Magic Hat #9

Brewed by Magic Hat Brewing Company
Style: Fruit Beer
South Burlington, Vermont USA

Serve in Flute

Nice white head, thin lacing, nice amber color. Smells like pumpkin or some other kind of squash (zucchini?). Tastes and feels like an ESB made with tomato juice and zucchini skin, that somebody filtered through a cardboard box of Wheaties. Instantly disappearing hopping. Thin carbonation. It’s weird but not awful.

Weird beer. I had no idea it was a fruit beer until now. Didn’t get that in the tasting at all.

I smelled and tasted apricot. A very refreshing beer to say the least. Nothing amazing, but good.

Cloudy orange pour under a thin, white head; light, refreshing taste on a summer’s day, nothing too bold or challenging. But, fruit?

I’m really up in the air on this beer. Sometimes I like and sometimes I don’t. Last try was refreshing without too much odd fruit. Hops are there for sure. But this beer just puzzles me a bit for some reason. Oh well.

Aroma is peach peach and peach. Taste is grass, peach and some bitter aftertaste.

355 ml bottle. From South Burlington, VT.
Clear deep golden colour with small white head. Sweet caramel fruity aroma with peach and apricot and some mild hoppiness. Fruity sweetness in flavour. No bitterness. Highly drinkable easy Pale Ale.

I’m not sure exactly why, but I’ve always wanted to try this beer. Not sure if I read about it someplace, but it’s always been one of those beers that’s been on my radar. For today I’m using a tulip glass (non-stemmed). The beer pours a crystal clear golden color – and I do mean crystal clear. You can read newsprint from behind the glass. The color is lighter than I expected, with a big creamy head. Small bubbles waft up from the bottom of the glass, showing clear signs that this beer will likely be highly carbonated. I was expecting this to be a “not quite pale ale,” meaning that it would be darker than a normal pale ale. Instead it ops in the other direction. Interesting. Aroma is fruity, like orange, apricots, and lemon. The beer hints that it is going to be sweet, and there’s a slight bit of malt character that’s buried off in the background. Reminds me a bit of fruit leather or dried fruits – the real stuff, not the stuff you find in the kid’s section of the grocery store. The taste is, I hate to say it, a little bit on the bland side. There’s some fruit, and some malt, and a pleasant lingering apricot / tangerine finish. But it’s somewhat muted, at least to me. To me there is a basic malt sweetness at the front, and the only real discernable hop character is minor bitterness in the middle of the beer. The flavor profile is fine; it’s just that they never really “pop” – I want this to be amazing but instead it’s only slightly above average. Mouthfeel, as I suspected, is light and crisp. This beer aims to be easily drunk, and as such there’s really nothing to it. Heavy carbonation helps to scrub off the otherwise very sweet aftertaste. Overall this beer doesn’t break any new ground in terms of flavor or style. I would consider this a nice gateway beer for those people who aren’t into craft beers, as the beer’s easy drinking style and uncomplicated flavor will likely appeal to the average mass-market consumer. Still, I can’t help but feel that #9 is less than the sum of it’s parts. As someone who looks for a bit more of a challenge out of his beer, this one falls a little bit short for me. Still, this is a beer I could probably throw back several of on a hot day, though it wouldn’t be my first choice.