be very malty tasting (maltier than normal IPA’s) even though they often have astronomical IBU ratings… IBU’s are tempered by high malt profiles, so a relatively low IBU beer can be a hop bomb while some high-IBU brews are malty. Stone is known for very hop-forward beers and “balance” is not often a word used in conjunction with their beers, so let’s find out if Levitation is a good session brew…

The beer pours a cloudy amber/red with a large tan head and lots of sediment in the glass. Aroma is as expected from Stone… plenty of hops, but also a surprising candy-like, sweet malt aroma. The hop aroma is slightly piney and resiny.

First impression: this is DEFINITELY a Stone beer. The hops are very forward and lean toward Stone’s trademark piney, resiny, grapefruit pithy side of the spectrum. Without the benefit of being able to taste these side by side, I would say Stone’s Levitation is close in character to Boulevard’s Single Wide IPA, but it’d be interested to drink Levitation and Boulevard’s Single Wide and Pale Ale together to see which one it resembles closer.

The bitterness is tempered late in the sip by the malts, but the aroma is a lot maltier than the flavor. Unlike some of the more hardcore Stone beers, like their IPA, the bitterness doesn’t settle on the tongue as much, nor is the bitter aftertaste as long lasting, so from that perspective the Levitation is certainly better balanced than Stone’s IPA. I had a bomber of IPA a few days ago but regrettably forgot to take notes to write a review. The thing that stands out for Stone’s IPA is that the bitterness just builds and builds and builds and it is quote fatiguing.

While it isn’t a hopsicle, Levitation is definitely an aggressively-hopped beer. It is better balanced than most of the Stone beers I’ve had, and I enjoy the earthy tones of the hops as they were used here, but for a session beer, I think I’d be hard-pressed to drink more than one or two of these in a sitting. It’s a good beer, and I think it would pair up with KC BBQ pretty well, but that may enhance the hops even more. All in all this is a nice beer and like everything I’ve had from Stone I enjoy it thoroughly, but I wouldn’t buy a six-pack of this and expect to drink it all through a poker night or something, for example.

Waialua Soda Works Pineapple

Waialua Soda Works is a small soda company based in Waialua, HI, on the island’s north shore. The company was started in 2003 but builds on a long tradition of bottling soda in the area that goes back 100 years. Founders Karen and Jason Campbell use only natural flavorings and real cane sugar. They make a handful of flavors, including Pineapple, being reviewed here today, and Mango, which I’ll save for the future.

I found Waialua’s products locally at Cost Plus World Market in Westport. Each bottle was individually prices for $1.49, although you may want to check the dates. I don’t know how important the “expiration” date is on a bottle of soda, but mine had a July 2011 date on it. It’s probably a good idea to drink these soon and not stockpile them, but for all I know they last 1,000 years!

The Pineapple soda is a light color, slightly hazy and without any obvious colorings added. It basically looks like the simple syrup I make for Old Fashioneds… not completely colorless like pure water, but a kind of “platinum” color. It’s hard to describe, but suffice to say it doesn’t look like neon green or other out-of-this-world colors! In the photo, the Pineapple is the second from the left.

The soda has a SUPER-pineapple aroma. I was a little worried at first that it’d have a crazy-sweet, over the top flavor, but I was surprised to find that the flavor was a lot more subdued than the aroma. The aroma from the glass is about the same as if you cut up a fresh pineapple, which is a good thing!

There is a good amount of carbonation in this soda and the pineapple flavor is quite restrained. It has a nice creamy finish like a cream soda would. In fact, I think that would be a good way to think of Waialua’s Pineapple soda… imagine half cream soda, half pineapple flavor and it gets you in the ballpark. At 140 calories per bottle it’s not a light beverage, but real sugar is less devastating to your health than high fructose corn syrup, the flavor is nice, clean (and “adult” for a soda), and it doesn’t leave me with a big goober in my throat like mass-market soda does. The Pineapple soda is a real treat, and I can’t wait to try the Mango out, too!

Magic Hat Wacko

Wacko is the summer seasonal offer from Vermont brewery, Magic Hat. I’ve enjoyed their Fall seasonal, Hex (review here), in the past, as well as their best known beer, the apricot-y #9.

Wacko is billed as “the liquid song of summer” and that, “Wacko is a delicious summer beer with a big malty aroma, a subdued hop bite and a clean, slightly sweet finish. “

It pours a surprising red color and according to BeerAdvocate, it is made with beet sugar. I’m not sure if this is the source of the color or not, but I think the “heart” on the logo is also supposed to suggest the imagery of a beet, so it must be.

