Organic pale wilts; Hennepin shines

Your Weekend Starter with Carter: Carrabasset pale and Gritty?s Pub score big

Gritty's Pub Ale?($6.89 for a six pack at Hannaford) It seemed time for me to say hello to one of my old favorites, Gritty McDuff. Known for his robust taste profiles and witty labeling, Mr. McDuff gave a true clinic in how to make a pale ale with this brew.

Your Weekend Starter with Carter: Kick off Ivies with Gritty's Vacationland

Gritty's Vacationland?($7.49 for a six-pack at Hannaford) This week provides the first glimpse of summer as the seasonal brews find their way to the shelves of beverage outlets everywhere. My first experience with this seasonal ale was last summer at a barbecue with some neighborhood friends?a terrific context in which to try a beer called "Vacationland."

Your Weekend Starter with Carter

Organic pale wilts; Hennepin shines

This piece represents the opinion of the author:

Carter Thomas

Columnist

April 21, 2006

Hennepin?($8.29 for a four-pack at Warmings)

One of the resident music professors on campus highly recommended this brewing company from Cooperstown, New York, touting its brews as being like none other. So, I picked up a few bottles of this Farmhouse Saison type beer and gave it a rip. Wow, he wasn't kidding. The first quality of this beer that hit me was the incredible carbonation with the head of the beer practically flying out of the glass. It looks almost as though it is champagne the way the bubbles flow up the pilsner glass due to the yeast that is actually packaged in the bottle. The color is a bit darker than a lager, but qualifies as a true Belgian cream color. My taste buds were then introduced to this brew and, I must admit, there are few beers that taste like this. There is definitely a dryness to this beer, but not enough to lose the taste that is so important?fruity, yet full of hops and wheat tones. It is as if there is a full-bodied beer hidden in the cornucopia of bubbles but somehow these two tastes complement each other perfectly. The label is definitely European looking with different-sized rectangles and odd color schemes. Not my favorite, but at least they give you instructions on how to pour the beer on the back (slowly and at 50 degrees). It is hard to find any faults in this beer and I highly recommend it, although the price may be hard to swallow. Luckily, I see that it is 7.7 percent alcohol, which means that this four pack may actually end up dropping the hammer harder than I thought it would. My scores: Taste: 4.9/5, Label: 3.1/5, Benefit/Cost: 4.3/5.

Peak Organic Pale Ale?($7.49 for a six-pack at Warming's)

As my first organic beer, the Peak Pale Ale provided a welcomed change to many of the pale ales I have tried in weeks past. This brew is made by the Shipyard Brewing Company and taps into the market run by those focused on the outdoors?every bottle has a picture that was submitted by a fellow drinker. The most prominent feature of this beer is the smell; it is overpowered by toffee tones and hints of butter. This beer pours darker than most other pale ales, with a hue closer to a golden-red ale. There is virtually no head on this beer, but there are a fair amount of bubbles within the body of the brew, allowing for a full, yet pale finish. As I keep drinking, however, I noticed there is an interesting void between the body of the taste and the aftertaste, as if there is something missing within the ingredient structure. Perhaps I am too used to the MiracleGrow that was sprayed on the barley and hops, or maybe organic beer just can't hack it in today's bio-engineered world. The label is rather exciting, though, as it employs pictures of hikers in valleys, captioned by an inspirational quote by the person who submitted the picture. Did this hike really happen? Who knows, but this is a pretty ingenious marketing scheme for an organic beer. Overall, it is worth a try, but will not give the same punch a regular pale ale does. My scores: Taste: 2.9/5, Label: 3.8, Benefit/Cost: 3.0.

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