December 2 - Harpoon Brewery - UFO Gingerland

Harpoon Brewing - UFO Gingerland

 I enjoy gingerbread and really enjoy certain gingerbread-themed brews.  Take for example, Samuel Adams Merry Maker (formerly known as Merry Mischief), which is a gingerbread stout that weighs in at a hefty 9% ABV.  Glad I have that on tap at the moment in the trusty kegerator.

This particular beer intrigued me when I first saw it at the store.  I knew when I saw it, I had to try it.  It's been blowing up my Instagram feed all day long too (@bmohr25 if you feel the need to get my photos of beer and disc golf).  Is the hype is real? Hopefully, this beer won't disappoint.  Made by Harpoon Brewing in the Northeast part of the US, this beer, when I went to log it through Untappd on my smartphone, was classified as a winter warmer.  Not happy about that...I was going to save this type of beer for my special Winter Warmer Wednesday blog (yule see tomorrow!).

The pour of this beer was a hazy tan/orange color due to the unfiltered nature of this beer (hence the UFO tag - UnFiltered Option).  I gave the beer a hefty pour and the head started out about a full inch thick, but quickly disspated to nothing.  There was an apparent ginger (not gingerbread) aroma along with some slight cinnamon and other winter spices (clove/nutmeg/allspice...I don't enjoy any of them).  There was also a yeast aroma present as well, which isn't always bad, but in this case, it didn't compliment anything that was already filling up my nostrils.  When tasting this beer, there were apparent spicy notes with ginger, cinnamon, and that pesky clove.  The mouthfeel wasn't great either and the beer left a thick coating on the tongue.  Not a pleasant coating, unfortunately either.  The finish was slightly hoppy with a yeasty banana flavor as well.  Not sure where that came from, but again, it was not welcome.

I feel like a total beer snob now, but this beer reminded me of a differently spiced Blue Moon, minus the citrus orange flavors.

Let's chalk this brew-tastrophy up to a misleading label.  There was definitely ginger here, which I usually like in a beer.  However, in this case I expected something totally opposite which did not live up to my expectations.  Also, the spice profile, for me, coupled with the ginger, didn't fare well for this brew.  

Giving this beer a 2.5 out of 5.  That gingerbread man on the right looks happy...until he realized what I was going to do to him in order to represent my rating on this brew...who's happy now? Mwahahahahahahahah!!!!!