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Hook & Ladder Golden Ale

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Hook & Ladder logoBeer-a-Day #167

Ron recently compared-and-contrasted this with a Leinenkugel’s Classic Amber, and this came out as his wife’s choice. Since I also tasted a Leinenkugel’s Classic Amber recently, it only seemed right to taste one of these as well.

Besides, I like that this brewer donates some profits to charity and they’re local.

This Golden Ale is deep in color with a pleasing malt aroma. A distinctive medium bodied beer that finishes crisply with a slight malt sweetness and essence of citrus flavor with a subtle finish of Willamette hops.

a penny in every pint

I wouldn’t exactly call that a “deep” color, but it is a little darker than pale straw. Big, off-white head. Smells a bit fruity, but good. Mouthfeel is light with a crisp finish. It’s made with wheat but I hardly taste the wheat at all.

I agree with Ron’s better half: it’s more rounded and would go well with typical summer foods.

Hook & Ladder Brewing Company

Leinenkugel Classic Amber Review

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I finally got around to sampling the new Leinenkugel  Classic Amber. Leinenkugel is not a beer I would normally pick up from the shelves at my local candy store. The name sounds so European that you would never guess that it is made in Wisconsin. (German in origin if you want to look it up)

leinenkugel-classic-amber

The beer pours a nice amber color with a white head and some head retention. While Leinenkugel  is a subsidiary of Miller/Coors, the linking of the two companies appears to be primarily for marketing reasons, not brewing technique. But, any beer marketing the fact that it is 100% malt tells me they normally add adjuncts… let’s see what it tastes like.
 
The beer does have some hop aroma and a light kick of hops on the tongue. Overall the beer is light and tasty. It does have a distinct flavor that I can’t quite put my hands on… something like an export; perhaps it is the water.

I have two bottles to review so I invited my lovely wife to have one and gave her a blind taste test directly against one of her favorite brands, Hook & Ladder.  In order to make this an apples-to-apples comparison I had to put Hook & Ladder’s Golden Ale up against it, not their Ember Amber because the Ember is a much richer beer. (my personal favorite from Hook & Ladder)

They matched up quite well, very close in style. I thought the Leinenkugel was a bit crisper with a slightly more hop bite. My wife agreed but didn’t like the lingering aftertaste as much. She enjoyed the “more rounded” (as she put it) Golden Ale better. We both agreed in the end that both beers are best served as a lighter refreshing beer paired with tangy, smoky or spicy fare. German potato salad comes to mind.

Leinenkugel has been brewing in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin since 1867 by the Leinenkugel Brewing Company. Their new Classic Amber is made from two and six row barley and four varieties of hops. (Cluster, Cascade, Mt. Hood & Hallertau) They have several other styles in their portfolio: Original, Light, Honey Weiss, Sunset Wheat, Red, Creamy Dark, Berry Weiss, Oktoberfest, Apple Spice, Big Butt Doppelbock and Summer Shandy.