Evil Twin Wet Dream Review

Name: Evil Twin Wet Dream
Style: Brown Ale
ABV: 6%
IBUs: N/A

Remember when I said that the majority of Evil Twin beers I had were Imperial Stouts? Well, with this review that is not the case. I give to you Wet Dream, a brown ale that is made with coffee. And if I really have to tell you where the name comes from, then you're definitely not old enough to drink (at least in this country.)

Appearance - Hazy dark brown color with a mild amount of carbonation. It's got a pretty foamy head and the lacing is quite good.

Aroma - Roasted barley and chocolate malts followed by some coffee grounds, light smoke and some mild bitter hops

Taste - Coffee and roasted barley upfront, with more coffee in the middle and coffee lingers off in the back and gives way to chocolate malts and bitter hops. The aftertaste is mainly bitter hops and coffee grounds, both of which linger for a few moments.

I really enjoyed this beer and if it proves anything, it's that Evil Twin's main focuses shouldn't just be Imperial Stouts or IPAs. I liked the coffee aspect of the flavor and it's a nice change of pace from the lighter styles of beer that I have been having as of late. On top of that, I've seen this go for a very reasonably priced $9.99 in my area for a 4-pack of tallboy cans so I think you're getting your money's worth here.

Evil Twin Wet Dream - 8.5/10

Epic Los Locos Review

Name: Epic Los Locos
Style: Adjunct Lager/Pale Lager
ABV: 4.8%
IBUs: N/A

Remember a couple articles back when I reviewed Corona Extra and I talked about how I had it while in Miami? Well, it seems the forces of the universe have guided me to today's beer: Los Locos from Epic Brewing. It's a Mexican Lager made with Lime & Sea Salt. When I had my Corona in Miami, they garnished it with a lime and put salt on the napkin which the glass sat upon to avoid sticking. Anyways, here's hoping that this tastes better than Corona!

Appearance - Cloudy dark yellow color with a mild amount of visible carbonation. The head starts out with a good amount of volume but is quite fizzy in character and fades away after a few moments. Needless to say, there's no lacing left behind

Aroma - Pale malts and lager yeasts with a slight citrus twist, which is either going to be hops or that lime zest. Aside from that, there's not much else to it.

Taste - Pale malts and lager yeasts start things off in the palate, with some sweet lime zest taking things over in the middle. The back end of the palate is where I'm getting some light hop bitterness with some salt notes along with that lime zest to help round it out. Aftertaste is pretty dry, save for a light saltiness and lime sweetness.

I was very skeptical of how this beer was going to turn out, but this is surprisingly not bad! It's light, crisp and the lime/sea salt aspect of the flavor works pretty well. It's not the best lager I've come across but adding this to your mix-a-six wouldn't be a bad idea.

Epic Los Locos - 7.5/10

Are we about to experience a Craft Beer Bubble?

At the time of writing this, there are over 4,000 breweries operating in the United States, the most in American History and the most from since the pre-prohibition era. From the small brewpub or nano-brewery that serves a local neighborhood, all the way up to behemoth-sized craft breweries like Sam Adams & Yuengling. Many have said this is the Golden Age of Craft Beer here in the United States and I am inclined to agree with them. However, if history has taught us anything, it's that all Golden Ages have to come to an end and there has been increased talk that we are in the midst of an over-saturation of craft breweries here in the United States. Inevitably, there has been much speculation that there will be a craft beer bubble and that we're going to start seeing all sorts of breweries shut down due to too much competition.

So is any of this true? Are we really going to see a significant collapse of our beloved craft beer industry and only be left with a few major craft brewers? To answer this question, we need to understand what a bubble is first.

In economic terms, a bubble is when an industry experiences rapid growth which is immediately followed by a rapid contraction, which is usually caused by a paradigm shift, or in layman's terms, changes in how business is done. In other cases, it's caused by unsustainable businesses models or economic conditions. When most people think of an economic bubble, they think of the Dotcom Bubble that happened in the early 2000's or the housing bubble that happened right at the beginning of the recession back in 2008. The first being caused by the lack of returns from the huge investments made into Dotcom-based companies, while the housing market bubble was caused by the great number of people unable to make payments on their homes due to inclement economic conditions, which was caused by and contributed to the great recession of the late 2000's.

