Harpoon night

Last night was Harpoon night at a local pub. There were Harpoon drink specials, tastings, and giveaways. Woot!

I started out with the 'Octoberfest' of Harpoon, one of my favorite Octoberfest beers.

I then had a Spaten Oktoberfest, a Bavarian-style beer. Not as flavorful as the Harpoon Octoberfest. Drinkable, but not as good.

At this point, the Harpoon stuff was in full swing in the pub, and I switched over to the Harpoon 100 Barrel Series - Glacier Harvest Wet Hop. Essentially, hops are added late in the brewing cycle to the beer, resulting in a hoppier tasting beer. This was excellent. Very smooth. The hop taste wasn't overpowering and bitter like it can be sometimes.

I decided to end the evening with a flight of Harpoon beers. The flight was 6 beers long. Started out with the UFO Hefeweizen. This is a wheat beer which isn't my favorite. Probably could use a lemon to offset the taste, but it's not something I really enjoy.

Next in the flight was the Raspberry Hefeweizen. It's basically UFO with an overpowering smell of raspberry. You can view it as a wheat beer that has been made to taste like a fruity beer. Better than the UFO, but still, not my favorite.

Thankfully, the UFO flights ended, and we went to the Brown ale. I had never had this one, and it was a very good brown ale. Almost like an Ithaca Nut Brown.

We had a 'Harpoon Ale' next. Not the traditional IPA.. This was more of an English-style ale. It was OK. Not really memorable (or maybe my taste buds were loosing their touch at this point?).

Then was the normal Harpoon IPA. Very nice IPA. No Dogfish Head, but a good and reasonably-priced beer.

Last was a Harpoon 'Dark'. That was an unexpected surprise. It was along the lines of a Dopple-bock. There was a blend of malts in it, and it was very smooth. The color was lighter than that of a Guinness, and more palatable (I'd imagine) to those who aren't used to drinking dark beers.

All in all, a good night. Cheers!