Mamma Mia Pizza Beer

Today, god is crying because we are going to review the Pizza Beer by the Seefurth family.



The Pizza Beer is available at most liquor stores for approximately $1.50 a bottle. It comes in 16 oz. bottles. The beer is distributed by Sprecher and the ABV is unavailable at time of writing.

History

Well, this is an interesting one. The home brewery is located in Campton, IL, which is just a stone's throw from the sountheast border of Missouri. This may be quite a way from the capital city of pizza that we call Chicago, but it seems like the notion of Chicago pizza and the "can-do" attitude Chicago has been known for was the main spot of inspiration for chefs Tom and Athena Seefurth. (Hey, I said "can-do" attitude. I did not say "wacky politics". Stop thinking about that and Chicago in the same thought. Seriously.)
By the information on their website, these folks read as many brewing books and recipes as they could. By the end of it, they could that they could make good use of the abundance of tomatoes and other ingredients that would normally be found in pizzas.

Taste

Well, let's start this with the mouthfeel, color, and scent. Overall mouthfeel was well done on this one. The beer kicked things off with an initial tingle, but kept the tingle calm and left things off with a smooth feeling finish. The color was a light, clear, golden hue with practically no head at all.
Now, there was a damn good reason why I left the scent to be the last item of description before the actual taste of the brew. God in heaven help me, it smells like a pizza. I could actually smell the oregano, garlic, and tomato. I did get a crisp bitter note out of the smell towards the end of it, but still. Oh man, I was whiffing a damn pizza.

And then there was the taste. This one actually does taste like a pizza. I am not kidding. This is a pizza and little else. I could have sworn that at some point there was a bitter taste in the brew, but I could not taste it over the overwhelming pizza. And you would think that is is a good thing for a pizza beer to be tasting like pizza. I would disagree. Just because you can do it, doesn't mean that you should. I mean seriously. The label of the Pizza Beer touts it as being the "beer so good that it deserves a wine glass", but I don't think I lost anything by serving it in a plastic mug.

Food

Yeah, I feel ashamed about having even drank this. So just as you would figure, it would in fact need a pizza. But it would only be a simple chain-store pizza. So help me that if I find out you are pairing this with an actual awesome Chicago slice of pizza, I will yank that pizza out of your hand and eat it while yelling at you, spraying chunks of awesome pizza on your face.

Song

Well, this beer is one that is very lackadaisical. As well, it would be a lie to say that this beer has no Chicago influence to it. As a result of the quirky taste of this beer, it is going to have to have an equally quirky song to pair with it. I can think of no better song than "Rubber Biscuit" by The Blues Brothers. A simply fun song to pair with the beer. And no, just because I really dislike the beer, does not mean that I dislike the song. The beer rating of the beer does not reflect upon the rating of the song.

"Rubber Biscuit" by the Blues Brothers on Youtube. (offsite)

To wrap things up, this beer is going to get two ratings. The first rating will be for effort. They gave a strong attempt at making a beer that tastes like pizza, and wouldn't ya know it, that is exactly what they did. So for the effort of making a beer that tastes like pizza, they get a 10 out of a possible 10. But then we get to the matter of rating the beer itself. Like I said before, just because you can do it, does not mean you should. My pop used to own a t.v. that had a phone built into the set. You know why it didn't work? BECAUSE THE PERSON YOU WERE CALLING COULDN'T HEAR YOU OVER YOUR DAMN T.V. Seriously, you are essentially drinking an alcoholic pizza. You should not be able to drink a pizza. It might be me, but this stuff was just foul. So for the actual beer itself, it gets a 2.5 out of a possible 10.




Until the next round, make sure the only flat notes are the ones in your music, not your beer.

All photos are copyright of their respective owners. Sources cited: http://www.mammamiapizzabeer.com/main.php

Claim Jumper Hefeweizen

Next up for review is the house brew Claim Jumper Hefeweizen.


The Claim Jumper Hefeweizen is available at all Claim Jumper restaurants and can be purchased for approximately $3.95 and is 4.5% ABV. At time of writing, there are no known bottled versions available. This one is on tap and on tap only, fellers.

History

The Claim Jumper restaurant itself has been around since 1977. It mainly has its locations on the west coast stats with a few in Wisconsin and here in Illinois. Claim Jumper is mainly known for decent hearty foods, but it also has something very, very valuable on its menu: a beer flight. The beer flight that Claim Jumper offers has a honey blonde, their original red, and the prized hefeweizen. When ordering the hefeweizen, it is listed as being the "silver medal" hefeweizen. I really wanted to look up more information on this, but since this is not really available outside of the restaurant locations. Which is still really a shame. As this review goes on you'll see why I wished there was more info

Taste

This beer was an amazing showing from the get go. The color was that of a misty, golden-amber hue. Opaque with a very good tint. This was very good when paired with the scent the brew gave off. The beer gave off a sweet and welcoming fragrant aroma. When smelling the beer I couldn't get enough of this flowery smell that had no bitter or dry touches. I seriously wanted to smell this beer as much as a creepy high school stalker wants to smell his first crush.
...
Okay, maybe not that much, but I still couldn't get over that scent. But, you're not here for that. Nobody goes to bars and just sniffs the beers and leaves. So to the actual enjoyment.

This brew was amazing. The first and nearly only tastes you get are sweet tastes. The brew starts things out with a sweet honey note that goes all over the mouth. A distinct lemon and oat taste can be sensed towards the back of the tongue. The taste is made complete with the mouthfeel being a slight tingle across the tongue and none of the sides of the mouth or the sides of the tongue. At the end of the taste, there is a distinct lack of any dry taste, only leaving a nice wet feel across the mouth.
When tasting, it is very obvious that the brewmaster in charge did all they could to keep this beer free from bitter tastes. Since that was their intention, they got nothing but success in that.
This one overall was a fun drink if ever there was one. Were I trying to intro someone to the world of beer for the first time (and believe me, I know some folks and they will be dragged kicking and screaming) I would intro them to this fine offering from Claim Jumper.

