Changing of the Season

Alright people,

As many of you may have noticed, it's finally starting to warm up and turn into spring, at least here in Indiana. For me, this means time to switch up my beer selection. Through the winter, I crave big, dark, roasty beers like porters, stouts, and barleywines, but now, it's time for some easy drinking warm weather beers. In homage (I know, big word for this blog) to the arriving spring, I'm changing my beer styles tonight. We're going to take a look at 2 more homebrews from Jason & Co. First, we'll start with the last dark beer of the season, a vanilla porter, then move right along to a honey wheat beer. Let's do this.

First off, here's another awesome pour from my homebrewing friends. Good, deep brown color with some red tinges on the edge. Pretty dense, tan head forms and retains fairly well, trailing down to a covering on the top of the beer. Lacing is just ok, but that's probably more of my dirty glass than anything. Great scent of dark, roasted malts and just a hint of vanilla.

Taste is terrific. This is a great semisweet porter. Moderately strong dark malts greet your tongue with solid burnt flavors. These persist throughout the beer, with a slight hint of vanilla sweetness right in the middle before ending with a bite form the malts. Ending bite has a little bit of a coffee-like bitterness that ends it well. Vanilla is faint, but you can tell there is a slightly sweetness in there.

Overall, this is a great everyday drinker for the colder months, or whenever a dark beer is needed. This really reminds me of a porter I had recently in Arizona (This one.), except I think I like this one more because of the body. Once again, you guys got the body right with the right weight and a solid head that retains and laces. This one really goes down smooth.

On to the honey wheat now. This one pours pretty much amber with a small, good-looking head. Nice, cloudy wheat body. Only a little bit of retention and lacing. The scent of this one is a little faint, with some sweetness present from the honey and some underlying spiciness. The taste of this one follows the same pattern as the scent. Starts off light and grainy with a smooth transition to some spiciness in the middle. I think I detect a little bit of coriander in there before moving into the honey right at the end. Honey flavor is a little sweet and a slight bit spicy, carrying over from the coriander flavor.

Overall, this honey wheat beer is a great spring or summer beer. Simple, but solid, flavors, a light weight, and interesting honey and spice note. This one doesn't have quite the head, retention, or lacing of the porter or coffee stout, but that is harder to get in lighter beers in my opinion. Great job on these two beers guys.

As I write currently, I'm still enjoying the honey wheat and watching the Reds. Mat Latos is looking pretty good, and hopefully the Reds with get their first win of the season. Until next time, go Reds!
-Chris