The Great Pumpkin Beer Rally 2012

Happy October, y'all. I LOVE Halloween and so here we go with my first annual Great Pumpkin Beer Rally. This is by no means an exhaustive list of Pumpkin Beers, but just a handful that I've picked up in last month or so. I wanted to save them for when it was actually closer to Halloween since these babies started showing up in late August. Seriously, seasonal creep is stupid. Also, Cassie helped with the taste testing :D

Dogfish Head Craft Brewery Punkin Ale

ABV: 7%

Thoughts: Nice and spicy, delicious! Probably the best all-around Pumpkin ale of the lot. Not too sweet, doesn't try to get too crazy with it, just really solid. Definitely will try to track down more of this before the season is over.
Rating: 4.25/5


Elysian Brewing Dark O' The Moon Pumpkin Stout

ABV: 6.5%
Thoughts: Delicious! I mean, I love stouts so obviously I'm gonna dig this one. The pumpkin flavors are very subtle in this one. Lots of chocolate and some hints of cinnamon and spices.
Rating: 4/5

Elysian Brewing Night Owl Pumpkin Ale

ABV: 6.1%

Thoughts: Pretty heavy on the pumpkin flavors. Mild, though, not spicy. Overall, it's a lil' too sugary sweet and just kinda blah for my tastes, though.
Rating: 2/5
 

Pike Brewing Harlot's Harvest Pumpkin Ale

ABV: 8.5%

Thoughts: Darker than most pumpkin beers in color and quite a bit more subtle and well-rounded with the spices and pumpkin flavors. Pretty top-notch stuff. Sneaky strong, too.

Rating: 4/5


Shipyard Brewing Co. Pumpkinhead Ale

ABV: 5.1%

Thoughts: Love the label and name of this one, sup Lance Hendrickson fans. This is the first beer I've had from Maine's Shipyard Brewing and I was pretty impressed. Nice amount of spice and lots of pumpkin, but not overly sweet.
Rating: 3.5/5


Southern Tier Brewing Co. Pumking

ABV: 8.6%

Thoughts: So the Pumking is lots of folks' go-to recommendation for a good pumpkin beer and I can see why. It's nice and strong and unlike most pumpkin beers, this one tastes more like pumpkin pie than actual pumpkin. Even has the bready pie crust flavor in there too.
Rating: 4.25/5


Uinta Brewing Co. Punk'n Harvest Pumpkin Ale

ABV: 4%

Thoughts: Nice and light. Hints of lager. The pumpkin and spices are present, but not overwhelming at all.
Rating: 3.5/5

Burgundian Coffee Beer Fest 2012

If there's one type of beer I love, it's coffee flavored beer. It's just such a great combination. So I was thrilled to find out that the excellent nearby pub The Burgundian was having a coffee beer fest on a lazy Saturday. Buddies Bobby and Jim joined me for some delicious, specially brewed coffee beers from some top notch local and nationally known breweries.

Fort George Brewing Thundermuck Stout

ABV: 9%

 

Thoughts: I love me some Fort George Brewing, so of course I had to try this first. A very well balanced imperial coffee stout. The booze is very well concealed because of the overall smoothness of the stout. Coffee flavors are in the forefront, no doubt, but it's not overpowering.

Rating: 3.5/5

Gigantic Brewing The City Hasn't Slept In Days Black Saison w/ Cold Press Portland Roasting Coffee

ABV: 7%

 

Thoughts: So this is a variation on Gigantic's regular black saison, The City Never Sleeps, which is a pretty fantastic beer already. So they added some coffee flavors to it and bam, absolute brilliance. The mash up of coffee flavors with the slight Belgian bitterness makes for a challenging and tasty brew.

Rating: 4/5

Oakshire Brewing Goatshed Coffee IPA

Bonus chicken 'n waffles action

ABV: 7.1%

Thoughts:  Oakshire is a solid brewery from Eugene, OR, and this is a coffee-infused variation on their Watershed IPA. This was super unique because it pretty much tasted like hoppy coffee, but you know, in beer form. Fantastic beer.

Rating: 4.5/5

Epic Ales Coffee and Cigarettes

ABV: 6.5%

Thoughts: This was probably my overall favorite beer that I tried. Leave to lil' ol' Epic Ales to make the craziest small batch beer at a fest! This tasted just like the name suggests.  We dubbed this the Tomacco beer, because Simpsons humor is the basis for most good things in life. Along with coffee, there was tobacco smoke, cinnamon and cardamom. It was a bit like a dark sour overall, but like Tomacco, one sip begs another. An amazing concoction.

