A guest review from friend of the blog, Ryan, contributor for Cleveland Hops.
When Emily first asked me to do a guest post on her blog, I decided that I wanted to do a beer review. Being that Emily is a Michigan girl, and I am an Ohio boy, I thought, why don’t I review something from a Michigan brewery? Furthermore, why not review something from a brewery that only distributes in Michigan? If you know me, then you probably know where I am going with this. Yes, I am talking about Shorts Brewery in Bellaire, Michigan. Shorts is known for creative, unique beers. Whenever I am in Michigan, I always pick up as many Shorts beers as I can. Some of my favorites from them include:
- Uber Goober Stout: An oatmeal stout brewed with peanuts.
- PB&J: For this brew, Shorts takes their fruit ale, The Soft Parade, and blends it with Uber Goober Stout to form a beer that tastes like peanut butter and jelly.
- Strawberry Short’s Cake: Fresh strawberries, lactose, and biscuit malts form the basis for a golden ale that tastes almost exactly like its name would lead you to believe.
Another favorite of mine from Shorts is the beer that I am about to review, their India Spruce Pilsner. The following is a description of this beer from Shorts:
This Imperial Pilsner, fermented with local, hand-picked blue spruce tips is the quintessential symbol for Joe Short’s love of hops and craft beer. The spruce presence, rooted in historical brewing practices, is enormous and gives the beer a refreshing quality reminiscent of gin. This beer is impressively light bodied, considering the immense spruce flavors and the prodigious additions of hops.
The beer was poured at about 50o into my Dogfish Head Signature Glass.
Appearance: The beer pours a nice shade of gold with a minimal but existent head. As the head leaves us and I take a few sips, sticky lacing remains on the glass.
Smell: Holy moses…I smell pine, lots of pine! It’s almost as if I am bringing the Christmas tree up from the basement. Is the heavy pine scent in this beer a bad thing? Well, it could be if the scent was solely pine; fortunately, the pine was accompanied by the smell of lovely citrus hops. The best words I can use to describe this smell are, in the words of Outkast, “so fresh and so clean clean.”
Taste: Wow…the pine from the smell is definitely not playing around; it’s here and it means business! While the pine is definitely the dominant flavor, hops and lemon bitterness poke their heads to truly compliment the pine. The finish is quite bitter, and the pine flavor lingers on the tongue for quite a while. The flavor of this beer is incredibly unique, and I have to say that I absolutely love it.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with a level of carbonation that was spot on for the imperial pilsner style. I just love how the pine is deciding to hang around a little while longer on my taste buds!
Overall, this is a remarkably unique beer. I am not sure that it is something that you could enjoy multiples of in a session, however. While the 7.1% ABV is barely noticeable, I believe that the pine flavor would get the best of you in the long run. Regardless, this beer is an innovative take on the imperial pilsner style, and its fresh taste is something that I wish I could enjoy year-round. Let me put this idea out there. While many of us could not see an imperial pilsner making a suitable cold-weather beer, allow me to play devil’s advocate. Certainly, this beer could be very refreshing on a warm, summer day. However, the smell and taste of pine immediately reminds me of a Christmas tree. I think it would be interesting to drink a beer like this around Christmas time. Sure, it is most definitely a far cry from our beloved winter warmers, but who says being different is a bad thing? From my experiences with Shorts Brewing, I can attest that being different is where they shine!
Ryan is a Clevelander and has been one of the many in the area who are instrumental in bringing the local craft beer community here. He is a high school math teacher and a marathon runner when he isn't pursuing his love of delicious ales. In addition to this wonderful guest post, Ryan is a contributor for Cleveland Hops. You can read some of his other writings here and here.
(Side note: I'm still completely down for the count with mono. If you are interested in doing a guest post for Beerific, please let me know!)
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