Henry Weinhards Blonde

I have always for the most part liked Henry's. That being said, I would also say that their Blue Boar Pale Ale could have a modernization of sorts of its recipe to reflect the escalation of the malts and hops present in today's craft beers. This brew starts out a bit richer with more of a malt balance and the hops are present. As beers go, I see quite a bit of good, drinkability in this beer. While it will certainly not overwhelm all but Bud Light trained palettes, it has good drinkable quality and much better balance than their Pale Ale.

At first pour, it has a golden hue with nice beige foam that leaves a mild lace as it goes down. The nose is rather mild and the taste is malty, sweet with a nice mellow bitter from the hops. I have tasted other blonde's and this one would hold its own as a lesser competitor. Not unworthy, yet not at the apex either. I really love the work that Full Sail has done with these brands. This beer is a far cry from the vile sophomoric swill that they named Hefeweitzen about ten years ago. It was gross. This beer was worth my time and I over the course of two days consumed all six. OK, I am hard up and would consume six of anything because I am too cheap to let beer go to waste. But, what I am saying is that these six were pleasant. Far more pleasant that that nasty hefe. Here is a beer that will not offend nor disappoint. Is this a session beer? I have no frigging idea what a session beer is. My session in this case was rather successful and a pleasure as well.

Stone Pale Ale

Alright. I know that when I get a new beer in me that I just have to give you the experience and all that. "bla, bla, blasphemy"

When, I first opened this beer, it reminded me of Anchor Steam with the loud, powerful hiss and the lingering steaming veil over the bottle. It poured nice and rich, with a nice abundant head that smelled like nice delicious hops. The very first sip and I thought to myself that it was a great thing that I did not decide to go with the IPA...but then I thought to myself, this is not really a pure pale ale. I mean, it has all the flavor characteristics going for it...until you look at it. It reminds me of Fritz Maytag's evil brew. I hope he sues me for saying it, now that his crummy washing machines are now being made in Mexico. Sellout loser bastard...what are you going to do next? Sell the brewery, to S&P?

But, seriously folks. The Stone Brewing Company is in Escondido, California. Which gives me the hint, that with as much as that dried up loser and QUAFF beer snob and crony Rich Link has been banging the drum about Stone in the Celebrator Magazine, there has to be some QUAFF arrogant influence somewhere. I remember when I lived in San Diego and QUAFF was having their meetings at the Pacific Beach Brewing Company. A member owned the brewery and I was there with a friend who was a member. I ordered a stout and it was infected and spoiled. They got it going on for sure. That was a while back. If you don't believe me, just look up quaff on Google and find the site. Arrogant. However, this beer is fine and I recommend it. Regardless of what the heck it is.

4 out of 5 points maybe 4.5 out of five. It is good to be sure.

Blitz Weinhard Pale Ale

I have always loved the green. When I toured the brewery in 1990 during the Portland Rose Festival, it was a bittersweet joy. I really wished that I had the chance to try these beers before they were overwhelmed, abused and trodden down by corporate punks with no passion or pride for that matter. The beer was a bit light in the malt department like I remember it. It had a flowery, spicy hop nose like I remember it, although not as pronounced. Could be that since this is Oregon beer being sold in North Dakota that it was not as fresh as it could have been. Still good. I was burning the dump in my shitty little berg occupied by assholes and food stamp collecting pot squats when the beer tasted pretty good and broke up the toxic smoke medley with pride. This beer is brewed by Full Sail out of Hood River, Oregon. Well done, it is true to the original recipe...time for a remix of the old recipe and not the hack job that G. Heilemann Brewing Company did to it in the 90's.

Recommended 3.5 out of 5 points

Session Premium Lager

Man, do I ever have a weakness for any swill in a stubby bottle. I just love stubby bottles. They are aerodynamic as they fly out the car window smashing delightfully with a complete crash rather than the hard bottle syndrome demonstrated by the ever so present Long Red Neck. Ok, back to the beer. It is never the package to us beer nuts. It is always the beer.