In the past few years, the number of craft brewing entities has more than doubled, a feat which would be unheard of in other industries. Sure enough, this certainly fits the criteria for the first half of the definition of a bubble and that rapid growth will undoubtedly lead many to believe that the stage is being set for a industry bubble. Many people I have talked to are convinced that in the next few years, we're going to see the closure of some breweries.........and I think they're right.  I think we will see the closure of some breweries in the next few years but I don't think it will be a bubble so much as it will be a gradually deflating balloon.

First off, I want to say anyone who is vaguely familiar with economics should know right off the bat that no industry in immune from closures, and that includes craft brewing. If businesses in craft brewing were immune from going out of business, we'd see way more breweries on the market than we already have now. Plus, many craft breweries are small businesses and according to LinkedIn, about 50% of small businesses fail in the first five years they're open. Again, it's very logical to assume that small craft breweries are in that mix.

So now that I'm done painting the future of craft brewing as an economic dystopia, it's time to focus on how that will be beneficial for the craft brewing industry. Even though the industry is not immune to the laws of economics, it is unique in the sense that quality plays a huge role as to whether or not a brewery succeeds or fails. It's no secret that craft beer will often times cost more than a product offered by the likes of AB-InBev but it's also important to consider that taste plays the main role in deciding if loyalty is established.

However, I've been seeing an increasing trend where I will try out offerings from new breweries and they will sometimes taste like either average or good tasting homebrew and it has become increasingly prevalent in recent years. I firmly believe that those breweries with horrible tasting beers will be the majority of those that go out of business. I think that quality will play a role in breweries improving the taste of their beers. When your business depends on how your beer tastes, you're going to want to make sure it's drinkable. If a beer is good, people will drink it and craft beer is no doubt a consumer driven business and the desire for better quality will drive brewers to make better beer. In this case, both the business and the consumer win.

With that said, sometimes being drinkable isn't going to be good enough. Another big driver in craft brewing that is pretty recent is innovation. Meaning either releasing variations of an existing beer in a taproom, releasing a new beer every so often, or going the "Series" route, which involves making one off beers of limited release. The point is that it comes in all shapes or forms. Sadly there are some breweries out there that, for reasons we don't know, just stick to their usual flagship offerings and offer nothing else. Unless if that beer you always make is highly sought after for its flavor (Like Surly Furious, Heady Topper, etc.), people are going to start losing interest in your brewery and move on to others.

Between the issues of quality & innovation, newer start-up breweries are going to want to hit those on the head early on if they want to stay in business. This won't be so much of an issue for well-established breweries who have already established a loyal customer base but even those who are already well-established would be wise to keep up with trends in the industry as well as maintain the quality of beer their customers have expected from them.

So in short, there will be an increasing number of breweries that will be shuttering their doors but I strongly believe it will be due to poor quality or lack of innovation. As for the over-saturation argument, craft brewing accounts for 12% of the brewing industry's sales according to the Brewer's Association so I think there is still a ton of growth potential still to be had. While the harsh reality is that not everyone is going to survive, those who continue to innovate and maintain consistent quality with their beer offerings will have a better chance of becoming a long-lasting player in the craft brewing industry.

Corona Extra Review

Name: Corona Extra
Brewed by: Grupo Modelo S.A.
Style; American Adjunct Lager
ABV: 4.6%
IBUs: N/A

It all started two weeks ago when I was on vacation with my wife down in Miami, we had decided to go out after showering up at our hotel room after spending about 3 hours on the beach. We decided to hit up the Lincoln Road Mall for some food as well as some hookah to close off the evening.

We found a place where we had some great Mexican food, but the beer selection was very lacking, as in it was all light beer. Our server recommended I get a Corona because it paired so well with the food I was getting. We weren't really in Miami for craft beer so I decided to man up and order a Corona like the good tourist I was. When it was brought to me, the glass had been garnished with a lime wedge, which very much solidified my status as a tourist. It was also at that moment I realized that I had to review this beer because I have a lot to say about it.

I recall being in high school and looking at the photos of my friends who had been on Spring Break down in Miami or Cancun and this beer was pretty much present in every photo and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't somewhat jealous. I mean, they're drinking beer in awesome looking locations that I used to see on the Wild On series on the E! Channel way back in the day, and to any adventurous high school student, that sounds like the best thing ever.

You see, the reason for my jealousy was because my family never really believed in the idea of going anywhere for spring break, which is my way of saying that we couldn't afford to go anywhere nice so I was stuck in Minnesota during those times. Alas I'm not in high school anymore and being an adult has its perks, one of which being you can plan your own vacations without having to worry about funding from your parents or bringing along the entire family.

