Raveen and I had another indoor soccer game tonight. I love the footy and in outdoor soccer I love playing goalkeeper. I find it exhilarating. The indoor game is a different story. The field is small. The action is more like pinball than the beautiful game and people LOVE to get really close and tee-up. One of the good things about taking a serious beating is that I can come home, throw my clothes in the laundry, crack open a cold one and count my bruises.

Tonight’s beer is Woodstock Inn Brewery’s Pig’s Ear. It pours deep brown and has a smoky, peanutty flavor. The body of the brew is medium. It has a very light finish. The flavor in the one that I tried was inconsistent, with the initial sip nearly smacking me in the mouth with smoked peanuts. I thought it had quite a unique flavor, but it did not maintain for the life of the glass. This is a good beer. It is very sessionable if that’s a word. It not not too light or too heavy. You can appreciate the fact that you are, in fact, drinking a brown ale. There is no question about the identity of this beer. It is not going to light your night on fire with its creativity. I think this is what Newcastle Brown Ale wants to be or perhaps used to be.

I was so excited to try this that I cracked a warm one open last night. Do not do that. Magic Hat beers are not known to be conventional. Their ale wizards boil their brews in cauldrons with mystical ingredients like gillyweed, blast-ended-skroot ass and peaches. If you fail to follow the simple, unwritten chill-and-enjoy instructions, you’re strapping on your silly. I was pretty sure that I drank concentrated benzocaine because of the comfortable numbness and awkward cherry-acid flavor.

Reboot!

Pours a burnt orange color under my skewed pinkish overhead lighting. I smell Hot Tamales and HOLY HOPS Batman. Also, grapefruit. Taste- felt like I’d been ROUND-HOPPED in the jaw. WOW. Delicious! The spices are so subtle you might call this a Pale Ale or an IPA if you taste it blind, but if you wait for it after the hops hops-a-long, you get a cinnamon leave behind which leaves a dainty burn that I like. I would even welcome it a little stronger. I’m considering drinking this while eating red-hots just to see if I can look into the future. The grapefruit flavor is not there, but the citrus bitterness is real and IT IS SPECTACULAR.

This will have a higher “mass appeal” than the Harpoon Winter Warmer just because of the subtlety of the spices. The problem is that this could easily be a year-round offering. It’s not special enough for me to be a seasonal. I think the balance tips toward the ordinary. Anyone who calls the spices too strong has uber sensitive taste buds and should consider a career in tasting.

Note: I have revised the rating after having more. This beer is fabulous.

Drinking (responsibly) is awesome. It goes even better with eating! Freezerburns.com is a man’s quest to eat his way through the freezer aisle, one box at a time.

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