The weather here has been getting warmer and more humid each and every day, so I was very much looking forward to some refreshing beer on Wednesday evening at Celebration Town Tavern. Even with the fans and misters going on the outdoor patio area, it was still pretty darn hot and sticky. Then again, I probably should have sat myself directly under one of the misters. However, chatting about beer with @willspot, @atmybar, @bbhart, @icejunkies, and @towntavern made time quite enjoyable despite the heat.
The misters are your friends
One of the contenders had to be pulled from the competition at the last minute, so Dogfish’s Festina Peche was replaced with Blue Moon’s Honey Moon Summer Ale. Quickly moving past my opinion that it does not qualify as a craft beer to be included in this month’s vote, the final roll call for the event was:
- Sierra Nevada Summerfest Lager (Chico, CA) – Czech Pilsener
- Sam Adams Summer Ale (Boston, MA) – American Pale Wheat Ale
- Brooklyn Summer Ale (Brooklyn, NY) – English Pale Ale
- Honey Moon Summer Ale (Golden, CO) – American Pale Wheat Ale
A view of the contenders
After taking in the aromas and flavors of each, my short notes went something like this:
- Sierra Nevada Summerfest – Not much overall aroma (clean) and a pretty bitter/hoppy pilsner flavor. Quite refreshing though.
- Sam Adams Summer Ale – Lightly sweet and citrusy aroma. Wheat is obvious in the body with some spice and fairly strong notes of lemon.
- Brooklyn Summer Ale – Some resiny/floral hop notes and breadiness in the aroma. Flavors are smooth with some nice earthy hop flavors and good malt undertones.
- Honey Moon Summer Ale – Lightly sweet aroma with smooth sweetness and crisp carbonation on the palate. The honey does come through in the flavor.
So after that are there any predictions as to what my vote and final order of the four was? No need to build suspense, so without further delay my vote was:
- Brooklyn Summer Ale – most well balanced flavors of the four.
- Sierra Nevada Summerfest – bitterness became thirst quenching
- Sam Adams Summer Ale – lemon flavor was too much for me
- Honey Moon Summer Ale – just not much of anything there for flavor
The interesting thing for me with this vote was that had I put them in order after my first taste of each, it would have been the exact opposite of what it turned out to be. As the beers warmed some, the hop characters of the Brooklyn opened up and smoothed out nicely whereas the lack of substance in the Honey Moon became more obvious when not ice cold.
Remember which was which?
As always though, I am only one vote among the many that attend the monthly Tweetups at CTT. After all of the votes were tallied it was a very close race between two of them. Drum roll, please. The winner and new resident of the “Micro of the Month” tap handle is Brooklyn Summer Ale! It narrowly beat out Honey Moon Summer Ale to win the battle of the summer seasonals.
Be sure to stay tuned to find out what the lineup of beers will be for the Tweetup next month looking to take Brooklyn Summer Ale’s spot!
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