So here we are, Corona Extra, the beer of choice among tourists, high schoolers, and college students across the country who are visiting Miami/Mexico on vacation.

Appearance - We've got a clear pale yellow color with tons of visible carbonation. The head is very thin but it has some surprisingly excellent retention. There isn't any lacing along the sides of the glass however.

Aroma - I'm getting some pretty prominent skunkiness in here along with some light lager and pale malts, along with some cereal grains and cardboard notes. I'm already not looking forward to this....

Taste - Cardboard and pale malts upfront, with some cereal grains and lager yeasts in the back of the palate. I'm getting a smidgen of what could possibly be some bitter hops but you really have to dig for it.  There's also some moderate skunkiness in what is otherwise a very dry aftertaste and finish.

Those photos I mentioned where I saw my friends drinking this in their Spring Break photos? Yeah, had I known what this beer tasted like back when I was 16-17 years old, I probably wouldn't have been anywhere near as jealous as I was. As for the beer itself, it's very bland, dry and skunky. Plus the fact that it comes in a clear glass bottle doesn't do anything for the flavor itself.

To everyone out there planning their next vacation to Miami, Cozumel, Cancun, Corpus Christi, or wherever: Please for the love of God, drink better beer while you're on vacation. I know I did whenever I got the chance.

Corona Extra - 3/10

A look at the McAle's Hard Sodas

On April Fools Day, I thought it would be hilarious to do a review of McAle's Hard Orange 'n Cream, an alcoholic orange soda which I had found at Total Wine and jokingly referring to it as better than any other beer that I'd had giving it a score of 1000000000/10, with a disclaimer at the very bottom of the review stating that I wasn't actually being serious or popped a membrane.

It was a review that I tried to inject as much sarcasm into it as possible and many of you found the review to be funny, which was the intent. In all actuality, it was just an alcoholic soda that struck me as being too artificial and sweet for my liking, but nowhere near as offensive as Four Loko Blue Hurricane. Soon thereafter, the review faded from memory; I had my laughs but I moved on.

Then last month as I was out running, I got a Twitter notification on my phone and this was the tweet that popped up...

My first question to myself was "Did they even bother to read the entire review or were they playing along with my 2 month old joke review?" Either way, I couldn't help but feel sorry for them since I had pretty much a mockery of their product. However, it also inspired me to take a look at some of their other products. Now I'm aware that there I missed a couple hard sodas with these reviews but bear in mind to that I grabbed what was available. Depending on how this article does, I may or may not review the ones I couldn't find at a later date. For now, I'm looking at what I was able to get my hands on.

McAle's Hard Cola (6% ABV)

I figured I'd start off with this one first seeing as how many people associate cola with soda. Right off the bat, I'm getting some boozy notes and malts in the nose, along with that typical cola flavoring. As for the flavor, you've that cola taste with some of that malty grit that you find in hard beverages along with a light but noticeable boozy taste.

It tastes like generic brand soda with some vodka or rum added in but it isn't gut wrenchingly awful like Blue Hurricane. With that said, I won't be having this again anytime soon.

McAle's Hard Cola - 5/10

McAle's Hard Root Beer (6% ABV)

Much like the Cola before it, I'm getting some malty grittiness but I'm also getting some surprisingly good sarsaparilla and vanilla notes here. However, like the cola before it, you've still got that malt grit paired with some sarsaparilla and vanilla notes and that boozy taste along with it

Unlike the Hard Cola, this one doesn't feel as artificial in terms of overall flavor, so it's slightly better than the first one but I definitely wouldn't have this again.

McAles's Hard Root Beer - 5.5/10

McAle's Hard Ginger Ale (6% ABV)

Once again I'm getting that malt grittiness upfront along with some moderate ginger notes in the nose, while the flavor has a nice ginger zing to it that lingers long after you take a sip and there's just a touch of that malt grit on the palate.

Of the three I've had, this one is hands down my favorite one and if you were to offer this to me in the future, I would probably have this again. As it stands, this one is alright.

McAle's Hard Ginger Ale - 7/10

I find it ironic that they say that each can says that these are based on an "Old Fashioned Secret Family Recipe", despite being at the United Brands Company in La Crosse, Wisconsin, who also gave us the infamous Joose brand malt liquor and is probably associated with the same company that made Four Loko.

