Limavegas

As the glorious weather continues we headed north to meet friends for a night of fun in good ol' Limavady. It was really great to catch up with people we hadn't seen for awhile. And a good excuse for a beer or two. There was another budding beer geek there (Hello Marty!) so I brought up a bottle of the raunchbier covered in a previous post to share (second tasting backed up my initial opinion, its a really fun beer – seriously go buy some). I also took some inspiration from the Belfast Beer Blog (http://belfastbeer.wordpress.com/).

From “1001 Beers...”

Beer number 157
• Red MacGregor. Style: Scottish/Amber Ale. ABV 4%
  

  

  
  
  Description: Poured from the bottle ruby red with a nice contrasting white head that lasted to the end. Good lacing too. Fruit and Caramel aromas. Nicely balanced hop/malt taste, with fruit (mostly black cherry) flavours in the background.
  Conclusion: I have been surprised by the number of Scottish beers out there I really like. Obviously there is Brewdog, but William's Brothers, Harviestoun and Orkney have all have beers in the book. This one is worthy of its place. Really nicely balanced – plenty of hops and toasted malts but nothing dominating and taking the taste too far. The big flavour that means you would never know this was only 4% ABV. I could see this being a really nice session beer I’ll come back to again and again.
  Score: 7 (On a good day this could maybe push to a 7.5).

Others

• Kuppers Kolsch. Style: Kolsch, ABV: 4.9%.
  Description: Light blond in colour, poured with a decent head that disappeared quickly with little lacing. Quite fizzy. Slight fruit flavours and a lightly creamy mouthfeel.
  Conclusion: My second Kolsch, and may be its not a beer style I'm going to be a fan of. This one was slight fruitier and creamier than the Fruh, but not really any better. Not a bad “lager” for a summers night, but overall I think the style is too weak and light for my taste.
  Score: 5.5
  
  
• Sam Adams Summer Ale. Style: Wheat, ABV: 5.5%.
  Description: Pours light golden, a little bit cloudy, with citrus flavours. Thin mouth-feel.
  Conclusion: This one was inspired by Belfast Beer Blog post on it. I'm a big fan of Sam Adams, but to me this is probably the weakest beer of theirs I've had. A little too light, and the fruit flavours are a little too subtle. But really I think its the thin mouth-feel that not quite right. It may be that I've killed by palette with too many “big beers” over the years (and this might not have been helped by having a hoppelhammer first). Don't get me wrong, this is a drinkable beer – especially on a warm evening - I just don't think its as good as the rest of the Sam Adams range.
  Score: 5.5

By the way, of the Sam Adams seasonals that seem to be widely available in NI, I've had the Spring, Summer and Winter beers (the winter one has been my favourite so far). Was there a Autumn version? Was it any good? Will have to keep my eyes open in the coming months!

Cheers