Rating: 4.75/5

Fremont Brewing Wandering Wheat with Tony's Ethopian Blend

ABV: 4.5%

Thoughts: I've had the regular Wandering Wheat before and it's a very refreshing, summery kind of wheat ale. Add a little coffee in there and it becomes this awesome, complex, slightly bitter and overall delicious lil' session beer. Great stuff.

Rating: 4.5%

Great beers and a fun, low-key lil' fest.

Beer Review: Fort George Brewing Co. Sunrise Oatmeal Pale Ale

Style: American Pale Ale
ABV: 5.5%

Fun Fact About the Brewery:

I've gushed quite a bit on here about how much I like Fort George already, but yes, I still love this brewery.

Thoughts:

If I could just get a keg of this beer delivered to my house every month, that'd be just great. I'm not really sure why this has become one of my all time favorites. The general consensus on the internets is that it's good, not great. I just think it's super well-rounded and totally satisfying to all my senses as a beer. It has just the right amount of hops and bitterness for a pale ale, but then the oatmeal, honey and grapefruity sweetness kicks in and smooths it all out a little bit. Bitter, yet bright and refreshing. I have yet to try a pale ale similar to it. And at 5.5%, you can throw back a few without losing your ability to speak clearly.

Rating: 4.75

Beer Review: American Brewing Co. Baltic Porter

Style: Baltic Porter

ABV: 9%

Fun Fact About the Brewery:

American Brewing Company, a relatively new brewery located up in Edmonds, WA,  is continually getting lots of rave reviews these days. The labels for all their other beers are all colorful and graphic-heavy, but they went for the "less is more" approach on this special release.

Thoughts: 

The main difference between an American porter and a Baltic porter is the higher booze content. That and Baltics tend to have more roasted brown malt to them. The story behind the style is similar to that of the IPA. In order to make the porters last for shipping across the North Sea, they'd up the alcohol content and malt to cover up any imperfections from storage. Anyways, being a fan of porters, obviously I think Baltic porters are pretty awesome. A common example of the style is Black Boss Porter from Poland, which is widely available, is very cheap and will knock you on your ass. This Baltic Porter from American is much more refined and even has some hints of raisin and vanilla in the aftertaste. Very strong, yet very smooth and drinkable because that's how porters roll. I bought this a few months ago, so I'm not sure how available it is anymore, but I'd definitely buy it again if I saw it.

Rating: 4/5

Beer Review: Stone Brewing Co. Smoked Porter w/ Vanilla Bean

Style: American Porter

ABV: 5.9%

Fun Fact About the Brewery:

Wow, this is the first Stone Brewing release I've reviewed here? Well, shoot, here we go. Stone was founded in 1996 in San Marcos, CA, and later moved to its current headquarters in Escondido. Stone, volume-wise, has become one of the biggest and most wildly successful craft breweries in North America and is even trying to expand into Europe. They have a (mostly earned) very high opinion of themselves, hence names likes Arrogant Bastard Ale, etc. Beer Advocate worships at their feet pretty much. Because of all this hype, I really find some of their standard releases to be pretty mediocre, especially the Stone IPA, but almost all of their special or seasonal releases deliver on the hype x 10, which brings me to...

Thoughts: 

It had been a little while since the first sip of a beer I'd never tried before made me say, "Holy shit" out loud. I mean, you know I love me some porters and just the words "porter" and "vanilla" in the same sentence practically give me a half-chub (too much? sorry!). But man, this beer is just exquisite. Porters are inherently smooth, but when you add a smokey vanilla flavor to it, you're just the smoothest smooth in smoothtown. The light smokiness keeps it from being too overtly sweet, so it's not just a full-on desert beer, although I would probably take it over just about any chocolate stout I can think of. And finally, the low ABV makes it all the more drinkable. If six-packs of this were available year-round (they're not, sadly), I would not buy many other beers on the regular.

Rating: 4.75/5

Beer Review: Trappistes Rochefort 8

Style: Dubbel

ABV: 9.2%

Fun Fact About the Brewery:

Brasserie de Rochefort started brewing way the hell back in 1595 in the Abbey of Notre-Dame de Saint-Réme. They pretty much only make 3 beers and this is one of them. Quality over quantity, you guys.