Despite my "liking" of the last one, I don't think I need to review the rest of the McAle offerings, because while they're all drinkable at the very most, the quality of these hard sodas are pretty consistent in quality and plus I really am not the biggest fan of these types of drinks, even though there isn't anything I would consider to be horribly offensive about them. As for me, I'm happy just sticking with beer.

Also McAle's, if you're reading this, this is how I REALLY feel about your products.

The Duluth Experience Presents the Dark History Bus Tour

I know this isn't quite beer related but the guys at the Duluth Experience have something brand new and exciting for those visiting Duluth and I thought that this is worth sharing.

Walking History Tour Scares up the Darker Side of Duluth’s History

Duluth, MN – The history of Duluth is an epic tale of triumphs and tragedies, successes and failures. This summer, a new tour offered by The Duluth Experience focuses on the not-sorosy stories of Duluth’s past and some of the reported hauntings that folks around town don’t necessarily like to talk about – things like gunfights, murders, riots, and even some of the local haunting legends!

The local tour company launched their Dark History Bus Tour in October of 2015 and found that there was a huge interest in the lesser-known stories of Duluth’s sorted past. Encouraged by the response to the bus tour, their Team began preparations for a guided walking tour of similar content but focused on Canal Park and Downtown Duluth.

According to local historian and Zenith City Press publisher Tony Dierckins, “Exploring the darker side of a community's past reveals a much more complex, fascinating, and often entertaining aspect of its history, and in today's Zenith City nothing brings that perspective to light quite like The Duluth Experience's Dark History Walking Tours.”

“Once we started digging into the darker side of Duluth’s history,” explains Duluth Experience CEO Dave Grandmaison, “we discovered a lot of creepy stories, legends, and tragic events that made for great storytelling.”

The Dark History Walking Tour weaves its way through Canal Park and Downtown Duluth where guests explore true stories of pirates on Park Point, lost ships of Lake Superior, and Duluth’s tenderloin district, along with tragic stories of lynchings, gunfights, and murders. The Duluth Experience guides also delve into local legends regarding lake monsters, strange disappearances, and ghostly apparitions in Duluth’s Historic Arts and Theater District.

“This isn’t a hokey, haunted-house tour with folks dressed up like goblins and ghouls trying to scare you” says Grandmaison. “Duluth’s dark history is creepy enough on its own.”

Duluth’s Dark History Walking Tours hit the streets every Friday and Saturday night during the months of July and August from 8:00pm to 10:00pm. Tours begin and end at the The Duluth Experience, LLC 211 E. 2nd St., Suite 4 www.TheDuluthExperience.com (218) 464-6337 Dewitt-Seitz Marketplace in Canal Park. Guests are encouraged to register ahead of time on The Duluth Experience website or by calling (218) 464-6337. Tickets for the Dark History Walking Tour are $20 per person.

About The Duluth Experience: The Duluth Experience is a locally owned and operated tour and events company dedicated to creating fun and educational experiences that connect people to the businesses, places, stories and adventures that define the Northland’s rich natural, historical, and cultural identity. 

Press Contact: David Grandmaison 

The Duluth Experience, LLC 

Phone: (218) 464-6337 

Email: dave@theduluthexperience.com 

Website: www.theduluthexperience.com/duluth-history-tours/#dark_history_walk 

Those who have been reading this blog for a while know how much I admire The Duluth Experience and how I think they have been a boon to the Duluth tourism scene and will continue to be so going forward. So if you're in Duluth, be sure to check these guys out.

Cheers!

- Nick

Rogue Honey Kolsch Review

Name: Rogue Honey Kolsch
Style: Kolsch
ABV: 5%
IBUs: 26

Before I departed for my vacation, there was a couple reviews that I had in draft format that I never got around to finishing. Since I'm now back, I guess now I can get around to posting this.

For this beer, we have Rogue Ales' Honey Kolsch, a beer that was originally available in yellow spray painted bomber bottles a while back, but is now available in 12 oz. bottle form. It's also worth noting that this is also a lot more reasonably priced than what it was in a bomber, which is one of the reasons why I've decided to review this.

Appearance - Mildly hazy yellow color with a mild amount of visible cabonation. It's got a pretty foamy head that has some good retention along with some good lacing

Aroma - White grapes, lager yeasts and honey and pale maltiness in the back

Taste - White grape and lager yeasts upfront with some nice honey notes that linger throughout. Towards the back I'm getting some of that pale maltiness along with some mild floral hops. The aftertaste is a light mix of pale malts and honey.

