Beer of the Weekend #168: Goose Island Harvest Ale
The Iowa City beer and grocery scene lost a legend Thursday. John Alberhasky, the famous Dirty John who founded John’s Grocery in 1948, died yesterday at the age of 92. Today at the store a piece of paper with his picture and vital dates was taped to the front door. It said, “In heaven, there is now beer.”
The beer of the weekend is Harvest Ale, brewed by the Goose Island Beer Company of Chicago, Illinois.
Harvest Ale has been sitting in my fridge for a week. I bought it along with Cornucopia (Crapucopia, as I like to call it) thinking I would be über productive and review two beers. However, last Saturday I drank a ton of Schild Brau and Oktoberfest with Sweet Meat and his girlfriend at the Millstream Brewery, then pounded down PBR during the late college games at Mervgotti’s. Let’s just say Sunday was über unproductive.
Goose Island is regionally renown, and this is, shamefully, only the third time I have drank its brew. (In my defense, Goose Island was, as far as I remember, unavailable in SoCal.) During the hot and sticky weeks this summer, I always thought of reviewing 312 Urban What, Goose Island’s pale wheat ale, but did not get around to it. However, I anticipate Goose Island seasonal offerings will be a regular feature on BotW from now on.
Serving type: Six 12-ounce bottles. The “BOTTLED ON DATE” is 09/20/10.
Appearance: Straight pour into a pint glass. The color is a rusty copper that is slightly hazy. Two fingers of eggshell colored head developed and dissipated to leave a spotted lacing and ring around the edge.
Smell: Hoppier than I was expecting. The first whiff offers an overpowering bitter/metallic grapefruit citrus. There may be a hint of caramel, but I am unsure; the citrus masks everything else. However, toward the end a candy caramel and toffee aroma emerges.
Taste: Surprisingly malty after the hoppy aroma. It exhibits the grapefruit citrus, but is nothing like its overpowering and bitter smell. Sweet caramel notes come through and it is perfectly balanced by pine and lemon citrus bitterness.
Drinkability: There is not too much going on, but Harvest Ale is probably the most balanced beer I have ever had. The hops, though more noticeable in the scent, are in complete equilibrium with the caramel malts, which offers all the citrus flavors without the explosion of off-putting bitterness.
Fun facts about Harvest Ale:
-Style: Goose Island classifies it as an “American Extra Special Bitter,” an Americanized version of the British ESB. BA, though, goes calls it “Extra Special/Strong Bitter (ESB),” much like Fuller’s ESB. I disagree with both.
-Price: $8.49/sixer at John’s Grocery in Iowa City.
-Serving temperature: 45-50ºF.
-Alcohol content: Listed as 5.7 percent ABV on the Goose Island site, but 5.6 percent ABV on BA.
-Food pairings: The folks at Goose Island suggest, “Chicken, Pork, Turkey, Sausages,” and offer “Cheddar, Aged Gouda” as cheese pairings.
-IBU: 35.
-Color: Goose Island does not provide the SRM number for Harvest Ale’s color listing. It just calls it “Copper.” There has to be a spectrophotometer available for use somewhere in Chicago.
-Harvest Ale is only available in September and October.
-Goose Island offers this informative video about Harvest Ale, which basically repeats everything I just wrote:
-Goose Island (I keep wanting to write “Good” instead of “Goose”) suggests serving Harvest Ale and a number of its other beers in a “Willi Glass.” After perusing the Dirty John’s website, I stumbled across the Ayinger Willibecker glass, a versatile tumbler. Oddly, Willi Becker was a German politician in the SPD. I wonder if there is any connection.
The Quiet Man’s grade: B+.
The beer of the weekend is Harvest Ale, brewed by the Goose Island Beer Company of Chicago, Illinois.
Harvest Ale has been sitting in my fridge for a week. I bought it along with Cornucopia (Crapucopia, as I like to call it) thinking I would be über productive and review two beers. However, last Saturday I drank a ton of Schild Brau and Oktoberfest with Sweet Meat and his girlfriend at the Millstream Brewery, then pounded down PBR during the late college games at Mervgotti’s. Let’s just say Sunday was über unproductive.
Goose Island is regionally renown, and this is, shamefully, only the third time I have drank its brew. (In my defense, Goose Island was, as far as I remember, unavailable in SoCal.) During the hot and sticky weeks this summer, I always thought of reviewing 312 Urban What, Goose Island’s pale wheat ale, but did not get around to it. However, I anticipate Goose Island seasonal offerings will be a regular feature on BotW from now on.
Serving type: Six 12-ounce bottles. The “BOTTLED ON DATE” is 09/20/10.
Appearance: Straight pour into a pint glass. The color is a rusty copper that is slightly hazy. Two fingers of eggshell colored head developed and dissipated to leave a spotted lacing and ring around the edge.
Smell: Hoppier than I was expecting. The first whiff offers an overpowering bitter/metallic grapefruit citrus. There may be a hint of caramel, but I am unsure; the citrus masks everything else. However, toward the end a candy caramel and toffee aroma emerges.
Taste: Surprisingly malty after the hoppy aroma. It exhibits the grapefruit citrus, but is nothing like its overpowering and bitter smell. Sweet caramel notes come through and it is perfectly balanced by pine and lemon citrus bitterness.
Drinkability: There is not too much going on, but Harvest Ale is probably the most balanced beer I have ever had. The hops, though more noticeable in the scent, are in complete equilibrium with the caramel malts, which offers all the citrus flavors without the explosion of off-putting bitterness.
Fun facts about Harvest Ale:
-Style: Goose Island classifies it as an “American Extra Special Bitter,” an Americanized version of the British ESB. BA, though, goes calls it “Extra Special/Strong Bitter (ESB),” much like Fuller’s ESB. I disagree with both.
-Price: $8.49/sixer at John’s Grocery in Iowa City.
-Serving temperature: 45-50ºF.
-Alcohol content: Listed as 5.7 percent ABV on the Goose Island site, but 5.6 percent ABV on BA.
-Food pairings: The folks at Goose Island suggest, “Chicken, Pork, Turkey, Sausages,” and offer “Cheddar, Aged Gouda” as cheese pairings.
-IBU: 35.
-Color: Goose Island does not provide the SRM number for Harvest Ale’s color listing. It just calls it “Copper.” There has to be a spectrophotometer available for use somewhere in Chicago.
-Harvest Ale is only available in September and October.
-Goose Island offers this informative video about Harvest Ale, which basically repeats everything I just wrote:
-Goose Island (I keep wanting to write “Good” instead of “Goose”) suggests serving Harvest Ale and a number of its other beers in a “Willi Glass.” After perusing the Dirty John’s website, I stumbled across the Ayinger Willibecker glass, a versatile tumbler. Oddly, Willi Becker was a German politician in the SPD. I wonder if there is any connection.
The Quiet Man’s grade: B+.
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