On Tap

So I thought I’d take a break from my happiness countdown to begin a new Monday segment I like to call, On Tap.  Each Monday I will regale you, my droves of rabid blog readers, with tales of the previous week’s experiments in all things beer.  I thought it would be a fun way to kick off the week and also, give me something to look forward to as the week progresses.

Now I don’t know about you, but as a recent convert to the Church of Beer I have tons of questions and am still learning a lot about the different kinds of beer and what I like.  Some questions I had initially were, “How do I find beers I like?” and “Is there a way to tell whether I’ll like a beer before I even try it?”  Well, the short answer to the second question is, no.  There is no way to know for sure whether you’ll like a beer without taking a sip.  There is, however, a way you can get a better understanding of what a beer will taste like, and that is by looking at how it rates in terms of International Bitterness Units or IBUs.

The International Bitterness Scale provides a measurement of the bitterness of a beer, which is caused by the addition of hops during brewing.  The more hops a beer has the more bitter it will be, in general.  One caveat to this are beers with a high quantity of malt, such as stouts and porters.  These types of beers have higher IBU ratings because more hops are needed to balance out the flavor of the malt.  Therefore, an Imperial Stout may have an IBU of 50, but will taste less bitter than a lager with an IBU of say 22.

Ok, now that we’ve got the technical stuff out of the way, let’s talk beer.  Last week I tried a number of new brews, but we’ll stick with the highs and lows.  One of the definite highs was Leinenkugel’s Honey Weiss, which was part of my create-your-own six-pack from Wegman’s.  It was smooth, had almost no bite, and had a slightly sweet aftertaste.  Another beer from my Wegman’s six-pack that I enjoyed was Appalachian Brewing Company’s Water Gap Wheat.  I drank this last weekend while preparing my dad’s taxes and it almost made the process enjoyable… almost.  

Now onto the busts of the week, the first of which was Sea Dog Blueberry Wheat.  I had high hopes for this beer, seeing as I had already tried Leinenkugel’s Sunset Wheat (which has a slight blueberry aftertaste) and loved it.  The Sea Dog, however, could only be described as sickeningly blueberry.  When I finished I half felt like I was about to swell up like that girl from Willy Wonka.  Another let down was Blue Point’s Toasted Lager.  I had heard good things about toasted lagers and was excited to try this one.  I’m not sure if this is common among toasted lagers, but this one had a slight metallic taste to it that I did not care for.

Well, that about does it for this edition of On Tap.  Next week I hope to have some delicious new brews to tell you about.  Here is a list of some of the beers I hope to try this week:

Troegs Dreamweaver

Winter Beard Double Chocolate Cranberry Stout

Appalachian Brewing Company Vanilla Porter