Heinnieweisse

Beer Name: Heinnieweisse Weissebier
Brewery: Butternuts Beer and Ale
ABV: 4.9%
Serving method: 12-oz can
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Best by Dec 2011

After a day of errands and an afternoon of bottling our homebrew, it was absolutely time for a beer. There's a couple random beers left in there, so I figured that I had better clear them out to make room for Kate's Brown Ale, whose real name is still under construction.

Heinnieweisse is the last of the Butternuts variety pack we had picked up a little while back, so I decided to polish that off. I wasn't in the mood for pouring beers into glasses at this point in time, so it stayed in the can. It's a hefeweizen though, so it's almost certainly a hazy golden color that stays a little bit cloudy. It certainly smells like a hefe, with bananas and cloves hitting you in the nose with each sip.

Pretty standard hefeweizen flavor here, with bananas, cloves, and a little bit of some other fruitiness all sharing the spotlight. It's easy drinking as well, since I just noticed that I polished off most of the can already while writing this. Good thing the ABV isn't too high, or you could potentially run into problems. Mostly clean finish, with a slight aftertaste of sweetness that lingers on the tongue.

Final thought - I'm probably not the best person to ask about hefeweizens, since it's not one of my favorite styles. I've had some decent ones though, so this one just comes up a little short. It's not bad though. Just not as good as others that I've had.

-Jon

Snapperhead IPA

Beer Name: Snapperhead IPA
Brewery: Butternuts Beer and Ale
ABV: 6.3%
Serving method: 12-oz can
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Best by Dec 2011

This can isn't quite as awesome as the others, as it only has a fish rocking out to a Walkman. I prefer high-fiving pigs, personally.

Snapperhead IPA is not a typical IPA, as Butternuts doesn't really brew with a whole lot of hops. This means that even if you hate hoppy beers, you might enjoy this one. The aroma here is sweet and malty, and not hoppy at all. Since the can is pretty impossible to see through, I don't know much about the beer's color or whether or not it poured with any head. It tastes like a darker ale though, so maybe a light brown or deep reddish color would be appropriate.

This is a very malty IPA, with nary a hop to be tasted. It is very smooth and thick, and pretty much all malt in the flavor department. There's only a light carbonation, and it has a slightly bitter aftertaste. Overall, the whole thing feels very heavy as you drink it.

Final thought - As an IPA, I'm not really sure about this one. But as a beer, it's not too bad. I think it's overshadowed by their stout and pale ale, but I'm not about to dump it down the sink. I am not sure what the reviewers that say it has a nice citrusy flavor were drinking though...

-Jon

Moo Thunder Stout

Beer Name: Moo Thunder Stout
Brewery: Butternuts Beer and Ale
ABV: 4.9%
Serving method: 12-oz can in a frosted mug
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

Much like their Porkslap Pale Ale, Butternuts' Moo Thunder Stout also has an awesome can. A cow getting struck by lightning isn't quite as sweet as two pig high-fiving, but it's still better than the vast majority of beer containers.

This beer is very dark, but not quite solid black. It looks sort of like cola. There was about an inch of head that slowly faded without leaving much lacing behind. That may have been because the mug was chilled, but I'm not sure. We have a Butternuts mix-pack in the fridge, so I'll be able to check this out later with a different, unchilled mug. The aroma is chocolatey and coffee sweetness, which makes it seem like this is going to be a sweet beer.

The first sip is delicious. Since this is a sweet stout as opposed to a normal stout, the lactose sort of stands out. It's not too sweet though. There's also some roasted coffee and chocolate flavors in there as well. The beer has a decent amount of carbonation, and it has some body to it. The finish has a little bit of bitter coffee, but it doesn't linger as an aftertaste.

Final thought - This was a delightful beer that went perfect with my burrito, but I think would also be great on its own or as an aftermeal digestif. I am not sure if that is what a digestif is, or if that's even how it's supposed to be used. All I know is that this beer would be delicious at a wide variety of times, and I plan to do so in the future.

-Jon

Porkslap

Beer Name: Porkslap Pale Ale
Brewery: Butternuts Beer and Ale
ABV: 4.3%
Serving method: 12-oz can
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

I have been drinking a lot of beers with unknown brew dates lately. I thought they were making a big deal back in the day about beer freshness, but I guess it is no longer important. Every time I learn something new about beer, something else changes. Remember when people told you that letting beer get warm and recooling it made it skunk faster? Turns out that all you really have to avoid is light, and temperature fluctuations really don't do anything. The world I grew up in is gone. . .

First off, this beer is weird because it's from a can. Usually if I'm drinking beer from a can, it's ____ Light/Lite and I'm about to get silly. However, this can is different, because it's hilarious. Go over to Google and look it up. It's got pigs high fiving!! Actually, they are high tenning, but I wasn't sure you would understand that since high ten is not used nearly enough. You know, because you're a little slow. Maybe it's time to actually talk about beer.

This is a pale ale, so I am assuming the scent I'm picking up on is hops. Maybe not though. Really, I am just so focused on the can that I can't think about other things. It's got pigs!!

This beer is alright. It feels very carbonated, and the major sensation is malt. That's kind of weird, since it's a pale ale. Maybe the aroma I was getting was malt and not hops. Who knows. There's a sweet taste right at the beginning before it turns into that malt, and the aftertaste is pretty clean. That's probably because the beer seems pretty watery.

Final thought - Probably 98% of this beer's awesomeness is the can. While that means the can is super awesome, it also means that the beer isn't that great. I doubt that I would drink this again unless someone else bought it for me. However, I think it would make a good substitution for beer pong though. It's not that strong, so you could easily substitute it for Busch Light and actually enjoy the beer you're pounding. So it's got that going for it.

-Jon