To read gaudy press materials, you'd think the summit of the beer world finally reached Columbus taps.
To taste , you might have the same reaction to Magic Hat's #9 Ale as you do with The Beatles "Revolution #9," wondering what in the hell you just got duped into experiencing.
Because years of beer snobbery aren't helping me to connect the hype machine behind #9 with the reality in a pint glass.
And boy, there's a hot, heaping pile of hype dropped right next to this ale.
It's an interesting drink, but not so far afield from dozens of other microbrewed ales that I've sampled.
It ranges into fruitier territories than a typical (non-India) pale ale, which I like.
Would I drink it again? Absolutely. Would I kill a man for a draught pint of it? I think I'd probably pick something else.
The trick to wearing a Magic Hat is to keeping something under it; otherwise, you've no secrets left, and have burned through all your collateral with beer drinkers by proclaiming #9 as biggest thing since the Mesopotamians fermented grain.
Magic Hat takes a page from the Stone Brewery Arrogant Bastard playbook and enters into verbal overload. I'm the wrong person to make that comparison, because I believe no one actually enjoys Arrogant Bastard, but drink it to show off (yet for some reason, I do want to try the Double Bastard variation).
So what I'm saying is, Magic Hat, don't preach, your beer's drinkable. Don't portray your wares as the be-all/end-all of beer snobbery; at first taste, they're not even close.
But I've made up my mind, I'm keeping the bumper sticker.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
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