Game Day Beer Review: Whistler Brewing Whiskey Jack English Pale Ale

 

(5.00% ABV)  Poured on draft into a pint glass and drunk in Whistler, Canada. Whiskey Jack showed a clear amber color with very little head, although what small amount there was appeared as white as the still visible snowcap on the surrounding mountainside.

 

 

The beer's primary smell was malt, with no whiskey character noticeable.  Despite the name and what we felt was a suggested mental linkage to the barrel aging phenomenon so popular with craft brewers at the present moment, there was no whiskey character at all to this beer.

 

 

Malt and biscuit were the first things we tasted, but they were followed by a strangely sweet finish. We didn't detect any hops at all in our sample. We don't believe this beer is Whistler Brewing's best effort; in fact, we liked their Paradise River Grapefruit Ale and the Powder Mountain Lager much better. B-

 

Game Day Beer Review: D.L. Geary Brewing English Pale Ale

Poured from the bottle at Legal Sea Foods in Boston, Massachusetts.  The setting was the end of a beautiful New England spring day - sunny and mild, with temperatures in the upper 60s.  Legal Seafoods is located less than a half a mile from where the Boston bombings occurred two weeks ago -- a site that we visited yesterday to pay our respects to both those departed and those injured by the terrorist actions.

Geary's poured a copper orange/brown with a full white head.  The beer smelled of malt, fruit and bread.

It's a medium carbonated, medium mouthfeel beer.  Fairly traditional malt flavors dominate.  There's nothing out of bounds here -- these guys are plowing familiar ground, but they do it really well.  B+

Game Day Beer Review: Fuller's London Pride English Pale Ale

Although the irony of serving London's Pride in a Manchester United glass wasn't lost on us, we did it anyway. After all, we do what we want around here, much like the way they do  it at our favorite club.

 

Fuller's London Pride poured from the bottle a warm caramel-colored brown with a thin off-white head that stuck around longer than we thought it might. The beer smelled of sweet malt and brown sugar. There was a little bit of breadiness in there too, in keeping true to the style.

The beer's taste led with malt, but there was some nice floral hoppiness there in the middle, too. It was lightly carbonated to go down easily, which it did. We found the beer to be refreshingly simple and honest -- we consider it to be a great example of the style, and are happy to drink it almost any time: A-

Game Day Beer Review: Boddington's Pub Ale

Boddington's Pub Ale by Galfridus73on Flickr

If you're reading this on May 22, it means that I drained my beer refrigerator of all its contents on the mistaken assumption that the world would end in Rapture yesterday.  Oh well, at least they went down in a good cause....  So, instead of celebrating the world's end, we'll raise a toast in honor of the Red Devils' journey to Wembley this week, as I review a beer born and bred in Manchester, England: 

Boddington's Pub Ale was poured on nitro draft into a Guinness pint glass, with an inch-thick head that only gradually recedes. It's a clear copper color, like a very weak cup of tea.  Boddington's has a bready smell that's mild, and maybe slightly sour. On tasting, it has a thin mouthfeel, and is only very lightly carbonated. 

Boddington's has a mild, creamy flavor, followed by a smoky, creamy, and maybe slightly metallic finish.  It's an easy drinker; not my favorite, but if you find yourself in an Irish pub watching the Red Devils, it's tried, true, and highly sessionable: B.


This is an enraptured farlieonfootie for May 22.