Bottle/Tap: Bottle

Several weeks ago at the Wicked Wine and Brewfest I had the chance to sample some of this pale ale but hadn’t found it anywhere since.  Recently, I happened to walk through the beer section of a local supermarket and found a six-pack of this delightful brew just waiting for me.  I was pretty happy to find this and take it home to see if it was good as I remembered.

This is a 5.7% pale ale. I put it in a fridge to cool down a bit before I cracked one open.  It had a good amber color in a glass, and I was happy to find that it tasted just as good had it been from the keg.  I had a discussion with a friend, and the two of us agreed that keg beer is much better than bottle beer, but keeping several kegs in your home is a far more expensive habit than a few bottles.

Moving on. At first there wasn’t a very harsh bitter flavor to the beer when I took it out of the fridge.  I noticed that it was pretty smooth, and once it began to reach room temperature there was the real flavor I had been looking for.  There was a bitter taste, and it was much more refreshing at room temperature.

I did enjoy this beer a lot more when I had it from the tap; still it was perfectly fine come from a bottle.  There are some beers that do not translate well from tap to bottle, you’ll know them when you try them. However, Drifter stacked up very well.  To be honest, I wish I were drifting on a lake while I was drinking this beer instead of sitting inside on a cold day.

Well, there is always next summer.