Apollo Wheat

Apollo Wheat, Sixpoint Brewery, Brooklyn, NY

I'm enjoying these great craft beers from cans. It's pretty sweet that they can pack so much flavor and alcoholic punch into cans. Sixpoint is fairly new to Wisconsin. I've sampled several of their beer. Apollo is the first wheat beer I've had from them. Aroma is full of bananas, oranges, and spices. Those same characteristics come out in the taste. Smooth and refreshing.

Summer Tide Wheat Ale

Summer Tide Wheat Ale, Big Bay Brewing Company, Shorewood, WI

This one is a little different than your normal wheat beer. It's lighter in body. Banana notes are apparent in the nose. Nice banana and lemon flavor with a little hop to it. Very refreshing summer beer.

Edmund Fitzgerald Porter

Edmund Fitzgerald Porter, Great Lakes Brewing Company, Cleveland, OH
(Porter, Rated 99)

Porters are fantastic beers when done right. Great Lakes did this one right. Chocolate, coffee, and roasted malt aroma. Nice smokey, dark roasted malt flavor that's a touch sweet with hints of chocolate. Smooth finish. I had this one for dinner with pork chops with pomegranate chipotle sauce and steamed veggies. Yum!

Burning River Pale Ale

Burning River Pale Ale, Great Lakes Brewing Company, Cleveland, OH

(American Pale Ale, Rated 98)

This is one tasty, hopped up American Pale Ale. Malty aroma with a hint of citrus. The hops come through with the taste, where you would expect more of a malty flavor. 

The Very Many Varieties of Beer

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Under Dog Atlantic Lager

Under Dog Atlantic Lager, Flying Dog Brewery, Frederick, MD

Not much to say about this beer. Not saying that it's bad, but there is certainly nothing distinguishable about this lager.

Since I've got nothing to say about this beer, how about a little information...regardless of how many different beers you may see at the liquor store (I called them package stores back in CT), there really are only two type of beer - Ales and Lagers. In a way, similar to wine - red and white. What's the difference between ales and lagers? The difference is with how they are brewed and at what temperature. Ales are brewed with a top-fermenting yeast that do their work at a higher temperature, usually between 60 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Lagers are brewed with a bottom-fermenting yeast at much cooler temperatures, around 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and for a longer period of time. Now within these two types of beer are the many styles and subcategories that we have, or at least I have, grown to love. Many of which I have share with you here.

Weekend at Louie's Blueberry Flavored Amber Ale

Weekend at Louie's Blueberry Flavored Amber Ale, Milwaukee Brewing Company, 

Milwaukee, WI

You have to be a real fan of fruit-flavored beer to really get into this style. I am not...at least yet. Hats off to the breweries for attempting these beers. This beer is better than most fruit beers I have had. MKE definitely got the aroma right with strong, bold, blueberries through the nose. Taste falls just a little short, but the blueberries with the amber ale does work. Very smooth and not sweet at all.