October 2006 Archives
After the Oktoberfests, my favorite beverage of the autumn is a hearty pumpkin ale. Unfortunately, not everyone knows how to brew with fruit... the first pumpkin I tried this year was so bad that I didn't even review it. Buffalo Bill's, however, does know something about fruit, as shown by their brilliant Orange Blossom Cream Ale.
Characteristics: Rich amber-brown color, medium body, medium-to-high carbonation, tangy amber start that mellows through the pumpkin and slight cinnamon flavor to a nutmegy finish.
Minor Gripes: Unfortunately for the average American beer drinker, the flavors really don't burst until this beer warms up a lot... definitely skip the frosted glass. Also, the nutmeg sometimes resolves to a bitter aftertaste -- the pumpkin doesn't hold through the finish.
Bottom Line: Among the better pumpkin beers I've sampled, and perhaps the only where one can enjoy more than one in a sitting.
Rating: 6 / 10
Beer #2 I brought back from my recent roadtrip to North Carolina... and unfortunately not as solid as the Black Radish. As noted recently, weissbiers really need to be fresh... and this one was not in the samples I got (two six-packs from the last contract-brewed batch).
Characteristics: Cloudy dirty gold color with a minimal head (even after spinning the bottle), light-to-medium body, watery start with a dominant citrus middle and slightly sweet finish.
Minor Gripes: As with nearly all non-German weissbiers (but not the Belgian-style witbiers), this would be a far better beer when fresh. It also lacks some of the yeastiness I want from a weiss.
Bottom Line: Worth trying if you're on the Outer Banks some time... but it's not hardy enough to travel well assuming the Weeping Radish gang works out their new distro game.
Rating: 5 / 10
I have yet to find a local (metro-DC) brewery I like enough to try all their beers, which is why I keep coming back to the Vermonters. And it is the season to wander through the Oktoberfests, whether ale, lager, or weiss ...
Characteristics: Medium amber color, light to medium body and carbonation, minimal head, peppery bite masking malty flavors and adding more than a touch of bitterness.
Minor Gripes: I'm not sure if the pepper is intended or not -- an earlier batch I had this season was not nearly so strong, relying more on the malt to carry the flavor.
Bottom Line: I like this beer well enough as an amber ale, but it doesn't quite fit the real Oktoberfest model (where the malt should dominate with a heavier body, even in ales). Then again, just about any beer would suffer in comparison to the fresh Hacker-Schorr Oktoberfest I was enjoying last weekend at a German bar in NYC.
Rating: 5.5 / 10
The Weeping Radish is a German restaurant in the town of Manteo on Roanoke Island, NC. It's also a reference to a garnish / snack served in Bavaria, where a radish is sliced and salted, and the water wicking out of the radish looks like tears.
Of the various styles brewed by Weeping Radish, my favorite is the Black Radish -- a Munich-style dunkel lager. More depth than a schwarzbier, but lighter than many brown ales, and well worth the effort to track it down (see below).
Characteristics: Dark reddish brown color, light-to-medium body, light carbonation, roasted malt dominance with caramel throughout and a slightly hoppy finish that gets chocolatey as the beer comes closer to room temperature.
Minor Gripes: Somewhat inconsistent from beer to beer -- though that may have more to do with the state of contract brewing than the recipe behind this beer.
Bottom Line: A tasty brew well-suited for crisp fall days.
Sadly, distribution for Weeping Radish beers is currently non-existent. The owners got tired of the contract brewing (in locations like Baltimore) and decided to expand their own brewery...with the side effect of losing access to easy bottling and the hallowed "three-tier" distribution system. They're planning to do some mail-order and the standard in-house growlers, but that's just not the same as access in the local package store.
Rating: 6.5 / 10