While I'm glad I didn't spend the $9+ for a bomber of this stuff, this is probably one of the best Kolsch-style beers I've had in a long time. The overall flavor is nice & smooth and the honey utilized here is prominent without being too much. So if you see this, this is definitely worth checking out.


Rogue Honey Kolsch - 9/10

Bell's Quinannan Falls Review

Name: Bell's Quinannan Falls
Style: Pale Lager
ABV: 6.5%
IBUs: N/A

It''s been almost 2 weeks but I am finally back from my long overdue vacation. I had a lot of good beers while I was away and I intend to write about them at a later date, but for the time being, I want to get back to reviewing beer.

Today I have the newest release from Bell's Brewery called Quinannan Falls, which is described as a special lager beer that is dry hopped. Based on the name, you would assume that this beer takes it's name from Quinannan Falls, which it totally does, except for the fact that it doesn't exist. You see, this waterfall was part of a dream that Larry Bell (the founder of Bell's had) at some point in his life and was described as being up north somewhere in a forest.

Appearance - Fairly clear yellow straw color with a high amount of carbonation and a light amount of haze. The head starts out with a lot of volume but it has a base retention of 1-finger in width with some pretty good lacing.

Aroma - Pale malts with some lager yeasts, along with some mild floral hops with just a touch of dry hops.

Taste - Upfront I am getting some pale malts which lingers throughout, but towards the middle I am getting some mild-to-moderate floral hops with some light piney hops to back it up, both of which also linger towards the end. Speaking of which, the back end of the palate ends things with a light touch of bitter hoppiness with a very dry aftertaste, save for some light lager yeasts.

Overall, I liked this. It's a bit stronger for a lager but it manages to be rather enjoyable nevertheless. I'm not sure if this is a one off offering but it's worth checking out should you find it.

Bell's Quinannan Falls - 8.5/10

Alpine Willy Vanilly Review

Name: Alpine Willy Vanilly
Style: Wheat Ale
ABV: 5.5%
IBUs: N/A

Every once in a while, I'll stumble across a beer of a certain style with a specific type of ingredient that makes me say: Huh? In this case, it's Willy Vanilly from the Alpine Beer Company; A brewery that I have neglected to cover since they entered our market last year around the same time I moved back to Minneapolis.

Taking it's name from the ill-fated R&B group Milli Vanilli, this is a wheat ale that is brewed with vanilla. I mean, I get it: Both of supposed to be lighter in terms of overall flavor and body but that seems like just an odd combo; Kind of like that offering from Green Flash that I wasn't a fan of it.

Appearance - Mildly hazy pale yellow color with no visible carbonation. There's also nothing really in terms of head retention or lacing.

Aroma - Malted wheat & pilsner malts with some light vanilla sweetness, and some mild skunkiness. I'll be honest, the skunk aspect of the nose doesn't exactly give me a favorable first impression.

Taste - Thankfully that skunk aroma isn't present in the flavor, which is roughly the same as the nose. You've got some malted wheat & pilsner maltiness upfront, followed in the middle by some moderate vanilla sweetness, which lingers until the end of the palate and some light floral hops and more malted wheat in the back. Aftertaste is a mix of light vanilla and malted wheat.

I don't know how but it works and it does so quite well. Will it be off-putting to some of the uninitiated? Yes, and the skunk aroma (at least in the bottle I had) definitely gives it a not-so-great first impression but those who are looking for a beer slightly off the beaten path will find something to like about Willy Vanilly.

Alpine Willy Vanilly - 8.5/10

Evil Twin Liquid Double Fudge Review

Name: Evil Twin Liquid Double Fudge
Style: Imperial Stout
ABV: 12%
IBUs: N/A

I think of all the Evil Twin beers I've reviewed thus far, more than half of them have been Imperial Stouts. It's really no fault of my own, they just so happen to make a lot of Imperial Stouts and I just so happen to find and drink them. What makes today's beer, Liquid Double Fudge, so special? Well, unlike many of Evil Twin's bomber bottles, I got this at the low price of $6 and it wasn't even on sale!.

Now I love bargains like anyone else, but my experience with bargain Imperial Stouts has been mixed and not all of them have been good, at least in my experiemce. With the case of Evil Twin, some of their Imperial Stouts have been good and others that have been not-so-good so I'm going into this with a fair amount of skepticism,

Appearance - Pitch black with a dark brown head and some pretty good lacing along the sides of the glass.