Food

Now this one was 5 shades of perplexing when trying to pair this up with a food dish. It was not necessarily light, but it had substance without being very full bodied. The sweet tastes would need some kind of decent balance. This balance, I feel, can really only be made in a dish appropriate as a simple side of Calamari. Calamari has that bit of lemon taste that can be found in the beer, but provides a decent light salt taste to balance the sweet tastes.

However,

The other thing is that since this beer is a perfect substance and a great series of sweet notes and wet-ish finish. This beer is a very good brew and can pretty much stand on it's own legs. It took me so long to come up with the conclusion that calamari would be a good match, that I feel that it is also acceptable to say that this beer can also do fine with no food pairing. It really has a relaxation beer feel to it. I could see no reason why it needs a food to match it like other beers do.

Song

Now lastly, it is the mission of this blog to make your beer come with a song. All memories come with a song and if anyone tells you beer isn't a memory is a liar, damn his eyes. Well, more to the point, this is not a serious beer but it isn't a silly one either. The hefeweizen has nothing but sweet relaxed notes. The beer wants to be your friend, so you should probably let it. Hang out with it. Relax on a summer day. Did someone say summer day? That was probably James Taylor with his song "Summer's Here". Both the beer and the song are simple to enjoy, and meant to put one into a mood of relaxation.

A sample of "Summer's Here" can be hound here. (offsite)

Overall, the beer is amazing. A great taste for the experienced drinker to relax and just enjoy or for the new drinker to simply get into the swing of things in the world of diverse beers. And if I learn you introduced a new drinker to the world of beer using a domestic mass-produced brew, you are going to catch a whooping not seen since the riots in Chicago. I don't care how many of these 9.5 out of a possible 10 Claim Jumper Hefeweizens you throw at me, I won't calm down until you get your beatings.



Until the next round, make sure the only flat notes are the ones in your music, not your beer.

All photos are copyright of their respective owners.

SkullSplitter Orkney Ale

Today we will be reviewing the SkullSplitter Orkney Ale by Orkney Brewery.




The SkullSplitter is available usually in single 11.2 ounce bottles although it can be purchased at some specialty stores in a four-pack. The beer is 8.5% ABV The single bottle price varies around 3-4 dollars. The price for the four-pack is unavailable.

History

The label to this particular brew features a photo representation of "Skull-Splitter", a "7th century Viking Earl of Orkney". Orkney being a set of islands off the coast of Scotland. This would make it, of course, a Scottish ale. But the names in Thorfinn's history read far more interesting than just the label can provide. Thorfinn "Skull-splitter" Turf-Einarsson married the daughter of Thorstein the Red and they had a son who married the daughter of Eric Bloodaxe. Reading up on a history like this, one can only hope that the beer will be as metal as the history reads. Unfortunately, there is little else available in terms of information on Skullsplitter. All I know is that this beer looks like it was taking down bears with a small knife, all the while just waiting for me. Am I intimidated? The answer is "yes" and "my pants are a little wet".

Taste

The initial pour and aroma of Skullsplitter was.... decieving. The beer had a good sweet and dry aroma. There was very little head to speak of upon pouring. What was this? I was expecting it to start swearing in foreign languages right upon being opened. The color was a good reddish-brown copper color, very beautiful throughout but showing a strong reserve.

Then came the tasting.

It was an ambush. The Skullsplitter was not smooth, but it really didn't need (or want) to be. The initial tastes had strong bitter and slightly nutty notes. Though the brew initially attacked the front of the tongue, it started to make it's way back and leave semi-sweet notes. Finally, after the beer had finished rampaging and sacking the countryside of my tastebuds, it left a bitter yet strong and dark aftertaste on the back of my tongue. Overall I appreciated the strong showing, and was more than eager to subject the poor, peace-loving farm folk of my palate to the savage beating once again. This is definitely a choice for the more excited palate.

Food Pairing

Choosing the appropriate food pairing for this beer selection really was not that hard to make. The Skullsplitter had strong bitter and sweet notes with a dominant, satisfying taste. Given that, and the fact that there is a FREAKING VIKING on the front of the bottle, eating anything less than a plate of barbecue ribs would make the All-Father ashamed of you. The tangy taste of ribs with the correct sauce would definitely be the perfect compliment for this beer.

Song

Lastly, we come once again to the whole point of this: the music selection. So, in review, we have a Scottish Ale created in honor of a Viking that was most likely engineered to burn your village down, all the while laughing and having a damn good time. So we are looking at a strong beer that holds no punches, keeps the whole tasting process exciting, and has a good potency to it. Given that description, it really only makes sense to hear "Beer Beer" by Korpiklaani and say that it is pretty much the musical equivalent to this brew. Non-stop ass-kicking, good times, and a good shout make this song appropriate to match this beer.
"Beer Beer" by Korpiklaani on Youtube (offsite)


So, in closing, we reviewed a strong and good showing of an ale. Skullsplitter is a brew that is more or less not afraid and holds no punches. Well crafted bitter and sweet notes compliment the full-body taste and fragrant aroma. In the end, Skullsplitter Orkney Ale receives a 9.25 out of a possible 10.


Until the next round, make sure the only flat notes are the ones in your music, not your beer.


All photos copyright their respective owners. Sources cited : Wikipedia.org and Orkney Ale.