Thoughts: 

So they make the 6, 8 and 10, with the 6 being the lightest and the 10 being the strongest. The 8 seems like a happy medium. Like all Dubbels, this one is nicely carbonated with tons of delicious malt with dark fruit flavors, namely figs. Goes down very smooth and the high ABV is actually pretty well hidden. Rochefort probably wouldn't still be making beer for four centuries if it wasn't some world class shit, so yeah, it's delicious. I hear the 10 is even better, so I'll try that next.

Rating: 4.25/5

Beer Review: Snipes Mountain Brewery Roza Barleywine 2010 Reserve

Style: American Barleywine

ABV: 13%

Fun Fact About the Brewery:

Yakima is a real bummer of a place, but at least they've got Snipes Mountain Brewery going for it. Named after prolific cattle herder and pioneer Ben Snipes, Snipes Mountain has quietly established itself as one of Eastern Washington's best breweries with solid standard offerings and recently started branching out with more unique ales and sours.

Thoughts: 

I had this at a Snipes Mountain featured brewery night at the Pine Box. A 2010 vintage barleywine? Uh, yes please. Couldn't say no to that. At 13%, yeah the booze is pretty in your face. The hoppiness had mellowed a bit the aging as you would expect, but it was still present. Very malty with a sweet, fruity aftertaste. Overall, a damn good barleywine and I look forward to trying more brews from Snipes Mountain.

Rating: 4/5

Beer Review: Fremont Brewing Company Summer Ale

The cat hair did not enhance the flavor like I'd hoped

Style: American Pale Ale

ABV: 5.2%

Fun Fact About the Brewery:

I've already gushed a bunch on here about Fremont Brewing, but seriously I think it might be the best all around brewery in Seattle right now.

Thoughts: 

If you've been reading this blog regularly (hi Cassie!), then you've noticed how many summer ales I've been reviewing. Well, now summer is nearly over and breweries are releasing harvest ales and pumpkin brews already. I mean, I love fall, but oh god it's going dark soon and it's going to last forever. So, I'll end my summer seasonal reviews on a high note here. Fremont's Summer Ale is just fantastic this year. It was good last year, too, but this year's is better somehow. It's light and crisp, but still a bit hoppy and earthy tasting. There's a hint of orange or lemon zest in the aroma, but just barely. It's the kind of beer that makes you want to just float on an innertube in a lake all day and just throw a few back. You can get it on draft for a bit longer, in 22 oz bombers and now in cans.

Rating: 4.75/5 - It's a toss up for me between this one and Victory Summer Love for my favorite summer beer this year

Beer Review: Bison Brewing Company Organic Honey Basil

Style: Herbed ale

ABV: 6%

Fun Fact About the Brewery:

A fully organic brewery from Berkeley, California? Get out of town, right? Founded in 1989 by a bunch of filthy hippies, Bison is one of the few widely distributed organic breweries out there. They seem to specialize in offbeat kinds of brews, like the one I'm reviewing here.

Thoughts: 

I saw this on the shelf and was totally intrigued so I had to snag one in a mixed six pack. It pours a much darker copper hue than I was expecting. The basil aroma is very strong. I mean, basil is one of those herbs where a little bit goes a long way, and I think they may have gone overboard with it here. The honey is present, too, but not quite enough to take the overwhelming bite of the basil out. Also, the ABV seems a bit high to me for a spring/summer kind of ale like this. It just made it feel too heavy overall and not nearly refreshing enough. Not something I'd seek out again, but it's worth trying. I also have a bomber of Bison's Chocolate Stout that's been in my fridge for over a month that I need to bust out. I hear it's one of their best.

Rating: 2.75/5

Beer Review: Chuckanut Brewery Pilsner

Style: German Pilsner

ABV: 5%

Fun Fact About the Brewery:

When Chuckanut Brewing started a few years ago, I was like, "Psssh, yeah right!" (makes wanking motion with hand). In my heart and mind, there could be only one awesome brewery from Bellingham, like Highlander, and that brewery was Boundary effin' Bay. But Chuckanut kept building a good reputation and all the bars I like have continued pouring their stuff, so I decided to finally give them a chance.

