Beer of the Week/Cheer of the Week

A favorite blog of mine, Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Nachos, has a great little schtick every Friday where they go to their ipods, hit random, and give their impressions of the first 10 songs.

At Around the Keg, we (I) have decided to do the same this week, but of course, with beer. So this week's "beer of the week" is the first 10 beers I saw when I opened my beer fridge. With bottle opener in hand....

1) Hacker-Pschorr Original Oktoberfest. Hugely sweet, almost like maple syrup with beer in it. I would drink this beer every day AND have it on my pancakes. This is a perfect Oktoberfest, made by the people who...you know...started it. 9/10

2) Bells' Twentieth Anniversary Ale. Sweet malt mixed with rose-scented hops. Pretty complex, ended with a kind of melon aftertaste. Good for show their 20th year. 8/10

3) Spaten Oktoberfestbier. This is nothing like Oktoberfest. It is re-packaged Heineken, with all the skunk of St. Pauli Girl. Drinkable, but not Oktoberfest, and only an average beer to begin with. 5/10

4) Theakston Old Peculiar. This is a great Old Ale. Molasses, raisins, a little chocolate. Well-balanced, not as sweet as Oktoberfests. 8/10

5) Brouwerij Huyghe Delerium Tremens. Holy moly. This is a Belgian strong pale ale...and strong it is. Grabbed my taste buds and said "you WILL like me, punk." And I did. This is a favorite. 9/10.

6) Michigan Brewing Company Sunset Amber Lager. This is a perfect lager. Lots of complex hops mixed with pilsener yeasts, but fermented at about 33 - 40 degrees instead of cellar-temp. Everything about this lager is exactly what you read about lagers in beer textbooks. Consistent beer from a consistent brewery. 9/10.

7) Blue Star Great American Wheat Beer. Nice, crisp wheat beer. Just that: nice. Not spectacular, certainly above-average...just nice. Got all the right trappings: floral scent, fruity/banana taste, cloudy. 7/10

8) Hacker-Pschorr Dunkle Weiss. I could drink this every day and not get tired of it. Hazy mahogany color, cloves and fruit om the scent. Bananas, smokiness, malt and chocolate on the taste. Gotta love the Germans for their beer (and their cars). But not so much for their art. 8/10

9) Bell's Brewery Two Hearted Ale. This is lovely. Floral and grapefruit smell. Caramel initially on the taste, followed up by the great grrapefruit taste. Gods, but this is good friggin' beer. Another consistent beer from a consistent brewery. 8/10.

10) Molson Canadian Lager. Dammit! Who left this in my fridge?!? After all these great beers, to end on such an average note is disappointing. Well..for a macro-brew, Molson does a fine job. Not too hoppy, in fact, almost no hops, mostly overshadowed by a simple beer flavor. Really, at the end of the day, I like this beer. I drink it at hockey games. I feel good drinking this beer. It's just not spectacular. Nice and fizzy, WAY better taste than Bud or Miller. At least Canadian macro-brews still brew beer that tastes like it.. 6/10.

My average this week is 7.7/10. I guess that makes me pretty happily hammered!