Vermont Spruce Tip

Beer Name: Vermont Spruce Tip Ale
Brewery: Harpoon Brewery
ABV: 7%
Serving method: 22-oz bottle in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Best by 3/15/12

This is beer #39 in the Harpoon 100 Barrel Series. That could mean that by the time you've read this, there won't be any left. It's also a tricky one to find, which makes things even tougher.

Vermont Spruce Tip Ale is a deep amber colored beer. It poured with very little head, and that little bit faded very quickly. It also didn't leave much lacing behind. The aroma here isn't nearly as piney as I was expecting it to be based on the name of the beer. It was more of a malty aroma, with some caramel and breadiness.

This beer is not nearly sprucey enough to live up to its title. It's much more of a malty beer, with very little in the hop or spruce category of flavors. There are also some spice flavors in there, but I can't really pick out which ones they are specifically. The beer has only a hint of carbonation, and no bitter flavors. It finishes with a light sweetness, and a mild aftertaste of malt.

Final thought - Vermont Spruce Tip Ale is a nice, easy drinking beer with a very smooth mouthfeel. However, it doesn't taste piney or sprucey or really like any kind of evergreen, and that was the main reason I was interested in it. If piney hops are enjoyable, then straight-up pine should be enjoyable as well. Well, in theory at least. In the end, this is a pretty good beer that just doesn't match up to its name.

-Jon

Leviathan IPA

Beer Name: Leviathan IPA
Brewery: Harpoon Brewery
ABV: 10%
Serving method: 12-oz bottle in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Something on 10/15/11

After trying this beer at the Harpoon brewery, I was eager to get some of this particular Leviathan (it's a whole series of giant ABV beers) for home use. This turned out to be surprisingly difficult, as the only bottles I was able to find were all supposed to be consumed by April. 2011. As in, over half a year ago. I finally found some that had a date that was close enough, so I jumped at the opportunity.

The Leviathan IPA is a slightly cloudy beer with a golden orange color. It pours with a thin layer of surprisingly thick head. It fades fairly soon, but it leaves a nice lacing pattern behind. There is a strong hop aroma here, mostly piney hops.

Strong hop flavor here, but also a lot of malty flavors. It's slightly bitter, but it finishes with a combination of bitterness and sweetness with a light aftertaste. The piney hop aroma was an accurate precursor to the piney flavors present here. The beer is pretty smooth, with a light carbonation and a slightly creamy feeling to it.

Final thought - While obviously not as good as it was when it was fresh straight from the fermenter, this is still a delightful beer. But be careful, as it also will kick you right in the head with it's alcohol content. Ten percent is a pretty strong level for a beer that is pretty easy drinking (for an IPA). Watch yourself.

-Jon

Chocolate Stout

Beer Name: Chocolate Stout
Brewery: Harpoon Brewery
ABV: 5.9%
Serving method: 12-oz bottle in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Best by 2/15/12

I learned about this beer from the Friend of Harpoon newsletter, and then located it on my first try. That is probably the smoothest new beer experience I've had in a while. Too bad I can't find the same success as I look for Harpoon's latest 100 Barrel Series beer.

The Chocolate Stout is a very dark beer that looks solid black at first, but seems to be more of a very dark brown. It has a very thin head that fades almost immediately. The aroma is very chocolately, much more so than standard stouts. It's a combination of sweet chocolate, like a milk chocolate, along with a bitter chocolate smell, sort of like the stuff for baking.

With so much chocolate in the aroma, the flavor has a lot to live up to. Luckily there is a good amount of chocolate flavor in here. It's mostly a dark chocolate, with a bittersweetness to it. It also has a nice finish and aftertaste. The beer has little bit more carbonation than I was expecting, but it starts to mellow out after a few minutes. Unfortunately, the beer's flavor is better while it's cold, so letting it mellow out means letting it warm up, where the flavor does not improve.

Final thought - This is a bit sharp for a stout, and I bet it would be fantastic if they figured out some way to smooth it out. It has a very nice flavor, but I just want it to be smoother for each sip. Perhaps I'm just being picky.

-Jon

Grateful Harvest

Beer Name: Grateful Harvest Cranberry Ale
Brewery: Harpoon Brewery
ABV: 5.9%
Serving method: 12-oz bottle in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Best by 2/15/12

It has cranberries. I would be willing to bet anything that it is going to be better than that simply awful Cranberry Lambic beer.

Grateful Harvest is an amber colored beer that pours with a very light head that does not last very long. There is a faint aroma of cranberries here, but if you're expecting something like the blueberry aromas in all those blueberry beers or the pumpkins in the pumpkin ones, it's not there. There is also a sweet aroma here, so this beer seems like it's going to be a malty one.

Well, there is a tartness that seems like it's coming from the cranberries, but there isn't really much of a cranberry flavor. It ends up just seeming like a sweet & sour beer, and it doesn't really work for me. There is a nice amount of maltiness, so there's that if you're into malty beers. Lightly carbonated, the beer has a nice mouthfeel, which is one of the only things it has going for it.

