Summer Is St. Lupulin Season

One of the things I look forward to every year is the return of St. Lupulin, Odell's summer seasonal. Named after a fictitious patron who tends the hops to draw out the delicate flavor of the essential oil contained within, St. Lupulin is crisp and refreshing, perfect for cooling down after a long day of tending your own crop.

It's a dry-hopped ale, and it's got plenty of hop flavor, but it's a delicate hoppiness. Interspersing these with a couple of different IPAs, it's easy to tell the difference. While most hoppy beers hit the tongue like a hammer, St. Lupulin rolls up your taste buds like a wave, and the light malt helps to make this a very drinkable summer beer--not quite chuggable, but close--and why would you want to, anyway?

The label is nicely designed--I didn't recognize the beer glass at first.

As you can see, it's a nice, clean pour.

If you like hops but haven't had the chance to enjoy this delicate summer brew, I highly recommend it. And if you're the kind of person who thinks he doesn't like hops, well, this is one that might just change your mind.

Red Rocket Ale

This is a really nicely balanced ale, a great combination of rich malt flavor with a really strong hop backing. I don't know what the combination of malts they use, but it's really distinctive, and the moderate alcohol content means I can finish a bomber by myself with just the right buzz.

They distinguish this Scottish ale from Scotch ales because of its lower alcohol content, and on the whole I'd have to say that of the two styles I enjoy Scottish rather than Scotch ales.

Highly recommended!

India Copper Ale

So Sarnac can produce some pretty bad beers, so I was prepared for something much worse. This was pretty good, but really doesn't pass the IPA muster. Although they changed the name to admit that it isn't really an IPA, there's still the implication that it is. If you called this a pale ale, I'd be okay with it.

Tire Bite

Tire bite gets a fair amount of praise among craft beer fans, but I haven't really found anything of theirs that I have been very fond of. This golden ale was pretty lame. I am not a fan of golden ales generally, anyway, they seem like wannabe lagers with less flavor, but this was was even worse. Not recommended.

Hemp Hop Rye

Hemp, hops, and rye--how can this possibly go wrong? O'Fallon, that's how. Strike 2.

Brown Shugga

They say this beer came out of a failed batch of barleywine. I don't think they did an especially good job of saving it, though.

Liberty Ale

This particular trip, they'd broken out the Anchor beers at my liquor store. This was another one I wasn't especially enthused with.

Big Moose Ale

With a name like "Big Moose" it has to be . . . average. Or, anyway, that's how I feel. Another kind of okay entry in the Sarnac series.

Doggie Style

Not a very tasty pale ale, IMO.

Hop Trip

Deschutes, a fresh-hop ale--need I say more to explain why I was excited? But this just didn't work out as well in practice as it did in conception. Overall, this is a pretty well-received beer, but some reviewers indicate that it ages poorly. Mine may have been old.

Frambozen

I've said it before that New Belgium sometimes gets knocked by beer aficionados, but they do make some pretty fine beers. Frambozen is the best raspberry beer I've had. Light and tasty, fruity but not overdone, a really nice complement to a wide variety of foods. I think that because this starts with a more flavorful beer than most, it's easier to keep the raspberries from overwhelming the flavor.

White Ale

Sam Adams' White Ale is reasonable. Sam Adams produces consistent beers that generally fall to the middle of the style--good, but nothing to rave about.

Sam Smith Nut Brown

For imports, you just can't go wrong with Sam Smith. Okay, so this has a little bit of the skunkiness that characterizes British imports, but it's really tasty nonetheless. Definitely recommended, especially as a winter beer. I'm not a big fan of brown ales, generally, but this one is great.

Avalanche

Breckenridge Brewery is my most local brewer, and Avalanche is my standby beer from them. Not necessarily anything too remarkable, but still good and tasty, especially if you like malty beers.

Boont

An okay amber ale.

Levity

When they say this is a light amber ale, they're right. It is almost like you're about to float away after drinking it, not from high alcohol (it's only about 5%), but from the incredibly light flavor. A refreshing beer for a summer day.

Silverback Pale Ale

This is my second beer from Wynkoop, and a much better one. I'm glad they decided to make a pale ale version of this charitable beer, since I don't think I'd drink the smokey porter one. This is a really nice beer, a nicely balanced pale ale that provides a good backdrop for the grains of paradise, a really unique-tasting spice that makes this a tasty beer. Plus, research shows that the spice reduces the rate of heart disease in the gorillas that make it a part of their diet. There's no research to show that it does the same in humans, but there's no research to show that it doesn't, either, so drink up for your heart!

Did I mention that this is a charitable beer? Fifty percent of the profits from this beer go to support the Mountain Gorilla Conservation Fund.

So, a tasty beer that saves gorillas and just might be good for your heart? Sign me up!

Railyard

Now this is an unusual idea: malts and hops of a German Marzen, but with English ale yeast. The result? Well, just as mixed. Not bad, and definitely worth trying if you find yourself in LoDo, but I wouldn't go too far out of my way.

Alligator Ale

A pretty weak ale from the brewery restaurant Hops.

Buffalo Gold

It's really hard for me to not think of "Buffalo Gold" as a euphemism for manure in the new green economy, but I decided to give this beer a try, partly because the sales rep was on hand, giving out brewery schwag and free beers if you bought a six pack. Plus, with company coming over, I thought this seemed like a mild beer that mainstream beer drinkers could enjoy. I was right, this is a light-tasting, mild beer, not too hoppy or malty, and, therefore, not my taste, exactly, but good nonetheless.

My beer-drinking friends didn't show, so I was the only one trying it, and I was happy to trade the rest of the six-pack with my sister for one of Dogfish Head 60 Min IPA, a really pretty good IPA.