Beer of the Week

The beer: Wanderer

Brewed by: Tree House Brewing Company, Charlton, Massachusetts

Description (from Untappd): "Wanderer is our unfiltered German-style Helles Lager. A meticulous, highly technical beer brewed utilizing traditional techniques and ingredients, Wanderer is crisp, bright, and immensely enjoyable. Wanderer pours a brilliant straw gold color in the glass with a puffy, bright white foam. It carries a flavor profile of doughy malts, light straw, clean lager yeast, and just the right dash of zippy noble hops. Beers that command your attention are a wonderful thing. Beers that can fade into the background and sort of be an unspoken companion to celebratory moments in life are also a wonderful thing and deserve to be held in equally high esteem. As a crisp, highly drinkable, and beautifully executed beer, Wanderer fits this profile beautifully."

Would I buy it again?: I've saved my favorite of the Tree House beers for last. Nothing fancy about this one, despite the rather long description, this is simply an extremely excellent lager. Smooth, tasty, drinkable, and perfectly hopped, it's a beer that easily passes my Yuengling test. I'm going to miss it once I've had my last one.

Beer of the Week

The beer: Old World

Brewed by: Tree House Brewing Company, Charlton, Massachusetts

Description (from Untappd): "Old World is our Scotch Ale. Brewed with a complex array of malts and fermented with a classic Scotch Ale yeast, this beer is a complex and smoky classic sure to delight lovers’ diverse flavors derived from authentic ingredients. Pouring a deep chestnut color in the glass, Old World carries intensely malty notes with gentle contributions of peaty smoke and caramel. The flavor follows suit with rich malt character, hints of kettle caramelization, and varied nuttiness. We are delighted to have this beer in our lineup. We hope that you love Old World as much as we do. Enjoy!"

Would I buy it again?: That rather depends on the time of year. When I first had one of these, I was in New Hampshire and it was unusually cold for late June. Cloudy and barely above 60. So a lot like Scotland. And in that situation, I loved this beer and would absolutely buy it again. However, drinking it on a 90 degree day in Maryland? I mean, it's still good, but this is not an easy-drinker. It's very heavy and complex, and definitely malt heavy. I'll save the one I have left for a more Scottish kind of day. 

Beer of the Week

The beer: Bear (With A Hint of Coffee)

Brewed by: Tree House Brewing Company, Charlton, Massachusetts

Description (from Untappd): "We are excited to welcome Bear back, this time with a tasteful and restrained addition of custom roasted coffee! After careful deliberation and assessment, we chose a coffee that exhibits delicate flavors of milk chocolate, cinnamon, and molasses. The base beer features flavors and aromas of toffee, caramel, chocolate, brown bread, and black coffee - a lovely pairing for the delicate, lightly roasted coffee for which it shares the glass. Though this beer is rich with flavor and complexity, it drinks smoothly and easily… an ideal pairing for a hearty winter meal or a day spent on the ice. A winter treat, indeed!"

Would I buy it again?: I think Coffee (With A Hint of Bear) would be a more accurate name for this beer. There is much more than a hint of coffee. Admittedly, I don't drink coffee too often, but I know the taste of coffee well enough. Does that make it bad? No, absolutely not, this beer is very good. It's more drinkable than you might expect as well. I probably wouldn't buy it again, but that's more because Tree House is apparently a very big, very popular brewery (No. 2 in the country, according to BeerAdvocate) with many, many beers. I got this from the brewery itself – along with a couple others which I'll get to in the coming weeks – and if I ever go there again, I'd get something different. Were it readily available in Maryland, then yes, I'd buy it again.