Final thought - It was nice to give it a try, but I doubt I'll ever have it again.

-Jon

UFO Pumpkin

Beer Name: UFO Pumpkin
Brewery: Harpoon Brewery
ABV: 5.9%
Serving method: A pint poured from a growler
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Growler bottled on 8/14/11

If you're ever going on brewery tours in Vermont, definitely include the Harpoon Brewery. It's a great tour that is informative and has free sampling. They also have some good food at the restaurant there. Get the fries. And maybe the Vermonter sandwich. And obviously a sampler of beers.

UFO Pumpkin from Harpoon is a mostly clear, light coppery beer. If you hold it up to a light, it actually looks sort of pumpkin colored. There is an aroma of spices like most pumpkin ales, but it's more balanced than most others because there's a pumpkin aroma too. In the background there's also a maltiness to the scent. It's a busy beer. It poured with a very thin head that disappeared almost immediately and didn't leave any lacing. That's pretty typical of a pumpkin ale, so I'm not too concerned.

This beer is delicious! It's pumpkiny and spicy, but there's more cinnamon and less nutmeg to the spices. That's probably why I enjoy it so much. Cinnamon > nutmeg every day of the week. It's got a light carbonation to keep it from being like pumpkin juice, and it finishes fairly crisply with a little bit of spice aftertaste.

Final thought - Alright, so I know I said that the pumpkin ale from Wolaver's was probably going to be my pumpkin beer of choice. I was wrong. This is the stuff. And all you Shipyard fans, don't get me wrong; Pumpkinhead is a delicious choice. This one is just better.

-Jon

Harpoon IPA

Beer Name: Harpoon IPA
Brewery: Harpoon Brewery
ABV: 5.9%
Serving method: Draft pint in a stange
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

So it turns out that being a Friend of Harpoon actually does get you free beer. Also, Kate says she told me that, so apparently it turns out that I don't listen to her as much as I should. I probably shouldn't put that into writing, since I can almost guarantee that it comes back to bite me at some point.

Harpoon was sponsoring an event at the Greenfield Grille, so we went to check it out. And get a free beer. But beforehand, we got some food and a couple of beers. I got the Harpoon IPA, because I am starting to enjoy IPAs more and more. So far the story is good, but it will soon take a terrible turn! Dun dun duuuunnnnnnn!! (That's that scary noise when something bad or foreboding happens.)

The Harpoon IPA is an amber colored draft with practically no head. It smells like a combination of citrus and hops. As I drank it, there was some lacing that lagged slightly behind the level of the liquid.

Ok, here's where things get bad. Something was not right with the tap, and the beer had a very off taste because of it. I don't know how to describe it other than comparing it to the taste you get when you have bad water. And yes, this is the terrible turn I mentioned earlier. Fortunately, after a few sips, that grossness faded and the real beer came through. It ended up having a nice hoppy flavor with a little bit of citrus. There wasn't a whole lot of carbonation, and no aftertaste. It's too bad that the beer wasn't treated as well as it should be.

Final thought - This beer has a lot of promise, what with having to battle the grossness of a dirty tapline. I am going to give it another try, at which point I will have a better idea about what is really going on. I imagine things will be better next time.

-Jon

Winter Warmer

Beer Name: Harpoon Winter Warmer
Brewery: Harpoon Brewery
ABV: 5.5%
Serving method: 12-oz bottle poured into a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown, best by 3/15/11

I am now a Friend of Harpoon, which gets me. . . beer? I don't know, as I didn't really pay attention to anything while I was signing up. Kathryn told me that there are some Harpoon events coming up that you need to be a Friend to get into, and that was good enough for me. I hope that I get a little member card and learn a secret handshake!

So the first thing that I learned is that "Winter Warmer" is actually a style of beer and not a specific brew from Harpoon. This particular one is a clear amber color with almost no head at all. It has an aroma that makes me think of Christmas, with cinnamon and maybe nutmeg. I am not positive about what nutmeg smells like, so I have to go on instinct here. The smell actually reminds me of Shipyard Pumpkinhead a little bit, so I will bet that there are some overlapping spices.

I think that this particular bottle is not very good, but I've had this beer in the past and enjoyed it. Like last week when I had one at the Lighthouse. I will try to mix those memories with what I'm currently drinking and see what I get. Harpoon's Winter Warmer is super spicy. Not spicy like hot sauce, but spicy like there's a buttload of spices in here. If your tastebuds aren't overwhelmed by the spice factor, there is also a bit of malt flavor hidden underneath. It's not very carbonated, and it leaves a medium spice aftertaste.

Final thought - I am not sure what happened to this bottle of beer. I know I like this beer in general, but not this specific one. The spice level is probably too high to have more than a few of these beers, but those few are usually enjoyable. Just hope you don't run into a dud, like I just did.

-Jon