This blog is about beer and life.
Posts tagged magic hat
Magic Hat Howl
Dec 7th
Beer-a-Day #341
Born of dark and cold and snow in the marrow of the northeast’s longest night, HOWL comes in on wailing winds with winter-weary eyes burning holes in sunless shadows. In its darkened depths out inner voids are warmed.
Dark and opaque with a fairly thick head. Lots of coffee in the aroma. Lots of roasted flavor. That’s pretty good. (As an aside, my wife likes the label.)
Magic Hat #9
Dec 6th
Beer-a-Day #340
A beer cloaked in secrecy. An ale whose mysterious and unusual palate will swirl across your tongue and ask more questions than it answers. A sort of dry, crisp, refreshing, not-quite pale ale. #9 is really impossible to describe because there’s never been anything else quite like it.
Light, golden color, not unlike apple juice. Some floral and spice aromas. Dry and crisp as they suggest, with perhaps a little pineapple. Interesting.
Magic Hat Lucky Kat
Sep 14th
Beer-a-Day #257
Lucky Kat purrs as he pours with a grin on his mangy face and a grin in his searching eye. He sits on the fence he calls home, dividing up from down. Is he an imperial beast or a pale soul from the east? Only he knows and we know only this: if you reach out to pet him he’ll bite back with a big, hoppy kiss.
Nice deep amber color, thick off-white head. Nice floral and citrusy hops. That’s better than I expected.
Magic Hat Roxy Rolles
Sep 7th
Beer-a-Day #250
The cap says: “Without hops the world stops”
We’re back to sweltering summer weather, but that little chill we had last week is a reminder that autumn is just around the corner. My favorite season.
It’s the color of dried apricot. Head is off-white with some staying power. Nice big grassy hop aroma. Medium body and plenty malty, but more “hop” than one would expect if one was thinking this was a typical märzen. I rather like it.
Magic Hat Circus Boy
Sep 5th
Magic Hat Circus Boy (photo © Christopher Vigliotti)
Beer-a-Day #248
Golden and clear with a big white head. Floral and lightly spicy. Flavor is crisp and not overpowering. This may be the best hefe I’ve ever had.
Session #31: Magic Hat Wacko
Sep 4th
The Session is a monthly one-day event held by beer bloggers around the world, where they each post their thoughts on a unified theme.
This edition of The Session is sponsored Peter Estaniel at BetterBeerBlog.
Announcing The Session #31: Summer Beers
Which brings me to this months Session topic: Summer Beers. With the summer coming to a close, what was your favorite beer of the summer? It doesn’t even have to be from this summer. Is it a lager or maybe a light bodied wheat ale? Maybe you’re drinking anti-seasonally and are having a barleywine or Russian Imperial Stout. Why is this beer your favorite? Is there a particular memory associated with this beer? How about a city? Maybe there was a particular dish that made this beer memorable? Spare no detail.
Oh, so many memories. Hanging out on Andy’s screened-in porch. Getting busted. (Okay, so maybe they’re not all good memories.) In later years, lying in my hammock after a hard day’s worth of yard work. Celebrating Max’s 21st birthday down the shore and discovering Rich Meyer. Dennis’s famous summer cookouts. That crazy barbecue where I met the woman who would become my roommate and, later, my wife.
So many memories. And in all of them there was beer-a-plenty. The thing is, there is nothing memorable about the beer itself. No, the memories come from the people and places. Mostly the people. The beer was just that little extra spice.
That’s not to say I haven’t had some good beers, of course. If nothing else, my little Beer-a-Day project has introduced me to a lot of beer I might not have otherwise tried. I particularly like this time of year because the Octoberfest beers start hitting the shelves, but they’re not “summer” beers. Honestly, if there’s any beer that I particularly like I’ll drink it all year long (assuming I can get it).
Magic Hat Wacko (image © Christopher Vigliotti)
A “summer beer” sounds like a seasonal to me. The summer is almost over, so I picked up a few before they disappeared.
The first of these is Wacko by Magic Hat. My brother Don (½ of the Hop Talk Advisory Council) has a special affection for Magic Hat’s offerings. He is consistently disappointed by the lack of witty text on the inside of other brewers’ bottle caps. I like their irreverence and adherence to their theme. “Wacko” is also something of a term of endearment in my family.
Besides, I had to have something for Beer-a-Day #247.
Here’s what Magic Hat has to say about it:
Crisp like the morning, cool like the evening and quenching all day long. It’s the beer that dances to the beat of summer. Pop the top and set your summer loose. Wacko is the liquid song of summer.
A delicious, beet-red summer beer with a big malty aroma, a subdued hop bite and a clean, slightly sweet finish.
Sounds interesting.
It’s…pink. It looks like some sort of cranberry soda. Head doesn’t stick around. Aroma is light. Slightly sweet (as they suggest) with an unusual “tang” in the finish. I can see how this would be refreshing on a hot summer day, but I think I’ll stick to my IPAs.
Oh, the inside of the cap says: “it’s Good to be Queen”
Magic Hat hI.P.A.
Aug 15th
Beer-a-Day #227
hI.P.A. is a highly hopped India Pale Ale and the Spring SeasonAle. A medium-bodied beer with a fresh and fruitful nose of vernal vitality. It begins and ends with a big hop bite that is itself forever balanced on the brink by a steady rhythm of malt. Dry-hopped for extra quenching in the face of heat and beat, it’s an ideal accompaniment to chilling out, turning inward or sailing onward through the music of the night toward the dawn of the mind. It’s the liquid way to say be here now lest you never come this way again.
