Beer of the Week

The beer: Pretzel Bier

The brewery: Victory Brewing Company, Downington, Pennsylvania

Description (from the website): "ROASTY, MALTY, & SLIGHTLY SALTY. Here at Victory Brewing Co., we love putting creative twists on traditional beer styles. Speaking of twists...our newest release, Pretzel Bier, delivers notes of warm, freshly baked pretzels with a toasted, slightly sweet finish. Using natural sea salt and a robust caramel malt, this 7.5% Toasted Ale takes all that’s special about a traditional Strong Ale and cranks it up a notch."

Would I buy it again? This is a tricky one for me, because in a vacuum this is a very good beer. Malty, kind of sweet, with a faint bit of saltiness. It's good and I enjoy drinking it. But when the Aldus pretzel beer exists, you really have to bring your A game, and this just doesn't compare. This tastes a bit like a pretzel, and while it's good, it isn't good enough. I'd take Aldus's pretzel beer every time.

Beer of the Week

The beer: Koffee Kake

The brewery: Victory Brewing Company, Downington, Pennsylvania

Description (from the website): "Locally brewed. Locally baked. Locally loved. This very tasty collaboration between Victory Brewing Company and TastyKake takes the delicious flavors of TastyKake's Koffee Kake into a sweet ale with notes of pound cake and cinnamon."

Would I buy it again? The coffee cake flavoring is a lot more subtle than I was expecting. I'm not sure I would have figured that one out in a blind taste test. As a beer, it's fine and perfectly drinkable, but the relative lack of "pound cake and cinnamon" is disappointing. I probably would not buy this again.