Double IPA

Beer Name: Double IPA
Brewery: The People's Pint
ABV: 7.8%
Serving method: 12-oz draft in a snifter
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

My phone refuses to recognize the word "snifter" as being a legitimate word. This thing needs a "Yes, this is a word and stop changing it to 'sniffer' every time" button. Admittedly, that name could use some work.

The Double IPA is a seasonal beer from The People's Pint. It arrived in its snifter as a amber-orange beer with just a little bit of head on top. This faded away fairly quickly, but did its best to cling to the sides in a heavy lacing pattern. Sadly, it was not very successful, but I believe that is because the glass was not properly rinsed as I was picking up just a very faint soapy flavor. We can talk about how soapy flavors in a beer can arise from either improper rinsing or over-fermentation, but that's really a topic for another day and another blog (like Mmmm, brewing, which I am trademarking right now). Bottom line is that without a properly cleaned glass, there isn't going to be any lacing, which is what happened here. On the other hand, the aroma of this beer is a super strong citrus hop, and it's fantastic.

Had this beer's flavor lived up to the aroma, it would probably be a new favorite. Alas, this was not to be. The beer has a pretty good flavor, but not as awesome as the aroma. It's not as citrusy as the aroma had led me to expect, and it could use just a little more maltiness for balance. As it is, there is a lot of bitterness without much flavor behind it at the end of each sip. Fortunately, the aftertaste is pretty mellow, so it doesn't drive you away. The light carbonation works well for this beer.

Final thought - This beer gets an A+ for aroma, but only a borderline B- in execution. I really should give it another try in my own glassware just to see what was going on in the soap department, so I'll keep an eye out for it at Ye Olde Package Store, aka Ryan & Casey's.

-Jon

Hope Street Bitter

Beer Name: Hope Street Bitter
Brewery: The People's Pint
ABV: 5.1%
Serving method: 16-oz draught in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

I don't usually drink a lot of ESBs, but I don't really know why. Maybe I've been a little too focused on the IPAs and stouts. But I suppose that if I'm going to be a world-renowned beer expert, I need to expand my preferences. Just not white ales, because coriander is gross.

Hope Street Bitter is a light brown colored beer, sort of coppery. It didn't have much head when it arrived, but then again, it's an English-styled beer and those seem to be lacking in the head and carbonation departments. The aroma was hoppier than I was expecting, and also had some graininess and a little bit of malt.

I am not really sure what to look for in a bitter, so I'm not sure if this was a good representative of the style. It's a pretty light beer, with a little bitterness from the hops along with some bready flavors. There's also a sweetness to it. The beer is not very carbonated, so it's lacking something in the mouthfeel. The beer has a pretty noticeable aftertaste, but it's nothing bad.

Final thought - At first, this beer was nice and hoppy (without being too hoppy) and very enjoyable. As it warmed up though, the nice flavors disappeared and it became watery and sort of disappointing. Luckily, it's easy enough to drink that you can plow through it before it loses its appeal.

-Jon

Midnight Special

Beer Name: Midnight Special
Brewery: The People's Pint
ABV: 8.4%
Serving method: An unknown amount in a snifter
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

Yup, the beer was served to me in a snifter. I felt super classy. Unfortunately, I didn't feel like doing the necessary calculations to determine the volume of said snifter, so that particular value must remain a mystery.

Midnight Special is a very dark beer, practically black, that did not have much head on it, but the small amount that was there left a pretty heavy lacing pattern behind while sticking around for much of the glass. The beer has a very hoppy aroma, but doesn't have the malt that I was expecting from both the description and the style.

Wow, this beer packs a bitter punch. The hops from the aroma were not lying about the hoppiness of the beer. There is a little bit of malt in the background, but mostly you're looking at a big hoppy blast with every sip. The finish is a little bit dry, along with the bitterness. Despite all of that bitterness and dryness, the beer is still pretty smooth. It has a little bit of carbonation, so the whole thing is fairly easy drinking.

Final thought - This beer was a little too intense for me. It packed quite the hoppy punch, but it didn't have the malty balance that seemed to be called for. I think I'll stick to their Pied pIPA for my daily hop requirements in the future. This is not a beer for the faint hearted hop haters out there.

-Jon

Natural Blonde

Beer Name: Natural Blonde
Brewery: The People's Pint
ABV: 4.6%
Serving method: 16-oz draft in a tulip glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

Unlike Kate, I did not have to spite-drink both of my dinner beers.

