Widmer Brothers Citra Blonde Summer Brew

The perfect "beat the heat" treat.

Two Guys have been starting our blog posts recently with a little bit of history of our favorite beverage. We have advanced past the drinking beer through a funnel stage and now want to know more about the different varieties of beer that we enjoy so much. We are happy to share what we learn with our 4 loyal readers. Two Guys sampled a honey blonde ale for this review. But what exactly is a honey blonde ale? For that matter, what is an ale? Ale is a type of beer that is brewed from malted barley using warm fermentation with yeast to speed up the process. It is then mixed with hops to help preserve the beer and give it a bitter taste that offsets the sweetness from the barley malt. Honey blonde ale is where the malt is dried with coke (And no, it's not the kind of coke that a mountain of which will cause you to run down the stairs screaming "Say 'ello to my little friend.") It comes from coal and this particular drying process gives the beer a very pale color. Blonde ales are normally a little sweeter and less bitter than normal ales. Well, enough of our quick little lesson - now onto the beer.

Joe: On this sampling we tried Widmer Brothers Citra Blonde Summer Brew.  If you keep track of such things, this is our second in a row summer themed beer. In our defense it is summer and it was 137 degrees when we sampled this beer. The Citra is a pale colored 4.30 ABV beer with high carbonation.  It is a citrus beer so it has fruit flavor. In this case an orange taste. But unlike the Liney we tried in the last review, it is very light. In my humble opinion, it perfectly offsets the hops bitterness on a hot summer day but does not overwhelm the taste. I thoroughly enjoyed this beer. I give it a 4.5.

 Justin: Its official, I have a new favorite summer beer! Widmer Brothers Citra Blonde Ale is full of crisp flavor and is equally refreshing. The beer smells like how summer should. The citra hops provide many mild hints of grapefruit and oranges along with a delicious spiced characteristic flavor. The mild bitterness is nicely balanced by the malt sweetness. Underneath each bottle cap is a prost - in German it means "cheers", as a salutation accompanied by beer. My favorite of the night was A Prost: To beer bread without the bread. I definitely recommend this beer and it receives my highest rating to date of 4.5 stars!

Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy

For the 6th sampling, Two Guys tried a Weiss bier.  This sounds suspiciously like a German word and with our amazing ninja-like research skills we were able to confirm this.  It means wheat beer. What exactly is a wheat beer?  Beer is traditionally made with malted barley and hops. The barley is what gives beer its kick (or as Two Guys like to say—gives us the power to dance at weddings).  Hops are what give beer its bitter taste.  Wheat beer uses a mixture of wheat and barley.  The wheat makes the beer lighter in color and less bitter. It is normally used as a spring or summer beer since fruit is often used as flavoring. Now onto the beer.

Joe: For this sampling we tried a beer from the Jacob Leinenkugel brewery located in the great beer state of Wisconsin. It was the Summer Shandy which, as mentioned above, is a wheat beer. As with most wheat beers, it has a golden cloudy color with high carbonation. The beer is advertised as being  flavored with lemonade. This is in no way an exaggeration. There is a strong lemon smell and taste to the beer. The hops bitterness that is in most beers is very light. This beer is perfect to drink on a hot summer night which was the exact conditions that Justin and I drank this beer. Under those conditions I give this beer 3.5 stars.

Don't be fooled, we really did drink these outside!

Justin: For our non-local readers I would like to point out that we have been experiencing a drought along with a massive heat wave this summer. Myself and Joe were able to find an evening where it was actually tolerable to sit outside(in the shade) and enjoy a sampling. Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy is brewed for just such an occasion.  (I assume it would be equally enjoyable while tending to burgers on the grill or while laying on the beach of some tropical paradise.) A shandy is beer mixed with another beverage. In this case it is mixed with lemonade. The lemonade flavor was stronger than expected but I think it paired nicely with the wheat beer. I actually prefer it to the more popular lime beers. The leinies were iced down perfectly which made for a very smooth and refreshing taste. I give it 3 stars.

Guinness Black Lager

Gilgamesh Tablet

For Two Guys' 5^th sampling, we thought we might give a quick history of the sublime beverage. Approximately 6000 years ago some dude in Sumeria accidentally got some bread or grain wet and let it sit for a while which caused it to ferment. For some reason, this insane guy drank the result. (Why would a normal person actually drink fermented bread? Ick!) The guy thought “duuude, this is awesome” or however that translates to Sanskrit. He repeated this process until it was perfected—perhaps perfected is not the right word since the beer had to be drank with straws to avoid the fermentation by-product debris. (Again, ick!, but such is the greatness of beer) It became so important to Sumerian culture that it is mentioned in Gilgamesh—the first great work of literature. In it, beer is responsible for making a primitive man into an advanced human being thus showing the true power of beer. Then over the next 6000 years a lot of blah blah blah stuff happened to get the beverage we so enjoy today. We did mention that we would make this quick. We just really wanted to mention Gilgamesh. Two Guys are highly cultured. Now onto the beer!