Aroma - Chocolate malts and milk chocolate sweetness with some roasted barley and a light amount of smokiness

Taste - Strong chocolate malts and roasted barley on the front of the with some bitter and citrus hops in the middle with some pretty heavy smokiness rounding things out in the end. The aftertaste is mainly chocolate malts with some light bitterness

Wow, out of all the bargain Imperial Stouts I have, Liquid Double Fudge is probably the one of best ones I've had so far. In fact, it's so good that I would happily pay a couple extra dollars just to have it again. It isn't perfection like Bell's Neptune was nor is it anything I haven't already seen, but this is still an exceptional beer. As stated before, I was a bit skeptical at first, but with the overall flavor, you're getting more than your money's worth with this beer.

Evil Twin Liquid Double Fudge - 9/10

Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye Review

Name: Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye
Style: Imperial Rye IPA
ABV: 8%
IBUs: 80

I've got a couple more beers from Bear Republic that I acquired recently so I figured I may as well get them out of the way. Today I have their Hop Rod Rye, which is their Rye IPA...or is it an Imperial Rye IPA? I mean the ABV is at 8%, which is what I usually consider to be the threshold of imperialization for beer styles. In any case, it's another highly regarded beer from the brewery so I'm excited to try it out.

Appearance - Hazy dark red color with a mild amount of carbonation. The head is nice and foamy and there's a good amount of lacing left behind along the sides of the glass

Aroma - Caramelized malts and citrus hops with some rye notes. I'm also getting some pretty bitter hop bitterness in here to with just a touch of yeastiness.

Taste - Pretty similar to the the nose. You've got caramelized malts and citrus hops upfront, with some rye spiciness towards the middle along with more citrus hops. Towards the back, the hop profile starts to get more diverse with the inclusion of strong bitter hops, while maintaining that caramel malt backbone and rye grain bill. The aftertaste is a mix of citrus & bitter hops with more of that caramel maltiness.

Wow, I'm not sure what they did here but this is great! It's nice and hoppy with a good malt balance and the rye bill in here is just right. When it comes to Rye IPAs, they don't come much better than Hop Rod Rye!

Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye - 9.5/10

Special Announcement AKA Nicks going on Vacation

Hello everyone,

Starting next Friday, I am taking time off from writing reviews because I will going on vacation in Florida & Georgia from July 8th through July 19th. This has been in planning for at least 4-5 months now and frankly, I haven't had a real vacation since I got married two years ago mainly because of work and school commitments. So to say that this is overdue would be an understatement and I've been looking forward to this for quite a while.

While I plan on there being no reviews until I get back, I plan on visiting quite a few breweries while I'm on vacation with the intent of doing some write-ups, so keep your eyes peeled for that. And if temptation strikes me, I may even do a review or two but if there aren't any, don't be surprised.

As always, thank you for being loyal readers of mine and for all the feedback you have provided to me over the years. I'll be sure to keep everyone posted as far as my time goes while I'm on vacation.

Cheers,

Nick

Leinenkugel's BeerGarten Tart Review

Name: Leinenkugel's Beergarten Tart
Style: Berliner Weiss
ABV: 4.8%
IBUs: N/A

I'm really not quite what to say here, but Leinenkugel's has made a sour beer.....Ok, more specifically a Berliner Weiss and I'm not going to lie, this wasn't one of the styles of beer that I would expect from the brewery. Then again, they've been releasing a more diverse range of beer styles over the past year or two, so this was probably a long time coming.

Anyways, what we have is BeerGarten Tart, which as you already know, is a Berliner Weiss. This is a style that I'm honestly not terribly familiar with, having only had maybe two from Bell's and New Glarus respectively.

Appearance - Mildly hazy and very pale yellow color with a high amount of carbonation. The head is pretty thin for the most past but has some good retention and the lacing isn't half bad either.

Aroma - Malted wheat and mild sour notes with some barley and some lemongrass. Also getting some mild floral hoppiness and pilsner malts in here as well.

Taste - Moderate lemon tartness with some malted wheat towards the middle and back, while I'm getting some pilsner and pale maltiness towards the middle and back while the floral hoppiness and barley notes in the back make up most of the back end of the palate. The aftertaste is pretty dry, save for some light barley notes.

Like I said before, Berliner Weiss beers are not a style that I'm familiar with, so I'm taking a stab in the dark when I say: I liked this. It's well balanced and not terribly sour while providing just enough sour zing without being overpowering. If you're looking for a good beer to test the "sour beer" waters with, this is definitely at the top of the list.

Leinenkugel's BeerGarten Tart - 8/10