Thoughts: 

I had the Pilsner on tap at Collins on a hot day and it was pleasantly refreshing. The pilsner, a style that's been fucked up beyond all recognition by American macro breweries, has been making a steady comeback through small craft breweries. I love the microbrewery take on most German styles and this is no exception. It has a nice grainy and floral aroma with a surprisingly zesty bite to the overall flavor. It makes for a crisp finish. With the low ABV, it's a great hot weather beer. So my skepticism on Chuckanut's brews seems to be unfounded and I will definitely try more of their stuff when I see it.

Rating: 3.75/5

Beer Review: Deschutes Brewery Black Butte XXIV

Style: American Porter

ABV: 11%

Fun Fact About the Brewery:

Deschutes is one of my very favorite NW breweries, yet this is the first beer of theirs I've reviewed for this blog. That's more of a blog fun fact, though. Let's see, okay so Deschutes started in 1988 in Bend, OR, when I was 5. I've been to Bend many times, mostly to go snowboarding at Mt. Bachelor when I was a teenager, so I had no idea I was in such close proximity to such a fantastic brewery. Teenagers are dumb.

Thoughts: 

This is their 24th Anniversary reserve formula and it is a doozy. The normal, 6-pack version of the Black Butte Porter is one of my favorite standard and easily found beers. It's just so smooth and tasty. This is the fancier imperial version that they encourage you to age for a year before drinking, which I'm doing for a couple bottles. But, I had this on tap at Collins Pub and even without aging it for a year, it's pretty special. The first taste hits with the strong aroma of figs and dates, then you get the nice, chocolately and familiar porter smoothness. The dates give it a bit of a fruity taste to it, which is pretty unique for a porter. The alcohol is definitely strong and only gets stronger as it warms up. I can imagine it will blend a bit more as it ages, though.

Rating: 4.25/5

Beer Review: Dogfish Head Craft Brewery Festina Peche

Style: Berliner Weissbier

ABV: 4.5%

Fun Fact About the Brewery:

Founded in 1995, Dogfish Head is a purveyor of world-class craft beers and apparently they recently started distilling spirits, too. These days, you can find their 60 and 90 Minute IPAs just about anywhere. And did you know DFH is in Delaware? Did you even remember that was a place? It's a state, even! Look it up, jerk!

Thoughts: 

I had this at Collins Pub last Friday after walking a couple miles in Seattle's one day of 90 degree heat for the year. So, at that moment, this was pretty much the most refreshing thing to ever cross my lips. Festina Peche is fermented with peaches, which allows the yeast to feed on the sugar from the peaches. This makes for just the smoothest, slightly tart and tangy fruit beer I've ever tried. And the mellow ABV is an added bonus. Long live delicious summer beers.

Rating: 4.5/5

Beer Review: Boneyard Brewing Co. RPM IPA

Style: India Pale Ale

ABV: 7.5%

Fun Fact About the Brewery: 

Boneyard was founded in Bend, Oregon, by some hesher lookin' dudes with a penchant for caps lock and angelfire-lookin' web sites. Fortunately, their beer is of much higher quality than their web site and graphic design skills.

Thoughts: 

Sweet Jesus, I hope these guys left some hops for the rest of the world to use. This is one powerful IPA. I heard lots of hype on this one, so I tried it at Malt n' Vine over in Redmond last weekend. Now, as I've stated, I'm not an IPA superfan, especially when it comes to just regular single IPAs. But, this one is exemplary for the style and it honestly gives Pliney The Elder, which is an imperial, a run for it's money. The aroma is packed full of pine, grapefruit, orange and of course, an utter shitload of hops. Once you get past the hop overload, the aftertaste is amazingly herby (yes, kind of like this) and the citrus flavors finish it off. I would have expected the overwhelming hoppiness to turn me off of this beer, but piney aroma just had me going back for more slow sips. Tons of complexity in this IPA. If anything, the ABV might be a bit too high for a single IPA, but I don't think these guys do subtlety. If Boneyard ever starts bottling, they could get huge very quickly.

Rating: 4.5/5

Beer Review: Cascade Brewing Barrel Aged Bruin

Pardon the dark photo, good times were being had!

Style: Flanders Oud Bruin

ABV: 9%

Fun Fact About the Brewery:

From the aforementioned Cascade Brewing night at Urban Family Public House. 

Thoughts: 

This is a style I am not at all familiar with. I feel like I need a degree in horticulture to fully understand it, really. It's very fruity and is very reminescient of red wine. Just a tad sour and funky, but really more on the fruity and slightly bitter side. If I had a bottle of this, I would only break it out for people i really, really like because this is some special stuff.