Joe: For our 5^th sampling we decided to go Irish and try Black Lager from the Guinness brewery located in Dublin, Ireland.  It is, by the nature of its name, a very dark beer with medium carbonation and 4.5% ABV.  It has a malty caramel taste with slight hops bitterness at the back end.  Unlike other Guinness beer, it is meant to be drank cold—it will lose some of its flavor if you let it warm-up.  Truth to be told, Two Guys actually first drank this beer on St. Patrick’s Day.  The search for an Irish beer led us to realize that there is a whole world of beer that we would like to try.  This search is what led to the idea of the blog.  So for that and it's very good flavor, I give this beer 4 stars.

Justin: Guinness’ foray into the world of lagers is none other than a black lager. This is a smart move as I just can’t see a light colored lager with the Guinness label taking off. As Joe mentioned, we had previously tried Black Lager on St. Patrick’s Day. At that time I wasn’t concerned with remembering what I liked about the beer, I just knew that I really liked it. We knew that we wanted to give this beer a review so it was the perfect excuse to buy it again. The ‘black’ in the name refers to the color of the beer however it is still very smooth and refreshing much like a lager. I really enjoyed the flavor undertones of roasted caramel malts with a faint hops bitterness, though they are a little subdued, most likely so that it is able to appeal to more of a mass market. Four stars!

Schlafly Dry Hopped American Pale Ale (APA)

Two Guys and Some Beer are glad to introduce guest sampler Greg Delancy.  Two Guys have known Greg for the better part of (holy crap, has it really been) a decade.  We meet Greg through our wives who are all teachers. He shares our love for watching football.  His, though, leans toward the college level, while Two Guys knowledge of college football can be summed up with “that's where they draft NFL players from—right?” Greg's beer of choice, as he likes to call it, is Blue Yummies.  Justin calls it West Side Water while to Joe it is simply Headache in a Can.  Everybody else calls it Busch Lite.  Greg tends not to stray too far from Anheuser products and when he does go fancy, it's normally Bud Lite.  Rule #8 was strictly enforced during this sampling and shoes were worn.

Stomachs in, labels out!

Greg: My friends did not want to scare me away from my first sampling so they chose a lighter fare.  The beer was Schlafly's Dry Hop American Pale Ale brewed by Schlafly in St. Louis. Normally I am a "quantity over quality" beer drinker so the first thing that opened my eyes was its smoothness. The taste had a very appetizing citrus flavor initially followed by a quick bitter after taste. This beer went down so smooth that I finished my first bottle before anyone else.  I thought the second beer would hit a wall because it was consumed with dinner that consisted of a fine fried chicken entree with the usual starches of corn and mashed potatoes. Much to my surprise, it went down as smooth as the first. Beer number three was an after dinner beer.  At this point, we all agreed that it was a really good choice.  Beer number 4 was when the 5.9% ABV caught up to me. I had a nice buzz. After we finished, the flavor still lingered. I then went back to my comfort zone Bud Light which went down like water—which means it tasted like water. (Like I said before, quantity not quality)  All in all I say that this beer is a really good offering. I honestly can’t wait to try more of Schlafly's other crafts.

 

Joe: Justin and I spent several minutes deciding what beer we were going to sample.  We didn't want to go truly exotic because, as Greg mentioned, we did not want to scare our craft neophyte away. We decided on a Dry-Hopped American Pale Ale from Schlafly which is located in St. Louis.  It is brewed minutes away from where Greg's favorite beer—Headache in a Can-- is made. The Pale Ale has an orange color with mild carbonation.  When I opened it, I noticed a citrus smell.  This smell foreshadowed the first taste which was a citrus flavor.  I noticed orange and grapefruit.  This initial taste was followed by the hops bitterness.  It perfectly offset the citrus flavor to give it a well-balanced smooth taste.  I highly enjoyed the beer and give it 4 stars.  Greg—it was great to have you as a sampler.  Hope to do it again soon.

Justin: Schlafly’s (I love saying that name) Dry Hopped APA can simply be summed up as “hoppiness in a bottle”. I found the citrusy flavors followed by just the right amount of hops bitterness very enjoyable during an unseasonably warm evening spent with friends. I was equally impressed by the smoothness of this bold, hoppier cousin of Pale Ale. I will definitely be purchasing this beer again. Four solid stars! Like Greg, I am also eager to try more of Schlafly's offerings.