American Craft Beer Week-Monday New Beer Reviews

Tried some new beers this weekend, here is a round-up of some of the new brews.

Toby's Rating System:
0 = Nasty (undrinkable, there has only been one beer that ever got this from me)
1 = Ugh (I wouldn't buy it unless it was 1:59 AM and it was all I could afford in the store)
2 = Okay (If it is on sale and that is all I have in my pocket, I will pull the trigger)
3 = Good (I will buy a six-pack or drink a few at the bar, good but not top of the pops...)
4 = Very Good (Yeah, I might hunt this down and drink a little too much of it. Or a lot.)
5 = Favorites (If this were a woman, I would make sweet love to it)

SPRING REIGN ALE
by Ninkasi Brewing Company, Oregon

Uh, let me start this by saying I am a big fan of some of Ninkasi's brews. Their Total Domination IPA and Oatis Oatmeal Stout are delicious.

The Spring Reign Ale is their seasonal brew, available March1st-June 1st in bottles and in draft. This is a pretty light beer, crisp, with a very heavy floral flavor. Way too heavy floral for my personal taste, and the other people who were drinking with my all agreed. The floral flavor was very overpowering, so if that is how you like your beers, this may be a good one for you. It wasn't for me. My wife actully was the one to buy this on tap, and she ended up not drinking it, and it was passed around the table with nobody taking more than a few sips before it sat there until I championed up and drank the rest after downing the excellent 5/5 Pepper Beer I had from out local Riverport Brewery.

Rating: 2

MONGOOSE IPA
by Hale's Ales, Washington

I liked this one. It pours very pretty-an orange, amberish color. There is some flavor of grapefruit and pine, but the flavors aren't strong or overpowering, a welcome change after drinking the extremely strong flavors associated with The Spring Reign. This beer went over okay with the non-traditional beer drinkers in the group, they didn't hate it, which is always a plus. I certainly wouldn't have minded another, but I had multiple beers to try throughout the evening. ;)

Rating: 3

RED CHAIR NWPA
by Deschutes Brewery, Oregon

Confession time-this isn't the first time I have had this beer. At the last local brewfest, Deschutes brought their infamous Woody to the event with a number of great beers, and this was amongst them. However, as the wife and i were heading at my mother-in-laws for the Mother's Day celebration, we were scouring the local Albertsons to find a beer we wanted to take, and we chose to give this a second try.

This is one fabulous beer. It has a tasty hop flavor which satisfies a beer fanatic like myself, but not so overpowering that my finicky beer-drinking wife won't suck one or two down. It has a nice, citrus flavor, but not in an overpowering way. We barbequed up some burgers and this fine brew complimented the meal perfectly.

This one is a keeper. Deschutes makes one of my very favorite beers, Black Butte Porter, but when I am heading to a summer bbq, I will have to think twice between bringing BBP and bringing a six-pack of this.

Rating: 5