Night Shift Ever Weisse

A few weeks ago, a good friend of ours was in from Boston and brought us a few bombers from one of her favorite Boston breweries, Night Shift Brewing, located in Everett, MA.  While she was with us, we had the pleasure to enjoy two of their brews - JoJo and Viva Habanera.  Both beers were delicious, the JoJo was a gorgeous looking brew and the Viva Habanera definitely satisfied my constant cravings for a hot and spicy beer.  Needless to say I was quite impressed and decided we needed to review the others we received.  I'm a sucker for sours, so we're starting off with the Ever Weisse, a Berliner Weisse style sour with strawberries, kiwis, and hibiscus flowers.  Our particular bottle is hand marked as having been bottled 6-25-14 - I find it quite awesome that they're hand marking their bottling dates!  Night Shift also lists food pairings from Boston-area restaurants on their bottles, fantastic!

Brewery: Night Shift Brewing

Style: Berliner Weisse
ABV: 5.9%

Glass: Mason Jar 

Appearance: Pours a golden with touches of pink and orange, slightly cloudy.  Head is bright white and effervescent with very little retention, disappearing quickly and leaving a small bubbly white ring around the edges of the glass.

Aroma: Carries a definite  yeast sour aroma blended with floral notes and perhaps a hint of hop.

Body & Texture: Light boddied and thickly carbonated, with a mild prickle across the tongue and roof of the mouth.

Taste:  Flavor is very tart with a good pucker on the first taste that fades as you move down the glass.  Strawberry and kiwi flavor are present throughout, with notes of hibiscus more detectable at the very start and later in the finish.  Wheat carries the background and is more detectable with a longer hold.  

Overall: This bold sour is sure to delight both the sour connoisseur and the fruit beer lover.  The powerful tartness and complimentary fruit and floral flavors come together for quite the forward sour beer.  The background wheat flavors were a fantastic base to bring the bigger flavors to the forefront and it allows the drinker to have the opportunity to separate each various added taste within the brew.  Personally, this particular beer gets an A+ and a 5/5 in my book.  If you are a sucker for that powerful pucker fish face then you can't pass up the opportunity to try this pretty beer.  I look forward to my next trip to the Boston area so that I might have the chance to check out this awesome brewery and pick up more of their fantastic beers!

Check out Ever Weiss and the rest of Night Shift's beers at their website - http://www.nightshiftbrewing.com/

Thomas Creek Stillwater Vanilla Cream Ale

While in Asheville last month, we picked up a handful of Thomas Creek Brewing's beers after finding them at several local craft beer sellers.  It's been a toasty Indian summer type fall day here in Ohio, so I went to the fridge seeking something light and refreshing and came back with this brew, Stillwater Vanilla Cream Ale.  I'm back and forth on this, as I'm not always big on the cream ale scene, something I attribute to a scarring experience with Genny Cream Ale back in college.  Shudder.  But we'll give this a go and see if it pairs well with '60's documentaries on the History Channel and takeout Chinese food.  Oh yes, the Cav is a class act today folks!

Brewery: Thomas Creek Brewery

Style: Cream Ale
ABV: 4.5%

Glass: Tulip

Appearance: Clear and brilliant straw color with a loose but well-retaining bright white head that is very bubbly and doesn't leave much in the way of lacing on the glass.  Slight chill haze.

Aroma:  Carries a definite sweetness with a hint of vanilla that becomes stronger as I get into the belly of the tulip.

Body & Texture: Very light bodied with a sharp and very prickly carbonation that leaves a lasting tickle in the mouth.

Taste:  Flavors are quite light, notes of corn and light malt.  Some sulfur is detectable, along with the unique yeasty sweetness of a cream ale.  Not much if any discernible vanilla flavor. 

Overall: This fits the style bill of a cream ale quite well, and it is definitely your classic everyday American beer.  One could sit with this and watch the football game, grill some burgers, mow the lawn, or float in the pool.  I am, however, a little disappointed in the lack of vanilla tones in the flavor.  There is a sweet vanilla detectable in the aroma, but the flavor is purely cream ale - very upfront with corn and some sweet light malts, thin and refreshing.  I was hoping for perhaps a sweet tang of vanilla to come through with the cream sweetness, or even a more bitter note that you might see from vanilla beans in the secondary.  

The Dobie and I have debated several times whether or not more commercialized American styles have any place in the craft beer world, but at is takes a certain finesse to pull off any craft beer I believe that they do.  This beer certainly pulls off the style of the cream ale well without harboring the general, well, grossness of various commercial American cream ales that shall remain nameless.  Hats off to Thomas Creek for achieving this, but you guys still haven't fully changed my mind on the cream ale scheme.  

Stay tuned for more Thomas Creek beers soon!

If you'd like to read more about Thomas Creek and their beers, check out their website at - http://www.thomascreekbeer.com/