Beer of the Weekend #148: Bell's Oberon Ale

The beer of the weekend is Bell’s Oberon Ale, brewed by the Bell’s Brewery, Inc. of Comstock, Michigan.


Serving type: Six 12-ounce bottles. The back label features a “batch number” — 9856 — which I plugged into the Bell’s website for more information: “The Batch ID that you entered ‘9856’, is a Bell’s Oberon Ale. Your Bell’s Oberon Ale was packaged on July 1, 2010.”

Appearance: Straight pour into a pint glass. The color is cloudy lemonade, and it includes the thin chunks of levitating lemon flesh. It has a slight orange tint to it. Now I understand why the carrier suggests decanting: whole hunks of sediment settle to the bottom after being worked from the bottle. That’s the first time I’ve ever seen that in a beer. Two fingers of billowy white head developed and dissipated slowly to leave a foamy cap and ring around the edge.

Smell: Faint lemon citrus and coriander. It’s much more of a witbier in that sense. There’s just a hint of pepper spice.

Taste: Zesty lemon citrus, coriander, and Orange Crush. There is a very surprising and appreciated spicy hop bite, which leaves a lasting aftertaste.

Drinkability: This is the scent and taste of a sunny afternoon? Ha! It’s tasty, smooth, and easy drinking, but I’m a little turned off by the Orange Crush. It does not stand out on its own — it reminds me too much of Blue Moon — but the hop bite at the end does provide uniqueness.

Fun facts about Oberon Ale:

-Style: American Pale Wheat Ale.

-Price: $7.99/sixer at John’s Grocery in Iowa City. At first I couldn’t find it on the “domestic wheat” shelf in the walk-in cooler. I told the Thursday Beer Guy I was looking for Oberon Ale. “There’s a giant stack of it right behind you,” he said. I’m an idiot. In my defense, though, I am still getting used to the friendly confines at Dirty’s.

-Serving temperature: 45-50ºF.

-Alcohol content: 5.8 percent ABV.

-Food pairings: BA recommends Latin American cuisine, German cuisine, earthy cheeses (Camembert, Fontina), salad, and poultry.

-Gravity: 1.057 OG.

-According to the Bell’s Brewery Wikipedia page:

Larry Bell founded Kalamazoo Brewing Company in 1983 as a home-brewing supply shop. In 1985, it began to sell its own beer, producing 135 barrels in its first year. These first batches of beer were brewed in a 15 gallon soup kettle and fermented in open fermenters covered with Saran Wrap.

This is very inspirational.

-The carrier handle features this text: “Unpasteurized – Best Kept Refrigerated – Bottle Conditioned – Decant to Serve.” Decant? Yes, I suppose so. But I don’t have a decanter. Those are for that grape stuff.

-Carrier nerdiness: each side features this:

Congratulations. You’ve just picked up six bottles of very good American wheat ale. And that might be all you need to know, except that these six bottles of ale may represent something rather important to your mental well-being. Because these six bottles represent the color and scent of a sunny afternoon. These six bottles say, “Goodbye rain — or clouds — or snow. Hello, suntan lotion.” Or something like that. It kind of depends on what sort of mood you’re in and where you are. The point is that regardless of what trained meteorologists and calendar makers say, the six-pack you now hold in your hands says one thing quite loudly and quite clearly. The sun is here.

Interestingly, it rained most of the day but the cloud cover stuck around. The sun is not here.

-While Oberon Ale is, from what I can tell by the beer’s webpage, brewed year-round, it is only seasonally available in most of the distribution area. Only folks in Alabama and Florida get to enjoy Oberon all year.

The Quiet Man’s grade: B-.