Tis' The Season

Snowdrift

What a long weekend it was, it was frightfully cold outside and the Minnesotans we’re on the prowl fighting the good fight with good old Mother Nature. Some calls us crazy, but we, we say we’re resilient. Exhibit A I found myself on this cool crisp late November day in Minneapolis, and of all places outside in full winter gear, hand warmers and all, screaming and yelling “Skol Vikings” Barley over 10 degrees and I couldn’t of cared less, we watched one heck of a football game, culminating into a Minnesota Vikings Victory!! It was my first cold outdoor Vikings game, and it was AWESOME.

I’m back in the great white north (Duluth) and as I’m watching Sunday Night Football I’m offered a beer. A surprisingly delightful vanilla porter. They call it Snowdrift and it’s from the Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company located in Chippewa Falls, WI. I know, I know another beer review from Packer Country? Trust me, the next one will be from Viking Territory. Enough of my rambling, let’s talk beer.

First of it was offered to me in a can, not a good start, for some reason I think bottled beer has a better taste then aluminum stored beer. The beer had a very good pour, showing the typical signs of a dark porter, the opaque dark brown liquid, with a nice tan layer of head to finish off the pour in my pint glass. My first whiff of the aroma gave me hints of coffee, chocolate, and vanilla. After my first few drinks of the Snowdrift I had the taste of vanilla, and coffee mostly standing out to me. You really get these flavors because of the roasted malts they brew the beer, as well as the selected hops they use. Let’s take a look at the facts:

Style: Porter

ABV: 6.0%

IBU: 16

Color: Opaque

Brewery: Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company (Chippewa Falls, WI)

Look: Aluminum Can with decorative winter colors, big attractive logo.

Rating: 7/10

         I like the amount of effort and time they clearly took to design the label. Makes it more eye catching with the potential to drive more customers towards their brand and to purchase it. It had a surprisingly attractive color once poured into a pint glass for more observation really nice dark brown that you want to see. I however wasn’t all that impressed with the taste, it was a little too sweet in my opinion, not really giving it that really nice roasted flavor that makes it a little more bitter. The head of the beer when first poured was a solid level, but quickly disappeared to a small thin layer that you don’t want in a porter.

        My conclusion of this beer is that for what the price of the beer is, I would probably recommend you to look for something similar from different brewery, that is if you are a more traditional porter drinker and in on it being really sweet. There’s nothing wrong with their recipe, as it is clearly a popular beer for them as they make it only a few months out of the year every year. It just isn’t what I’m looking for in a seasonal porter, but that’s the whole reason of me doing this right? Too give you my thoughts on the beer I drink!

As always thank you for your time,

Cheers, Eric

The first of many.....

Bubblejack

I’ll admit when I first started buying beer the Viking pride I have in me made it a struggle to enjoy Wisconsin craft beer. However, much to my dismay Wisconsin has some great breweries that produce tasty products. In the last few years craft beers have greatly changed my beer preferences, two years ago I would be the guy buying twenty four packs of Keystone Light (16oz, of course) never really understanding that I was drinking water with a little yeast and hops thrown in a can of nasty, nasty light beer. Then I took a tour of the Shells brewery in New Ulm, MN. My beer taste buds were never the same. I’m so excited for the opportunity to review beers for an actual school assignment, never thought that would be an option.

Enough of me babbling on about my boring story let’s get to the task at hand. I went to the store earlier tonight and browsed the shelves for a good forty-five minutes searching for some beer I had never tried before. Then, BOOM the Bubblejack IPA from Rush River Brewing caught my eye. I immediately grabbed it and headed for the register. Alright, let’s get started!

   

              My first impressions of the beer after pouring it into a cold pint glass was that it had a nice level of head after the pour, head being of course the top layer of foam in the beer glass. After the beer was poured I smelled the aroma of the beer and observed that it had an almost fruity hint along with the hop smell. After a few sips of the beer I noticed that it isn't the most “hoppy” IPA, probably because it’s an American Style IPA. However, while I was enjoying it I was impressed that the first smell I got of the beer complimented the flavor very nicely, there was a little hint of fruit flavoring, as well as a small bite of citrus. Here are the facts of the beer:

(Bubblejack IPA)

Style: American IPA

ABV (Alcohol by Volume): 6.5%

IBU (International Bitterness Units): 60 + Dry Hopped

Color: Light Amber

Brewery: Rush River Brewing Co. (River Falls, WI)

Look: Brown Bottle, Green and light tan label.