Rating: 4.5/5

Beer Review: Cascade Brewing The Vine

Style: American Wild Ale

ABV: 9.73%

Fun Fact About the Brewery:

Cascade Brewing from Portland is well known around the NW for their awesome takes on sour ales. When it comes to sours, a lot of people are like, "Why in fucks name would you drink a sour beer?" But, beer nerds stroke their beards and say, "Yes, I enjoy sour ales because they are challenging and interesting." Well, I guess I fall on the the latter half of that discussion because I think sours can be pretty cool.

Thoughts: 

Urban Family Public House in Ballard had a Cascade Brewing night last weekend and so I got to try a couple of their excellent sours. The Vine is, according to the Cascade web site, "a blend of soured Triple, Blonde Quad and Golden ales that have been refermented with the fresh pressed juice of white wine grapes." Yep, there you have it. The grape flavor really comes through in the aftertaste. This beer is fantastic.

Rating: 4.5/5

Beer Review: Black Raven Brewing Co. La Petite Mort

Style: Belgian Dark Ale

ABV: 8.8%

Fun Fact About the Brewery:

Situated in a random commerce park over in Redmond, WA, Black Raven has quietly built a reputation for brewing incredibly solid standard offerings like their Trickster IPA and for brewing neat small batch brews like this one I'm about to review. Their tasting room is totally awesome. I'm curious to see if they ever make the jump to bottling their brews as they are currently only available on draft at various places around the NW.

Thoughts: 

Belgian dark ales tend to be on the stronger side and this one is no exception. It's a deep brown color and the strongest flavors are nuts, plums and figs. It's a very traditional, yet exemplary take on the style. It's very smooth and drinkable and the booziness is not hidden. But, the aftertaste is generally dominated by the fruit flavors. A top notch beer from a fantastic brewery.

Rating: 4.25/5

Beer Review: Pike Brewing Co. Saison Houblon

 

Style: Saison/Farmhouse ale

ABV: 6.5%

Fun Fact About the Brewery:

Pike Brewing is one of Washington's oldest microbreweries. Founded in 1989 by a couple of old farts, they set up shop below the famous Pike Place Market in the heart of Seattle and started brewing English style ales with a furious passion. Pike Place Market may be a bit of a tourist trap these days, but places like Pike Brewing help keep a true pioneer spirit alive amongst all the goofy tourist shit.

Thoughts: 

I've become fairly familiar with the farmhouse ale style and one taste of the Saison Houblon is all it takes to realize that this is definitely a very NW take on this Belgian style. It's way, way hoppier than a typical saison, and therefore not quite as refreshing. Has a bit of a bitter tinge to it. But, that's not necessarily a bad thing depending on your tastes. Saisons were originally created to be a low alcohol content, highly refreshing break time drink for farm workers in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium some hundreds of years ago. So, if they hopped into a time machine and somehow showed up in Seattle looking for a saison, they'd be pretty bummed on this. But, myself, as a member of the current times, finds it to be a pretty solid ale overall.

Rating: 3.5/5

Beer Review: Houblon Chouffe Dobbelen IPA Tripel

Style: Belgian IPA

ABV: 9%

Fun Fact About the Brewery:

They have a lil' elf on their labels! What's more fun than that? What's that you say? Multiple elves? Yes, I suppose that would be more fun. God, always one upping me. Sheesh. Anyways, La Chouffe is a world class Belgian brewery known everywhere for their excellent takes on Belgian style ales. David the Gnome ain't got shit on these guys.

Thoughts: 

Cassie ordered this because she loves IPAs and this was the only one the Outlander had on their menu. She's not really a Belgian fan like I am, so I think she was just kinda whelmed by this beer, but I thought it was an excellent take on a Belgian style IPA. The hoppiness disguises the 9% ABV very well. It's a sneaky one for sure.

Rating: 3.75/4

Beer Review: Fremont Brewing Dark Star Imperial Oatmeal Stout

Style: Imperial Oatmeal Stout

ABV: 8%

Fun Fact About the Brewery:

Fremont Brewing is just doing everything right these days. Their brewery and urban beer garden is laid back and no-frills in its layout. Just some tables and a couple guys working the taps. They've started doing more bourbon barrel aging for special releases. They just started canning 3 of their beers. All their logo design work is clean and distinct looking. And they pretty much haven't made a bad beer yet. Just a top notch and gloriously local operation.

