Beer Tasting

Six years ago, I won’t have thought I’d got into beer. Liquor and wine are always my liking. My neighbors in college always challenge me to drink beer (they know I am not good at it); I usually skip the beer and take a shot of vodka instead. And, of course, to be fair, they’d shotgun a beer. I have never got drunk with that, yet.

Lately, I have been learning more about beer. One of many reasons I started drinking beer is my manager (a real beer snob) always bring in a few packs of good beer to office and we will end the day early on Friday for beers, ahem, no, for “team building.” Slowly, I’ve learn there are more beers than just Budweiser, Miller lite or Corona. Thousands of microbreweries mushroomed around the country and they can be found quite easily in grocery stores. Don’t be surprised if someone mumbled “Hmm..it has flowery aromas, light spiciness and a hint of brown sugar” after sipping a glass of beer. People do taste beer like how they taste wine.

After Ivy and I watched many episodes of Beer Nutz on Mojo, we decided to have our own “beer tasting” at home. Last weekend, we grabbed a handful of beers left in the fridge and conducted our first beer tasting. Here’s the beer list (Shut up, I don’t care if they are not the same style of beer):

From left to right
1) Pranqster Belgian Style Golden Ale by North Coast Brewery
2) #9 Ale by Magic Hat Brewery
3) Lager by Stella Artois
4) Premium Beer by Sapporo

With little helps from Beer Advocate, we rated the beers according to appearance, smell, taste, mouthfeel and drinkability. The highest possible score for each category is 5. We started with Sapporo Premium Beer (Rice Lager from Japan), then Stella Artois Lager (Pale Lager from Belgium), Magic Hat #9 Ale (Ale from Vermont, US) and Pranqster Belgian Style Golden Ale (Belgian Pale Ale from California, US). This is how it fairs:

Sapporo Premium Beer:
Appearance: 3/5 - Nice and even amber color
Smell: 2/5 - We don’t really like the smoky rice smell
Taste: 2/5 - Not very pleasant in flavor, bitter in finish
Mouth-feel: 2/5 - A bit too dry for us
Drink-ability: 2.5/5 – We won’t drink this everyday

Stella Artois Lager:
Appearance: 3/5 - We like the pale yellow color with nice head
Smell: 2.5/5 – Nothing special, maybe a hint of malt?
Taste: 2.5/5 – Balance and grassy-lemony. Smooth and clean finish
Mouth-feel: 3/5 –Not much body to it though.
Drink-ability: 3/5 – I don’t mind to take it if it is on the tap

Magic Hat #9 Ale:
Appearance: 3/5 – Light and clear amber color
Smell: 4/5 – A strong apricot aroma with light wheat behind it. We love it!
Taste: 3.5/5 – Sweet apricot flavor, with light hop flavor. Wheat flavor is definite there. Finish is slightly bitter. Fruity aroma still lingering after the swallow
Mouth-feel: 4/5 – Medium-light bodied but not too dry
Drink-ability: 4/5 – We love it. It is very refreshing for summer

Pranqster Belgian Style Golden Ale:
Appearance: 3/5 – Slight hazy and cloudy orange color
Smell: 3.5/5 – Complicated aroma; yeast, spicy lemon-grass and perhaps banana
Taste: 4/5 – Yeast aroma with combination of other “hard-to-identified” fruity flavors is very interesting. The spiciness makes a good finish
Mouth-feel: 4/5 - Medium bodied with lingering bitterness
Drink-ability: 3.5/5 – It could be quite overwhelmingly rich after you had a long day. It is a solid beer

Overall, we decided Magic Hat #9 tops the chart with the delightful fruity aroma that overcame its lack of depth in flavor. Pranqster ale is a good beer but it is too complicated for us. Stella Artois lager could be everyday easy-to-drink beer and it came in third. Sapporo rice lager ranked at the last place as we didn’t appreciate the burning rice flavor. It is quite predictable that ale will prevail if compare to lager. Perhaps next time we should compare the same type of beer.

Somewhere over the rainbow

While Ivy and I were in New York upstate, we took a quick trip (3 hours drive from Syracuse) to Niagara Falls. Thanks to Ian's well-prepareness, we had some most amazing rainbow scene on "Cave of the winds" tour and wild ride on "Maid of the Mist" captured with his waterproof camera. I will upload some of the photos I took once I had them organized.

Photo credits: Ian

Rainbow at Cave of the Winds

A ride of Maid of the Mist

Scene at Observation Tower

Ivy and I with the rainbow at "Cave of the Winds"

View of the American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls from Maid of the Mist boat

Dinner @ Dinosaur BBQ

Beer before dinner @ Dinosaur BBQ, supposedly the best BBQ in New York. The beer on tap is Magic Hat Pocus Hocus, light but flavorful ale. We love it.

*Q blog

Midsummer at Syracuse

Ivy and I spending a weekend at Syracuse, NY, visiting her friend. This is a view of Syracuse University from the hotel. Upstate is so beautiful and the weather feels like late spring. This is so much better compare to DC's 108F steamy weather.

*Q blog