The aroma on this beer is EXACTLY the same, to me, as #9. It’s malty, clean and has a little fruitiness of some sort to it. Of course, I don’t have a #9 sitting here to compare, but my memory is telling me “hey, this is #9!” The beer weighs in at a sessionable 4.5%ABV and only 15 IBU’s (International Bitter Units).

My first impression of this beer is that it is pilsner-like. Boy, it really tastes like #9 to me, without the apricot undertone. Take the apricot out of #9 and I feel like you’re left with Wacko. I’d be curious to know if these are the same recipes with just the beet/apricot being the variable. The malt and hops bill for #9 contains everything, plus a little more, that Wacko does, hence the similarities.

The beer has a malt-forward, slightly sweet, flavor. There is a little hops in the finish and it does finish a little drier than I would expect it to. It’s a light, summer beer, exactly as billed. There is some fruitiness in the flavor, but nothing specific. Maybe some esters from the ale yeast? This is a nice, light, inoffensive, easy-drinking summer beer with a pretty low ABV, exactly what you want from a “lawnmower” beer!

 

New Belgium Somersault Ale

New Belgium designed their Somersault Ale to be “a fun roll around on the tongue while requiring only the minimum of palate gymnastics. In other words, this perfect summer lounge around beer is ridiculously fun and easy to drink.” Somersault replaced Skinny Dip as the summer beer seasonal in the New Belgium line this year. It is 5.2% ABV with an IBU level of only 28. The alcohol level is a touch high for a session beer, but the low IBU level guarantees easy drinkability and your palate won’t get tired after one or two.

Somersault pours a hazy yellow-gold with a wet, frothy white head. The aroma is malty, but crisp. For something designed to be a summer gulper, there is surprisingly a lot going on in the flavor of this beer.

I didn’t read much about this beer before I drank it. The first thing I thought was, “Gee, there is a LOT of fruit on this beer, like ripe peaches.” I looked at the New Belgium site and sure enough, there is apricot and ginger in this beer! My palate actually works! I find this to be MUCH more fruit forward than the Magic Hat #9 I reviewed recently. In fact, I like this more because of it.

I used to turn my nose up a little at fruit beers, but I’ve matured a lot since then. I like beer. I like apricots. I like apricot-flavored beer! There really is a lot of apricot in this, but it’s not overly sweet. The apricot flavor is powerful up front, then there is a sensation in the sides of my tongue that is sort of tart, but not sour, like the tart component of the fruit, followed by a slightly sweet, long finish. There are hops in this beer, but really just for balance. It’s pretty fruity all the way through and I like it, a lot! The finish is a tad sweet to make this a perfect drinker, but it goes down nice and smooth and if they could dry it out a little it’d be a mainstay in my summer beer drinking for sure.

 

New Holland Brewing Co. – Farmhouse Hatter

As many of you readers know, New Holland Brewing Co. is a brewery near and dear to my heart. I used to live a few blocks from the brewpub in Holland, MI, and in many ways New Holland was my “gateway” brewery into the wonderful world of craft beer.

We recently went to the AWESOME Beer Kitchen in Westport and I enjoyed a Farmhouse Hatter on tap there. Mad Hatter is New Holland’s year-round IPA, but the brewery does a LOT of experimenting from the Hatter platform… over the years I’ve had variations that include the imperial version, a black Hatter and even a smoked version, as well as this “farmhouse” style.

Farmhouse Hatter is a Belgian IPA/pale ale version of this popular beer. Belgian beers are all the rage these days, and I’ve had three Belgian IPA’s I’m aware of. A couple of years ago I reviewed Great Divide’s Belgica, and I’ll have a review of an Iowa brewery’s offering in this style, too.

New Holland modified its Mad Hatter recipe with wheat and pilsner malts and then used a Belgian Saison yeast to give it its Belgian characteristics. The result is quite pleasant, with an ABV of 5.8% and good balance.

The one problem I seem to have with Belgian IPA’s is the interplay between hops and the Belgian yeast. To me, there is a rubber tire character to the flavors that I’ve noted in each one of these beers I’ve had. Farmhouse Hatter’s hop levels seem lower than the normal recipe, though, so this character was minimized in this beer and I liked it a lot more because of it. The Belgian Saison character is evident in the early part of the sip with some grassy, somewhat sour (but think of a fruity sourness or mild tartness rather than a true sour beer) overtone with the hops coming in on the tail end of the sip. The hops in this case were floral rather than piney, West Coast style hops. There was a nice dry, bitter finish, but the beer had good balance and was a pleasure to drink (although one was plenty for me).