Rating: 7.5/10

             The color of the beer isn't as dark as one is used to having with an IPA, it’s more of what I would describe as a light amber color, which is fine don’t be worried the beer still has plenty of flavor. The IBUs in the beer is around 60 which mean it’s on the less hoppy side of an IPA which explains my first impressions of the beer being a less hop filled IPA, and not having the typical IPA “bite” to it. Another observation after my second glass of Bubblejack is the beer has a really nice and smooth taste to it. One negative I have is the label of the beer, it isn't quite the most interesting beer label I've ever seen. To me it just seems pretty bland and boring not the most exciting colors, my advice would be to start over on the label and work on something that will bring attention to the beer so people look at it. (Remember I searched for over 45 minutes on the beers shelves at Cash Wise before I actually noticed it) 

             My overall conclusion of the beer is that if you’re looking to get interested into craft beers, or micro-brews and find that some IPAs are still too bitter for you to really enjoy, I would recommend this beer. It is a lighter less hop filled American style IPA that I think is more mild mannered and could be a beer that would pair well with a burger right of the grill from home, or at your local favorite watering hole. However, be careful because they 6.5% alcohol content does creep up on you because of the smooth drink-ability this beer has, so in that regard make sure your limiting yourself to just one or two of these if you have anywhere to travel.  (Below is a few of the pictures I took of the beer for you to get your on glimpse of the bottle and what it looks like in a glass!) Writing continues after images

             

Thank you for your time reading this blog, and my first beer review, I’m excited to get better each time I do one of these, so if you don’t see some information you’re looking for, post a comment for me and I will try and find that piece of information for you, as well as include it in my next review which will be up Sunday! (Below is a few of the pictures I took of the beer for you to get your on glimpse of the bottle and what it looks like in a glass!)

Happy Thanksgiving!!                 

BEER BLOG #1

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Hello! Welcome to the blog of WHY NOT? Brewery. We are investing much of our non-brewing time to the social media marketing sector that has blossomed over the last 7 years. The exposure we can gain with this cheap and effective marketing ploy is crucial to our success as a brewing company. For without knowledge of one’s product the potential customer cannot purchase the goods of an unknown company they’ve never heard of. That is why we are focusing most of our marketing online and also of course with TV ads, when we can afford them that is.

We have started this blog slowly over the past few weeks, to help ensure that we establish a strong social media advantage on marketing. Here at WHY NOT? we strive to deliver a strong presence of young minds with a severe eagerness to succeed in our very first attempts at our dream jobs that will blossom into successful careers!

Please if this is the first you have heard of our small startup brewery with growing expansions in many fields please join us at www.whynotbeer.com (not real) to take a look at our story, as well as our products. We have interactive videos that we have listed on our site of our process in the beer brewing field. We love what we do but take it very seriously and our CRITICAL of every single batch of beer that we brew.

The major aims of our company are:

·                        Deliver the finest beer we can brew to our amazing customer base

·                        Strive to make new recipe’s and advancements in the brewing world

·                        Testing the limits on taste buds everywhere

We hope you also follow us on our own social media accounts, with Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and also Vine! @WHYNOT?Beer and YouTube channel WHYNOTUS.

In our latest blog post we are here to update you on how our new Porter “Unintended”  has been doing, while we spread word fast it took about a week of “Unintended” being on the shelves for it to take off! After that the rest has been amazing! We can hardly supply enough to the limit stores we supply! If this keeps up more and more investors will become intrigued with us and our amazing business plan/model.

We will be having an event with our newest friends BENT PADDLE BREWERY (NOT REAL,NOT FRIENDS, “I wish”) at the AMSOIL ARENA were we will be having beer tastings of all our products. Also we will be having a raffle for small prizes, as well as a 100 foot putt contest where if a person sinks a putt they get 20 cases of their choice of their favorite BENT PADDLE, OR WHY NOT? Beers. We are excited for this opportunity for exposure with a respected brewery as Bent Paddle, and can’t wait to see you all there for the fun and activities.

                Cheers from all of us here at WHY NOT? Brewery and raise a glass to all of those beer lovers around the globe. ENJOY!

-WhyNot? Brewer