Ok...the beer tastes like I remember Blitz Weinhard of Portland, Oregon as a kid. I like it and I will drink it again to be sure. It is a mildly hoppy, slightly darker than pale, light colored premium beer that blows Budweiser out of the water. and I love the hell out of the package. 11 oz. bottle, 5.1 percent alc. drink it daily. Recommended...Full Sail Brewing Company, Hood River, OR.

4.5 out of 5 Points good stuff to be sure...you think I would buy crap...It is bound to happen and you will read how I just hate Magnum Malt Liquor to death. Late

Sierra Nevada Harvest Fresh Hop Ale

IPA, if you live in California and drink something other than Lucky is what I would call a well used or abused term. I have had IPA's from all over and IPA's that shouldn't have been bottled at all. IPA can be to a new drinker of fine brews, a daunting thing, especially if the new drinker has had an IPA from Triple Rock. My god, those people are hop insane. But good...

I think Sierra Nevada is well versed at making me go ooh and aah over their beers. The term Harvest is a nice one and the label attracted me at first glance as it was one that you can't get in ND. I cracked her open and smelled the earthy scents of malt presence and said to myself, this beer is too cold. I let her sit for 5 minutes and was rewarded with a bouquet of hops that made me feel that they had a winner once again. Now I will tell you that first of all, this is a fine ale. I will also tell you that I think that all this wet/not wet hop malarkey is just that. The hop flavor is good and very present and I am sure they spent lots on the hops for this ale. It is an IPA, it is good, but it is an IPA in every area of taste. I think that Sierra Nevada thinks like I do that to call this special ale an IPA would be to call it ordinary, which it isn't. It is very good. I like it. It is an IPA in my mind.

4.75 out of 5 points

Racer 5 IPA

I have looked at this beer on the shelf at this same store many times. The problem was that I had to roll and beer had no part for my plans at the time. Last night, was a different story as my work day ended where the store was and the planets aligned at the same time for the benefit of me and me alone I tell you.

I bought a 24 ounce bottle of this ale with the intention of pouring and enjoying it for what it is. It is on first smell a very hoppy ale. In fact, my first impression of its hoppy smell was of a batch of home brew I made many years ago where my hop dealer mislabeled my purchase and instead of cascade at 5.4, it was centennial at 14.5...I added 3 ounces wanting a strong cascade presence and ended up with a well rounded institutional strength tongue cleaner. I did however make some neat half and half recipes with it. That is another story altogether.

My point with this and other IPA's is that when it comes to hop presence, there should be almost too much to be a really good IPA. A good IPA is like sex with a very demanding lover. You will have to work hard to enjoy it, but at all angles it is all good. At first taste, I was overwhelmed with hop madness for a moment then the malt, and I must say malty joy comes right in and balances the whole thing. The IPA is not made for balance in the basic sense, it must lean toward the bitter hops and this one does nicely. I found this ale to be a pleasant, overwhelming for the senses joy to drink. I had never really heard on Bear Republic except that maybe they have won some awards in this or that category. If you are ever in California, WWW.bearrepublic.com 707-433-2337. I wish they had this in North Dakota.

5 out of 5 points

Bayern Amber Lager

Bayern Amber Lager...God, I hate the term Amber. I know what you might be saying...You can't say that, amber is good, it is at least darker than pale. I know, I know, but whenever it seems that a brewer has nothing to offer, they offer a non descript piece of crap, usually called amber or red or some other crap because they refuse to stand for something.

That is not this beer at all. This beer represents the entry into a new market. When Jurgen Knoller arrived in Montana in 1987, He was given the task of creating a beer that would win the hearts and taste buds of Montanans who wanted, according to popular demand, a beer that is "darker than domestic beer but not too dark, and hoppier than domestic beers, but not too hoppy"

After some consideration, Jurgen came up with Bayern Amber, a traditional American amber lager with a distinct hoppy flavor. To reach this delicate middle ground, Bayern Amber is made with the same type and quantity of malted barly used in German Marzenbiers, and then hopped in the manner of Czech-style pilseners.

I feel that this beer is easy to enjoy. And like other Bayern brews, offers a fine balance that shows me that they pay one heck of a lot of attention to balance in their beers. I like it. I wish it were the rules that if you are to call your beer amber that at least you would have the same distinction as this fine beer.

4.0 points out of five

www.bayernbrewery.com