Stone Coast knuckles under

Your Weekend Starter with Carter: Guiness spin-off preferable to Gritty's

Harp Lager?($8.49 for a six-pack, available at Hannaford) The Guinness Brewing Company has created quite a beverage with this imported lager, combining pub-style beer with subtle sophistication. When opened, Harp slowly releases a dark and full-bodied smell much like other high end beers, a true sign that the flavor is ensconced in the heart of the beer, not just the spices.

Your Weekend Starter with Carter: Honey Brown drowns McDuff's Black Fly

J.W. Dundee's Original Honey Brown ($6.49 for a six-pack at Hannaford) This beer is one of the standards in the endless racks of beer in Northeastern supermarkets, joining the ranks of Rolling Rock and Pete's Wicked Ale.

Your Weekend Starter with Carter

This piece represents the opinion of the author:

Carter Thomas

Columnist

February 10, 2006

Knuckleball?($8.29 for a six-pack at Uncle Tom's)

This interesting looking beer caught my attention from the start. Classified as a Bock beer, Knuckleball is brewed in Portland by the Stone Coast Brewing Company and delivers a powerful punch as most bock beers do. The smell of this dark brew is malty and thick. This implied a heavier-than-average beer.

I was right. When poured, I saw that the Knuckleball was a deep shade of amber, though it still maintained the transparency of a lager or a ginger ale. Its head was rather frothy and stayed intact long after the pour was complete, much the way a stubborn cola never seems to fizz down after an aggressive pour on the rocks. Luckily, this was beer and actually tastes good.

The taste was just as expected?bitter but commanding. I could definitely tell that this beer was fermented longer than most others and possibly given a pep talk before the final stage of brewing. The label, which originally attracted me, displays a massive "KB" over a baseball, mixing greens and reds in order to create a more festive feeling. Interestingly, it seems that the ball on the label is taking shape of a curveball, causing great confusion with those more in tune with rotational baseball recognition.

All in all, this beer was stronger than I was used to and thus did not win me over. I would recommend it to those who enjoy a lighter stout or black lager. My scores: Taste: 2.9 Label: 3.7 Benefit/Cost: 2.6.

Moosehead Lager?($7.99 for a six-pack at Hannaford)

It has been a while since I tapped into a Canadian beer, so I decided to indulge in the New Brunswick lager that I had heard so much about. Despite my best intentions to be open-minded when evaluating beer, I must admit that the green bottles are not usually indicative of the best brews (Beck's and Heineken do not top my list of favorites).

Nonetheless, I grabbed a six-pack and chilled it in my refrigerator until it achieved proper temperature. Moosehead's aroma is unusually strong?one of the most powerful-smelling lagers my nasal passages had ever processed. Its color is a true shade of gold, and it shimmers like a slick Canadian hockey rink and pours as smoothly as Nova Scotia maple syrup.

The taste is pungent yet manageable; just what I would expect from a lager brewed north of the border, all the while being crisp enough to enjoy over the course of an evening.

Visually, the bottle is pleasing to the eye, combining green, gold, and red colorings in a carefully crafted crest-like label, punctuated by a massive moose head placed directly in the middle of the illustration. It is not overwhelming, yet it does convey some presence.

I would definitely recommend this beer to friends and colleagues, especially when watching the Stanley Cup or a family game of pond hockey. My scores: Taste: 4.0 Label: 4.0 Benefit/Cost: 3.9.

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