Thoughts: 

As stated in other reviews, I love me a good oatmeal stout and this is a damn good one. They recently released a bourbon barrel aged version called Kentucky Dark Star, which i foolishly did not purchase when I saw it at PCC. Now it's all gone, so if anyone out there would like to sell or trade one, holler at your boy. Anyways, the oatmeal flavor of the Dark Star kinda gets pushed aside by the strong chocolate flavors at first, but are still present in the background. It's very, very smooth. If I didn't know it was an imperial I would have guessed an ABV around 5 or 6 because the booziness is well covered by the oats and chocolate. I will be very pumped if they start canning this in the winter. Also, I like the name because it reminds of John Carpenter and Dan O'Bannon's cult classic student film.

Rating: 4.25/5

Beer Review: Fort George Brewery Spruce Budd Ale

Style: Herbed ale/pilsner

ABV: 4.9%

Fun Fact About the Brewery:

My love for Fort George Brewery has been well documented here so far, but let me say again: These guys are awesome. They renovated an old historic building in Astoria, formerly an auto shop, and turned into their main brewery and pub. Really, really want to go to Astoria now and not just to re-enact scenes from "The Goonies." Their four main brews just started getting distributed in Washington in aluminum cans in early 2012 and they recently added a fifth one, Quick Wit Belgian Ale. Have yet to try anything I haven't liked from ol' Fort George.

Thoughts: 

The Spruce Budd ale is their summer seasonal and holy crap is it ever refreshing. Each batch is brewed with over 35 pounds of spruce tree tips, giving it a very herby and slightly spicy kick, but the pilsner malt keeps it mellow and crisp. The first taste just ignites your taste buds. And at 4.9%, it's a true session beer. I had this on draft at Bottleworks and haven't seen it on tap anywhere else yet. Overall, a truly unique beer and a very original take on a summer seasonal. Can this baby and ship it up to my doorstep on the regular, please!

Rating: 4.75/5

Beer Review(s) - Outlander Brewing - Federal Defenestration Irish Red and Dasein, Confused Hefeweizen

Fun Fact About the Brewery: 

I attended Outlander Brewing's grand opening in Fremont last night with Cassie, my aforementioned buddy Jim and his wife Andrea, joined later by a gaggle of other hooligans. The Outlander is setting out to specialize in small batch, experimental brews, which I'm a huge fan of. The brewpub is in a converted old house, right on the main drag in Fremont. The inside is nice and charming complete with old antique furniture. Looks like a perfect kind of place to hang out on a cold winter night. Luckily, since it's summer, they have an awesome patio, too, where you can sit and watch the wacky Fremont nightlife unfold in front of you.

The owners, sporting a deer in headlights look on their faces as they served a larger than expected crowd, were friendly and gracious. They were already out of their first 3 brews by the time we got there. Unfortunately, we missed the peanut butter chocolate beer, but I'm sure they'll make more soon. The two Outlander brews that I got to try were quite good, though, so here's the reviews:

Name: Federal Defenestration

Style: Irish Red ale

ABV: 7%

Thoughts: 

The name had me scratching my head, but Jim quickly pointed out that defenestration is the act of throwing something out of a window. I immediately called bullshit, but the internet quickly proved Jim correct. Jim's vocabulary 1, Eric 0. Anyways, this is a great take on the Irish Red style. It's a bit stronger than most Irish Reds, but it's well-rounded and doesn't overpower. It has that nice, warming red malt with just a slight bite to it, complete with a traditional dry finish. Nothing too fancy, but it's a unique style that you don't see very often from small breweries.

Rating: 3.75/5

******************

Nothing like the warm glow of a 7/11 to a give a lil' suburban ambiance, right?

Name: Dasein, Confused

Style: Hefeweizen

ABV: 5.2%

Thoughts:

Hefeweizens, like blonde ales, are typically seen like the wimpy lil' girly beers of the craft beer world because they're so easy to drink and usually lighter on alcohol content. Hefs, with their high wheat content, are particularly smooth. The literal translation of the German word dasein is "being there." I dig the creative names these Outlander guys are coming up with for their beers. Anyways, I'm not a big hef fan at all, but this was one of the best hefs I've had. Lots of fruitiness in the mix to liven up the cloudy wheat malt. Very refreshing and perfect for a warm summer night.

Rating: 4/5

Overall, Outlander Brewing is a fantastic addition to the Seattle craft beer community and I'll definitely be back.