Bamf Beer

So we went out to a place we like to go occasionally, specifically because of the beer selection. It’s called Isaac Newton’s, and it’s in Newtown, PA. The reason we like to go there is not so much the selection of beers, but the selection of beers *on tap*. Every time we go there, we find at least 2 or 3 beers on their tap list that we’ve either never seen, or never seen on tap.

On this last trip, Matt found a new beer friend in a beer called “Ephemere”. It has coloring similar somewhat to a wheat beer, but it had absolutely no head to speak of. The aroma was very strong of green apples, but the flavor seemed to both Matt and I less like a fruity overtone that comes from fruit, and more like a fruit overtone thrown off by yeast. What was odd was that it was very enjoyable, in spite of looking like headless pasta water! Matt had several of these, and it never seemed to get old.

I moved on to a beer that my wife picked out called Avery Karma, which is just an awesome beer. Deep copper in color with a modest head, Karma is a Belgian-style beer brewed in the US. Though I don’t dislike Belgian ales, there generally seem to be too many varied flavors in Belgian ales for me to generalize and say “I like Belgian ales”. I guess maybe I don’t go out of my way to become a Belgian beer snob who knows the flavor profile of every Belgian ever brewed. I like this Belgian-style one a lot, though. It’s described on Avery’s web site as “estery” and “fruity”. I found the aroma to be as spicy as it was fruity, and tasting it, it seemed to have a bit of a warming effect, which seemed unusual to me. I’m no professional beer taster, but in my experience, warming happens when there is either a good bit of alcohol, or a distinct lack of body. This beer has a very nice medium body – excellent mouthfeel overall, I’d say, and it’s only 5.2% alcohol by volume (ABV). I really want to say it has a “bold” body, though I don’t know if that’s a term that’s used. Not heavy, but it makes its presence known.

So, those were our beer adventures for this past weekend.

Last week (I forgot to write and mention), I picked up one of those brewer’s 12 pack sampler cases, where microbreweries put 3 or 4 of their best beers (presumably) into a pack for sampling. I’ve never purchased one of these that I can remember, but this one looked good, and I gave it a shot. It’s from Troegs Brewery in Harrisburg, PA. I’ve tried their Brown Ale, Pale Ale, Wheat, and Amber Ale, and all are good beers that I would drink again. I found the brown just a bit on the ho-hum side, but I’ve had more than one voluntarily, and I wouldn’t call it a bad beer – I just like more bold flavors. The amber ale is very good, as is the wheat. Overall, I honestly can’t say that any of the beers knocked me out like the Avery Karma I had this weekend, but if there was a cooler of any of these Troegs beers at a party or barbecue, I would absolutely not hesitate to grab one. One thing I like a lot about Troegs is that their philosophy is just about exactly the same as ours. To quote their website

“We aren’t concerned with making beer to a particular style, as much as we want to create a quality beer that we like to drink—that’s what is really important.”

Amen, brother.