We're in the middle of the summer now and nothing is better during the summer than a nice cold refreshing beer. That's why it's so important to have a good beer choice for all your summer activities. I try to have my monthly beers coincide with what's happening that month holiday wise or what the season is. With it being summer, I wanted a summertime beer and a beer that could tie in with the 4th of July. VB gave me a great suggestion right away and ultimately I did end up choosing his choice as my July featured beer. However since summertime is my favorite season and I do a lot of social activities where beer is being enjoyed, I decided to feature not one but two beers to give the readers a special bonus beer! During the summertime, I don't know about you but I like to try new beers that might be available at your backyard barbecue, something I haven't tried before that a friend might have brought to the gathering. My July beer choices are those options for you to bring to your next barbecue that your friends might not have tried yet. Here are my choices:
My number one featured beer for the month of July is: Rocket by Wormtown Brewery.
Rocket is an American Pale Ale with an ABV of 5%. The brewery is out of Worcester, MA and this is my very first time trying anything by Wormtown and I have to say I was impressed. VB told me about this beer and how cool the can was. He thought it would be perfect for the 4th of July with it's firework/rocket theme and he was right! Additionally, this beer ties in with the Apollo 11 moon landing that also took place in July 50 years ago. Wormtown named this beer after a Worcester native engineer, Dr. Robert Goddard who built the world's first liquid fueled rocket! Upon first tasting this beer it hits you with it's refreshing citrus taste that comes from the Mosaic type hops used to craft this beer. It's very tasty and you notice that right away. It gives you the idea that "mmm this is going to be a good beer". Keeping with the local flavor, the malts used in this beer are local and from Hadley, MA. Specifically it's a "Valley Malt Danko Rye". Find out more about this locally grow malt HERE.
I give Rocket a score of 8 out of 10. It was very tasty, refreshing, and not watered down. It was not too strong but not too light either. It would be a great beer that I would bring to a barbecue for my friends to try; I'm confident enough in it's quality as a beer that I would bring it as a recommended beer.
Luckily even though I choose this as a summer beer, Rocket is available all year round. To find out more about Wormtown Brewery out of Worcester and the other beers they offer, check out their website HERE.
One beer is not enough so I decided to showcase a bonus beer that I always wanted to try and finally did this month. It's also very appropriate for the 4th of July, more so than Rocket. Now it's not a local beer, it's out of San Francisco, but distributed nationwide and that is Hell or High Watermelon by the brewery 21st Amendment Brewery.
This beer I've seen around in some liquor stores and been intrigued but never bought and tried until now. I'm not going to lie, the can really drew me to it. It's teal blue looking can with the statue of liberty sitting on the Golden Gate Bridge and holding some watermelons. It's just SO cool looking! With that being said, given the name, this beer is naturally brewed with watermelon flavors. It is a seasonal summertime beer. It's a wheat beer with an alcoholic volume of 4.9%. It's crafted with Magnum hops and white wheat malts.
21st Amendment Brewery really amped this beer up and their marketing is great. The can, phenomenal. However, it was not as good as I thought it would be. I give Hell or High Watermelon a 3 1/2 out of 10. I really thought it would be better but upon first taste, I almost spit it back out...it only slightly got better as I kept drinking it but not by much. That is why this beer is getting a low score. You would think for a fruit beer like watermelon, it would be a sweeter more refreshing beer but no. It was not.
If you're looking for a great watermelon beer, it's not this one. It would be Melonhead by Shipyard. That was the old name and apparently they now changed it to just "Melon", which I think was a mistake but whatever. It's a great beer, very tasty. Some would say it has "rind blowing flavor". Find out more about this actually good melon beer, HERE.
That's my July beer blog for ya! Go out and grab some Rocket by Wormtown and luckily you have no time stamp on it because it's available all year long! Then even though I choose a bonus beer to taste test that I was not pleased with, I gave you another summertime selection in Melon by Shipyard.
Enjoy the summertime weather and beer selections and I'll be back with another summertime beer in August!
-Producer Lightning