Tonight was a pretty good evening, I went to the local homebrew store, Twin City Homebrewing, where we had a small pumpkin beer homebrew festival. On my way home, I picked up dinner and decided to have a lighter beer with it. I can’t remember where I got this beer, but I thought I’d drink it before the summer was completely over (as if it weren’t already).

The bottle says, “Brooklyn Summer ale is a summer refresher with difference. The difference comes from the malt. 100% British two row barley, prized for superior taste. Our Summer ale is gold in color, with a soft bready flavor, snappy clean bitterness and bright hop aroma.”

Location: Poured into a tulip shaped pint glass, from the bottle, at my home in Bloomington, IL.

Numbers: 5% ABV, 18 IBUs, 11° Plato, 150 Calories

Ingredients: Malts: Two row British malts. Hops: German Perle and American Cascade, Fuggle and Amarillo

Appearance & Aroma: It’s golden in color and very clear, with a very thin head on it. There appears to be plenty of carbonation in it, and after sitting for a minute, the head actually got a little thicker. The aroma is bready and slightly lemony.

Taste & Feel: The body is light and the mouth feel is fairly creamy. It’s bready and almost cracker-like up front. In the middle, a little bit of honey and light lemon flavors come in. It finishes with a bready, lightly lemon-citrus flavor the lasts briefly in the aftertaste.

Food Pairing: I enjoyed this beer with Chinese food – crab rangoon, rice, and General’s chicken. It went nicely with this meal and balanced the beer and food. Because of the light lemony-citrusy flavors, I think this beer would be excellent with a light, summer salad or a seasoned fish dish.

Overall Impression: This was a light, smooth, drinkable beer. With the bready and citrusy flavors, it’s definitely a refreshing summer beer. Unlike lighter summer beers, this one tasted like it had a nice malt backbone to it, with a good amount of flavor. If there were more of this around, I’d definitely by my wife a six pack (in my efforts to convert her to more craft beer).

My Rating:

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