Medium amber with some orange highlights. A little perfume-y. Nicely bitter, but I’m getting a bit of soap in the flavor. I think it might be a little old; there is some unusual sediment in the bottom of the bottle.
Magic Hat to acquire Pyramid
Apr 29th
Not a scoop, by any means, but word is out that Magic Hat Brewing is buying Pyramid Breweries.
From the press release:
The closing of the proposed transaction, subject to the conditions referred to above, is anticipated to occur not later than August 31, 2008.
The board of directors of Pyramid has approved the transactions contemplated by the Letter of Intent.
“The combination of these two well established, high profile craft breweries will be very complementary given our respective brand portfolios and the geographies in which we predominantly operate. Additionally, there will be a number of important benefits for Pyramid to be part of a private company versus continuing to operate as a stand alone public entity. This consolidation makes both good strategic and financial sense and is well timed, particularly as the beer industry’s competitive dynamics continue to intensify,” said Pyramid CEO Scott Barnum. “The Company will continue to have offices in Seattle, its historical home, and will seek opportunities to capitalize on the enhanced assets and capabilities of the new combined entity,” he added.
Martin Kelly, CEO of Magic Hat said, “We have a great deal of respect for Pyramid’s brand heritage, award-winning beers and its dedicated employees, and look forward to consummating this transaction, which provides both strategic and financial benefits both to Pyramid’s and Magic Hat’s stakeholders.”
I have had—and enjoyed—beers from both of these brewers. Pyramid is apparently having some financial difficulties and have had to let some staff go. I guess I just don’t know what to think of it. Last year was Red Hook and Widmer, and now this.
I wonder if this is the leading edge of a wave of consolidation in the craft brewing segment. We have seen such things in other business segments; remember when there were eight “big” accounting firms? The high costs of raw materials, packaging, and transportation certainly aren’t helping matters.
Best discuss it at the pub.
(via multiple sources)
Session #13 – Organic Beer, by Ron
Mar 7th
This edition of The Session is sponsored by Chris O’Brien’s, The Beer Activist. (I just love his tag line, “Drink Beer. Save the World.”) Session #13 is titled Organic Beer
Here’s a bit of context to help inspire your observations on organic imbibing. “Organic beer” refers to beers that use ingredients, supplies, and production processes that have been certified as adhering to the rules of the National Organic Program administered by the US Department of Agriculture (and similar programs in other countries).
I was going to cheap out on this session and just refer to my review of Orlio beers by Magic Hat, but I thought it might be interesting to point out some stuff about Anheuser-Busch and how they are genetically engineering rice to be used in their beers. Now, I’m just guessing here, but I doubt GE rice is considered organic.
Greenpeace made this disgusting YouTube video to let you know. Disgusting, but that’s the point, and it is kind of funny…
All of the articles I have found are about why isn’t Anheuser-Busch pointing this out. I think it is pretty obvious… they don’t have to and it would wreck their advertising of “all-natural”. The question is, can they still advertise as all-natural?
Resources:
Anheuser Busch Using Genetically Engineered Rice in Beer: Greenpeace
Anheuser-Busch Pledges to Use Only Organic Hops In Organic Beer
Anheuser-Busch using experimental genetically-engineered (GE) rice to brew Budweiser
Greenpeace: Genetically altered rice in Budweiser
Budweiser Found to Contain Genetically Engineered Rice
Update: Session #13 Roundup
Orlio Organic
Oct 24th
One of the beers I brought to Octoberfest 2007 was Orlio Organic IPA. I had no idea who Orlio Organic was at the time, but later learned that they are part of Magic Hat brewing in Vermont. The logo just kept catching my eye in the store, much like the eye of Sauron (from the Lord of the Rings). It caught my attention, but I hated it. It looked like a bad beer trying to look popular.
But, I’ve made that mistake before with Southern Tier’s Phin and Matt’s Extraordinary Ale passing up on it for a long time because of the marketing approach. I tried and liked it. No… loved it. I wasn’t about to make that mistake again.
We all tried the Orlio Organic IPA at Octoberfest 2007 and we all liked it. Everyone seemed surprised that we all liked it, too. I don’t know if we were suspecting less because it was organic, or because none of us had heard of it before, or because of the label.
I’m not a big fan of Magic Hat beers, but not knowing what the Orlio brand was gave them a fresh start with me and thus I bought a 6 pack of their common ale the other day.
I was looking forward to the Common Ale, but I was already disappointed during the pour. The head on this beer fizzed out like a Diet Coke. (I had to snap this photo quickly before the head disappeared – see photo below) I began to prepare my brain for something of less substance. It was weak in body as expected, despite its beautiful clear, copper color. It had a peculiar aroma, something that reminded me of other Magic Hat brews, and the primary reason I’m not a big fan of Magic Hat. All of Magic Hat’s beers seem to a perfume like essence to them; I’m sure there is an expert beer taster who can suggest what this is I’m perceiving. (a common hop among them perhaps?)
In summary, the Orlio IPA was great and enjoyed by many, but I don’t think the Common Ale will pass the mustard with my friends. Orlio Organic also has a black lager, but I think I will pass, for now.
