The cliché saying, “Not everything is so black and white” doesn’t apply to this final column of the year.
In fact, the two beers I’ll be reviewing today are literally black and white.
But before I get into the reviews, I just want to thank the Mustang Daily staff for letting me pick up the column after a few quarters off.
It’s no secret that I love beer, and I think if people give good beer a chance, they might change their minds on the subject as well.
I’ll let you guys in on a little secret: I didn’t enjoy beer at all until a scant three years ago. My first sip of beer came as a kid when I picked up my dad’s Milwaukee’s Best instead of my Coke and took a sip. It was about the most rancid thing I’d ever tasted.
That didn’t stop me from running the gamut of trashy, low-class party beers like Natty Light, Natty Ice, Budweiser and Bud Light early in my drinking career.
But tasting all of those beers just reaffirmed the fact that beer was shit and I was better off drinking hard alcohol that at least had some kind of “flavor.”
After a few years of the hard alcohol scene and the brutal hangovers it can bestow, I decided I may just have to be the sober driver at parties forever.
While it can often be fun to watch belligerently wasted people making asses out of themselves while you’re sitting there stone sober, I wanted more from my college experience. I wanted to be the one making an ass of myself!
But I’ve always been one of those people to say that if you can’t at least partially enjoy what you’re drinking, you might as well be drinking water.
It wouldn’t be until several years later that my cousin, who eventually became a Cal Poly alumnus, introduced me to some of the finer beers in the world. I finally realized that not all beer tasted and looked like a crappier version of watered down Mountain Dew.
I’m telling you this because I’m passionate about beer. If you’re passionate about it as well, share the good beers with your friends over graduation weekend. Don’t just do the Natty keg, or the 30-pack of Keystone. Treat yourselves to something better; learn to appreciate the finer things in life.
Of the two beers I drank for this review, I’ll start with the Allagash White, if only because it’s best to drink lighter beers before darker ones.
Allagash is considered by most insiders to be among the upper echelon of American micro-breweries.
Based in Portland, Maine, Allagash has some crazy beers including one that is aged in used bourbon barrels, and the beer reeks of it when you finally get to it.
But this Allagash White is their take on Belgian style wheat beer, and let me tell you, it’s tasty.
White is pretty spiced up for an American wheat beer, which is something that a lot of imitation beers lack.
It has a smooth, yet somewhat complex finish that leaves a mild spice lingering. I can’t put an exact finger on what the lingering spice is. It’s not coriander, like you get in other beers like Hoegaarden, but it is very pleasant.
This is one of the top Belgian wheat beers brewed by Americans that I have tried.
The final beer of the year honors goes to Kostritzer Schwarzbier. I chose a German beer to close out the year in honor of departing Mustang Daily head honcho Emilie Egger because I know she loves all things German, and I haven’t really done a German beer review.
Schwarzbier is German for ‘black beer,’ and the moniker doesn’t disappoint. This beer is actually just as dark as the Sierra Nevada anniversary brew I reviewed a few weeks ago. I held it up to the light and couldn’t see through the glass.
The smell is of roasted malt and chocolate with a bit of coffee. The malt really comes out in the taste with a lingering bit of chocolate. I didn’t really taste the coffee in it.
This beer has always been in my top three as far as dark beers go, and I highly recommend it.
You can get a 16-ounce bottle at pretty much any specialty liquor store for less than $4.
Thanks everyone for taking the time to read the column. I’m sure I had more fun writing it than you did reading it, but I appreciate your time nonetheless.
Always remember: If you see a beer at the store that you haven’t tried, give it a shot. It might be exactly what you’ve been looking for.