Natural Blonde is an American Blonde Ale. Seriously, that's a kind of beer. I know, I'm shocked too. I thought it was a kind of girl. As the name would suggest, it's a light golden color and poured with about an inch of head. The aroma was a little bready with hops in the background. There were probably some other aromas in there as well, but my nose was pretty stuffed up by this point so it was tough to pick them out.

The flavor of this beer is very light, with just enough hops to keep it from being boring. There's a little bit of maltiness as well, but all the flavors are very subdued. It's mostly malty at the beginning, with the hops finishing things up with a crisp bitterness. The medium carbonation doesn't keep this from being a very easy-to-drink beer.

Final thought - This beer makes me think of what the Big 3's beers would taste like if they actually tasted good. Obviously it must be possible to produce a light, low ABV beverage that doesn't taste like garbage, so I'm not sure why they don't do it. And yet they still have like 95% of the beer market. I'm ashamed of people.

-Jon

Provider Pale Ale

Beer Name: Provider Pale Ale
Brewery: The People's Pint
ABV: 5.2%
Serving method: 16-oz draft in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

They were all out of the oatmeal stout, so I decided to branch out and try something new.

The Provider Pale Ale is actually very dark, looking more like an IPA than a pale ale. It did not have much head, but there was a thin layer that stuck around for most of the glass and left a nice lacing pattern. There was a nice aroma of hops, but it was a little faint.

This beer was pretty good. It was sort of like a toned down IPA, because there was a nice hoppiness to it without it being the only flavor. It was a good match with my food, complementing the meal without overpowering it. The flavor was sort of muted though, so it might be disappointing on its own. It finished pretty cleanly, with a light bitterness. Very light carbonation here, and super smooth to drink.

Final thought - Good with food but I think I'd go with their Pied pIPA instead if I was just sitting back with a beer.

-Jon

Our Oatmeal Stout

Beer Name: Our Oatmeal Stout
Brewery: The People's Pint
ABV: 5.1%
Serving method: 16-oz pint poured from a 22-oz bottle
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

I am not sure whether to refer to this beer as "Our Oatmeal Stout" because that's what is says on the label, or "Their Oatmeal Stout" because saying "Our" makes it sound like it's my beer. It's sort of like that scene from The Simpsons where Bart is answering the question about who can prevent forest fires. That's a really old episode, so if you don't remember it, I'll let it slide. This time. I guess technically this specific bottle is mine, so henceforth, it will be "My Oatmeal Stout." Glad we cleared that up.

My Oatmeal Stout is dark. No light is making it through this beer. There is no head on it at all, which is probably why there wasn't any lacing. I am not sure if the beer is supposed to be like that or if my bottle was defective/old/out-of-date. I guess we'll have to wait for the tasting portion to find out. It smells like chocolate mostly, with a faint aroma of oats.

The first sip of the beer has the chocolate flavor I was expecting from the aroma. There is also a little bit of grain flavor, which I'm guessing is from the oatmeal. It's a very smooth beer with almost no carbonation. That's what I was expecting based on the lack of head, so maybe I know a little bit more about beer than I thought. There's a very light hint of hops at the back end, and a slight aftertaste of bitter chocolate.

Final thought - I enjoyed this beer. I don't think that it's my favorite stout, but I wouldn't mind having it again. Another quality brew from the fine folks at The People's Pint.

-Jon

Pied pIPA

Beer Name: Pied pIPA
Brewery: The People's Pint
ABV: 5.7%
Serving method: 16-oz pint
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

Haha, get it? It's pIPA because the beer is an IPA, so it's a hilarious play on words.

The People's Pint is right around the corner from Kathryn, but somehow I have not tried any of their beers yet. This is about to change.

This beer pours a golden orange color with a small amount of head on top. If you like that sort of thing, you'll probably be happy to know that it sticks around for a good amount of time and then leaves a nice lacing on the glass. Kathryn asked me what lacing meant, and I just made some stuff up that might have been right, but wasn't. It turns out that head retention and lacing means that the beer was brewed well and also that your glass is clean. So that's good. From now on, I'll know that lacing is a good thing.

From the first sniff, you can tell that this is going to be a hoppy beer. It also smells like it's going to be delicious. I have found you can tell a lot about a beer by its smell. For instance, you can tell that Bud Light is going to taste like watery crap because it smells like watery crap. I had very high expectations for this beer from its aroma.

Just like the scent, the beer taste very hoppy as well. It's got a light carbonation, and a flavor I can't quite pick up on at the beginning. It's only there for a second, and then it's all hops and a nice, bitter finish. Good stuff.

Final thought - Pied pIPA was great, and went perfectly with my burger. It smelled good, looked good and tasted good. I will be keeping an eye out for it in the future, and definitely recommend trying it.

-Jon