1218. Sun King

1218sunking 

I had this beer at the CBC shortly after the American Craft Beer Fest. It seems closest in style and spicing to a witbier. From the CBC website:
Continuing the recent run of Beatles-inspired CBC beers (Golden Slumbers Pils, Sgt. Pepper), we welcome you to enjoy our latest creation, released in time to celebrate the summer solstice. This beer aspires to capture the dreamlike sense of summertime warmth evoked by this magical track from the Side Two Medley of the Beatles masterpiece, Abbey Road, where it is perfectly sandwiched between “You Never Give Me Your Money” and “Mean Mr. Mustard.”
Sun King was brewed with pale malted barley, wheat, oats, and rye, all grains lending a crisp, clean, complex body and palate. Much like its musical namesake it enjoys a three part harmony of Belgian yeast character, a touch of coriander, and dried citrus peel. Our chosen combination of lemon, lime, orange, and grapefruit peel offers complexity in the finish of this delicate beer without any one aspect dominating the overall composition. Light, dry, very effervescent, and moderate in alcohol content, this is one of our most favorite summer session beers yet.
Here comes the sun king
Everybody’s laughing
Everybody’s happy 

Beer Stats:
Brewery: Cambridge Brewing Company

Alcohol: 4.00%
Serving: Tap
Style: Witbier, BJCP Style Guide

Appearance: 4.0 | Smell: 4.0 | Taste: 4.5 | Mouthfeel: 4.0 | Drinkability: 5.0

Overall: 4.3

Sun King pours a very nice, moderately cloudy, straw golden. It's topped by a thin white head that fades to a film leaving patches of lace. The aroma is grainy with notes of peppery spice, citrus, and powdery yeast.

This beer is very tasty. It is clean upfront with banana and citrus flavors in the center. The sweetness mellows in the finish and is met by notes of peppery spice and citrus. A mild grassy bitterness makes a brief appearance just after the swallow. This beer is light-bodied, moderately carbonated, and has a crisp, mildly dry finish.

I thought that this was a mild but flavorful beer. There's a bright citric character that makes this a very refreshing summer beer.

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1188-1217. The American Craft Beer Fest

This is a long-overdue post from the American Craft Beer Fest back in June. Given the delays in posting that Beer Fest posts cause, I've abridged this post. In the future I'll probably talk a bit more about the fests, but for now I've just listed the beers I had, and highlighted the ones that I really liked. Hopefully in the future this will prevent the backlog of blogging that occurs after beer fests.

The American Craft Beer Fest is Beer Advocate's large format beer fest centered around American Craft beer of all types. Jason and Todd do a great job of bringing in a large variety of brewers (with a local bias) and a great variety of beers, I much prefer their smaller beer fests at the Cyclorama.

I hate to sound judgmental - one of the reasons that beer fests are fun is drinking too much with friends - but I like the crowd that the ACBF attracts much less than BA's other fests. Ostensibly the purpose of all of BA's fests is to introduce people to craft beer, and you could make the argument that the ACBF, because of the crowd that it attracts, does that better than their other fests, but it's less fun as someone likes beer. I'd rather not have to deal with meat-head douchebags laughing and trying to read my beer notebook over my shoulder while I'm taking notes.



1188. Brooklyn Sorachi Ace - Brooklyn Brewery
A very tasty, crisp, and refreshing saison.

1189. Brooklyn Dark Matter - Brooklyn Brewery
1190. Field Mouse's Farewell - Pretty Things Beer & Ale Project

1191. Ommegang Zuur - Brewery Ommegang
A well done Flanders Oud Bruin. It had the right mix of tartness, woodiness, and earthiness. I had a few samples of this over the course of the evening.

1192. Rabid Duck - The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery
1193. Karnival Kolsch- Stoudts Brewing Co.
1194. Sofie - Goose Island
1195. Farmer's Tan - Southern Tier Brewing Company
1196. GestAlt - The Tap / Haverhill Brewery
1197. Samuel Adams Belgian Style IPA - Boston Beer Company
1198. Atwater Vanilla Java Porter - Atwater Block Brewery
1199. S.O.S - Cody Brewing Company
1200. Midland's XX - Earth Bread + Brewery
1201. Apathy's Reward - Martha's Exchange
1202. Worcester's Bravest - Wormtown Brewing Co.

1203. Clementine - Clown Shoes
1204. Brooklyn Buzz Bomb Ale - Brooklyn Brewery
1205. 400 Pound Monkey - Left Hand Brewing Company

1206. The End of Reason- Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery
This beer was a barrel aged, sour cherry concoction. It had a nice interplay of acidic sourness, woody earthiness, and chocolate maltiness. It was a delicious sour beer that had a bit more of a malt backbone than normal. I really enjoyed it.

1207. Cherry Woods - Cisco Brewers
Cisco is a another regional brewery that produces a solid lineup of beers that I don't pay enough attention to. Their Indie Pale Ale is a fantastic IPA that's become a must drink before I take any flight originating in Logan Terminal B. Since I try to have every sour beer available at any given beer fest I had to give this one a try. It was a very nice stab at a kriek, with a good mix of acidity and funkiness.

1208. Bailey's Blonde Ale - Cisco Brewers
1209. Penny Weiz Ale - Olde Burnside Brewing Co.
1210. Abbot 12 - Southampton Publick House
1211. M350 - Rapscallion
1212. Peak Organic IPA - Peak Organic Brewing Co.
1213. India Pale Ale - Kennebec River Brewery
1214. 668 The Neighbor Of The Beast - New England Brewing Co.
1215. Ragged Mountain Red Ale - Flying Goose Brewpub and Grill
1216. Rhode Island IPA - Trinity Brewhouse
1217. Improper Hopper - Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery

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