Saturday, June 23, 2012

Harpoon's Summer Beer



ABOUT THE STYLE:  Harpoon Summer Beer is a Kolsch style ale. Originating in the Rhineland city of Cologne (Koln), Kolsch ales have the characteristics that many people associate with lager beers. Kolsch is brewed with an ale yeast, but like other northern German light ales, it is straw gold in color and light bodied. The flavor is mild. The hopping levels provide a crisp, dry finish that make this beer particulary refreshing.

BEER CHARACTER AND GLASSWARE: Harpoon Summer Beer is a beer brewed to be enjoyed with summertime activities. It is light, refreshing, and crisp.
The traditional serving style is in small, straight glasses which are constantly circulated among the tables in Koln’s beer halls. This beer goes well with a wide variety of foods, including delicate dishes such as salads and seafood.
The overall character is light and refreshing, with a crisp, dry finish.

AVAILABILITY - April to August


Style:  Kolsch-style ale
History:  Brewed since 1999
Orig. Gravity:  13 P
Color:  Brilliant Gold 5 EBC

ABV:  5.0%
IBU’S:  28
PAIRING SUGGESTIONS:  salads, pasta, seafood  
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11 comments:

  1. Joe MaurelliJune 23, 2012 at 4:51 PM

    hard to describe actually. Not much flavor and almost seems like light beer with a bitter aftertaste. Plus at am at the end of the 24 days of beer and my taste buds are shot.

    Rating: 6.5

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  2. Joe MaurelliJune 23, 2012 at 4:59 PM

    Sorry my rating should have been 7.5

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  3. Bill and RoJune 23, 2012 at 5:33 PM

    Luckily I have a large collection of small, straight glasses from Koln beer halls. Actually, check that, I don't have any and so I drank it straight from the bottle. Meh. Ro says it tastes like Heineken. I'm not going to insult it that much but I find it pretty average. Pretty flavorless. I just drank my half in the time I typed the last 4 sentences. Not necessarily a bad thing but not exactly the mark of a complex, quality beer. Brad, maybe we can use this in our 24 hours of beer.

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  4. Katy WoskobunikJune 23, 2012 at 9:02 PM

    This blog is a disgrace. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Big shout out to Joe M, Bill and BMoore for blogging each day and drinking in order like you are supposed to. What the hell happened to everyone else?! Bolter???

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    Replies
    1. Joe MaurelliJune 24, 2012 at 3:50 PM

      Here Here! This blog started off great but sucked overall. Bolter? Ivan? Johnny Ringo? God? What happened to these no shows??

      Delete
  5. ShepJune 23, 2012 at 10:45 PM

    I hope to see these instructions from a beer soon: drink from the bottle, paired with nothing. That is what I did in this case (I will occasionally do the frosty mug, but not today).

    I generally enjoyed this, at least in the context of being a summer beer. Crisp and light and all those other summer beer adjectives. In general, I think a decent kolsch style beer just works as a summer beer, although I don't think this was nearly as good as the Goose Island Summer. Coincidentally, and for what it is worth, I has the Sam Adams E-W Kolsch earlier today and I thought this was better. So there's that...

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  6. BMooreJune 23, 2012 at 11:57 PM

    The Harpoon was okay. Wouldn't ever seek it out but drinkable.

    Katy - I know people look fwd to hearing how this macro beer loving guy is going to hammer the latest microbrew, so I try to remember to post. And, yeah, where is Bolts?

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  7. BoltsJune 24, 2012 at 9:12 AM

    Present. Harpoon average. I'm a softy for it since I've been to their vermont brewery many times. They have a wide range of beers and this is the most mainstream.

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  8. TomJune 25, 2012 at 7:25 AM

    Light and delicious. Not a whole lot going on but very drinkable on a hot summer day

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  9. TonyJune 27, 2012 at 9:30 PM

    Drinking this now after the Apollo beer so it's probably getting higher marks than it should. I think this beer is pretty good. Its got a couple tastes going on that I like. 7 out of 10, C+

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  10. Elon MuskMarch 14, 2021 at 9:43 AM

    Thanks, that was a really cool read! birre dal mondo vendita on line

    ReplyDelete

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