SuperBeer

Sadly, this is not about a superhero who goes around giving out beer. Rather, it is one of my many bad puns :-P

So, the Superbowl. What a wonderful night. Great football, great food, great friends, what more could someone want? Of course, I could have done with a few less Budweiser commercials. I know there's nothing to be done for it, but the more I hear about them and how they try to put the competition out of business, the sicker I get.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm all about competition producing better products. But that's just it. Budweiser makes shit. Their regular beer is shit. Their light beer is shit. Their "craft" beer? Shit! I rue the day when I find my favorite brands have been pushed out by this giant of watery piss beer, behemoth of mass produced swill.

Ok, so enough ranting right? Well, I also cracked open one of my various bottles for this most joyous of occasions. Specifically, I decided that I needed to finally try the Brew dog Rip Tide stout that I'd been saving.

It pours without much of a head, rich and black. The smell is smoky and boozy, but not overwhelming. The taste continues with the smoky motif, and rounds it out with some delicious coffee, and then rounds it out with some sweetness, maybe caramel?

Now, I liked this beer, and I definitely enjoyed this beer, and would buy it again. But I have to be honest, it kind of reminded me of a slightly less well done version of Belhaven's Scottish Stout. The comparison is a little unoriginal, what with them both being scottish companies, both being kind of smoky stouts. But I feel like it's a valid comparison.

Where the Belhaven stout is full bodied, the Brew dog feels a little flat and a little thin. Where the Belhaven coffee nicely flows into a sweetness, the Brew dog goes bitter, and then the caramel swings in. I want to reiterate, the Brew dog wasn't bad. The Belhaven was just excellent.

I also finally tried Ommegang's Witte, but I have to admit that by that point I might've been a little too far into my cups to accurately review it. We were taking shots every time the saints scored, and I don't do much hard liquor anymore.

However, I do remember a delicious beer. Not too far off the standard Wit bier (belgian wheat beer), but a tasty iteration of that theme. Strong notes of a cinnamon or nutmeg(maybe cloves?), backed up with some orangey citrus, and a nice undertone of wheat that wasn't overwhelming. So often in wheat beers, the wheat overwhelms almost all the other flavors, but this time the flavors held their own, which was nice.

It was kind of a nice beer to sip when I was trying to wind down, but there was a little too much excitement for that. I would enjoy this one a lot as a beer to drink with dinner, or on some calm summer evening, or even out at the beach. It's a very refreshing beer, and it was a little odd paired with burgers and jambalaya and winter and parties.

Overall though, definitely recommend it for anyone who likes Belgian wheat beers, or really just wheat beers in general. Might not be for everyone, but if you like Blue Moon then you owe it to yourself to give this bad boy a try.

Going to Max's this Thursday, so expect something good that evening. Til then!

-The Unabashed Ungourmet