On Saturday, my brother arranged a bachelor party for me. It involved kayaking and then dinner and beer. We went to the Mews Tavern in Wakefield, which boasts 69 beers on tap (in fact, I don’t think they have any bottles, or at least no craft beer in botles. While there, I had 2 beers. The first was Arrogant Bastard. I had never had it on tap, and while I enjoy it in the bottle, I don’t think it’s anything spectacular. It’s a very different beer on tap, meaning it’s a whole lot better. I think it’s the hops. For some reason, it tastes a lot hoppier on draft than from the bottle.
The second beer I got was Magic Hat’s Sprint 08 Odd Notion. I don’t have a very good relationship with Magic Hat. I have never had a beer from them I really enjoyed. That is, of course, until Saturday. I had heard their Odd Notions were good. So I figured I’d try it. This one was an Irish Red Ale. The beer was a ruby brown color. I didn’t know what it was at first, the beer menu called it an “Irish Ale”. It smelled of roasted and caramel malts. The beer was light and easy drinking. The flavor, however, was that of a much bigger beer. It tasted of chocolate malts, roasted malts, and caramel malts. There was virtually no hop flavor to it at all, yet it wasn’t super sweet. I could have easily drunk this beer all night. It changed my mind about Magic Hat, and I now look forward to visiting their brewery when we head to Vermont for our honeymoon.
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