Magic Hat #9

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

Looks like apricot juice with a smallish white head. Hey it smells like apricots too! What do ya know, it tastes just like apricots! One dimensional and overall it’s simply boring. This lacks both freshness and depth.

light copper body that reeks of wet wheat and rotten apricot/peach...flavor is a mild wheat profile with little else to offer..hints of such fruit is present as well..very basic and boring overall

An adequate, light summertime beer. The apricot flavor just doesn’t do it for me.

Number 9 is an interesting beer, in the fact that it is an American pale ale, brewed with apricot essence. I’ve had my share of apricot/fruit beers in my day, and Number 9 is one of the best of them. The secret to a good fruit beer, is to keep the fruit character of the beer in check and not make the beer too "fruity". You want to smell and taste the fruit, but you also want to know you are still drinking a beer. Number 9 pulls this off very well, as there is no question you are drinking a beer, and a very good one at that. Magic Hat Number 9 pours to a deep golden to pale amber color with a thick and creamy white head, and a good bit of carbonation. The nose on this beer is very inviting with nice fragrant aromas of apricot and light aromas of pale and biscuity malt. The palate is crisp and flavorful with good pale and biscuit malt flavors paired with a nice back drop of apricot flavor. Number 9 then finishes with more good malt flavor, and ends with a pleasing dry apricot essence and some balancing hop bitterness that lingers on the tongue. A really well done fruit beer with a nice balance of apricot and malt aromas and flavors. Hops are in this beer but just to balance the sweetness, making this beer actually very balanced. This is a very drinkable and enjoyable beer that makes for a perfect aperitif, or a great beer to sip and savor. It is very food friendly and would work well with a number of dishes from pork, to a fruity desert.

Draft. Pours orange-amber with a thin white head. Apricot puree aroma. Apricot candy flavor, with some mild hops in the background. Flavors seem fake. Nothing special.

Kind of a reddish-ale color, with a sustained rocky head. Aromas are wheat and hops accompanied by a light raspberry. The flavors are similar, but disappointed me by not meshing very well. The beer is short of a lively carbonation and a bit thin. My biggest complement is how the brewers have prevented the beer from taking on the sickly sweetness of other fruit beers. This is a nice, dry brew.

Hazy gold with a tolerable head and too many bubbles. The aroma is straight up fruit flavored candy, maybe tropical skittles or something. Apricot, raisins, maybe pear. This is a bit thin in the mouth, with a bit more CO2 than need be. The flavor isn’t unpleasant, but is a one trick pony: apricot and significant amounts of it. While this is clearly a session beer, it’s just too watery, lacking flavor. Moderately sweet (but not malty), a bit of a hop finish on the back of the tongue, but in a moment it’s back to apricot and that fruity sort of bitterness lingers in the mouth thereafter. Not bad for a fruit beer. Bigger malt and more hops could make this a decent beer... or maybe then it would be DFH’s Aprihop?

Pours apricot color with no head, foam, and it doesn’t lace the glass. It’s totally clean. Weak apricot, fruity aroma. Heavy, heavy bite, bland apricot flavor and fizzy, watery texture. Finish doesn’t have uch flavor, but the carbonation keeps on ripping at the roof of your mouth and a little on the tongue.