Hook and Ladder – Golden Ale

Brew: Hook and Ladder – Golden Ale

Location: Silver Spring, MD

First Impressions: The Golden Ale by Hook and Ladder is a medium bodied beer with a deep yellow color.

Aroma: A light caramel smell comes through. Not to much else, just a light and soft aroma. 

Overall Taste: This brew has a pleasant taste, with one consistent flavor throughout. It’s definitely a lighter style brew with a malty taste. There are no hops, bitterness or additional spices. The Golden Ale won’t blow you away with flavor, but it will suffice for a warm, summer day.

The best part about this beer was it’s drinkability (with only 94 calories!). I could easily drink a six pack of this in one night and still have room for some dinner.

You’ll also be drinking for a good cause because H&L donates a penny for every bottle sold back to local firefighters in Maryland.

You might also like: Dogfish Head Golden Elixir, Flying Dog Tire Bite Gold Ale

Price: 9.99 / 6-pack

ABV: 5.5%

Calories: 94

Grade: B

Bell’s – Oarsman

Brew: Bell’s Oarsman

Location: Kalamazoo, MI

First Impressions: The Oarsman is an entirely new offering from Bell’s, which is usually spot on with it’s brews. In fact, this brew is so new that it is not even available in bottles yet.

Aroma: It smells like a German pilsner, or a blonde ale. I didn’t detect any hops, but I could tell that the flavor was going to be light and bitter.

Overall Taste: Horrendous. This brew starts off with a kick of sourness then fades to a strong tartiness which lingers. There is really no point during the brew which is delightful, as the whole time I was saying “Yuck.”

Personally, this is not my type of beer. Actually, I don’t even know what type of beer this is… Is it a blonde ale, maybe a wheat ale, summer ale, a light pale ale???

I’d stay away from this brew. No flavor. No hops. No lasting memories.

You might also like: Stick to the rest of the Bell’s line

Price: 4.00 / Draft

ABV: 4.0%

Grade: D-

Blue Moon – Coors Brewing

Brew: Blue Moon (By Coors)

Location: Golden, Colorado

First Impressions: My best friend’s ex girlfriend used to drink Blue Moon religiously. She would always show up at our door with a six pack and an orange and then she would drink two of them, talk about how good they were, and then go pass out upstairs. Hmmm…maybe Blue Moon will have the same effect on me. There’s only one way to find out.

Aroma: It obiviously smells like a lighter brew with tons of oranges. Other than that, there’s not much else to say about the aroma.

Overall Taste: This brew sucks. It just might be one of the ten worst beers I have ever had, seriously… It was tangy, sweet, way too much orange flavor, it didn’t go down smooth, was bitter at points, and left my tastebuds with a resounding “WTF!”

On a side note, if you would like to make some of your very own Blue Moon at home, take a half gallon of orange juice and a 12-pack of Bud Light and mix it in a cooler. Stir for five minutes and chill until ready. (Just kidding)

I also want to know what is up with putting the orange peel in the Blue Moon. Why give an already orange flavored beer, more oranges? Why people?

You might also like: The other brews under the Blue Moon line

Price: 7.99 / 6-pack

ABV: 5.5%

Calories: 171

Grade: F

Red Hook – Slim Chance

Brew: Red Hook – Slim Chance

Location: Seattle, Washington

First Impressions: Red Hook introduced this beer aimed towards a target market of people looking to trim down and stay active. Unfortunately, they produced a beer with 121 calories. I’m not a math genius, but I’d much rather had a Mic Ultra which chimes in at 95 calories. Still, I gave it a shot thinking that it could be a good summer beer.

Aroma: A sweet, light scent of wheat and caramel. Not entirely too memorable.

Overall Taste: The Slim Chance has a crisp golden taste, but that’s about all it has. There’s no flavor. No lingering after taste. No bells and whistles. Being a guy, I expect a beer to have some tenacity, something special, but the Slim Chance fell short of my qualifications for a good beer. Girls on the other hand, would probably enjoy the Slim Chance for it’s light taste and low alcohol content.

In the end, I would not buy this brew again. I would, however, buy some Red Hook stock which is up from $1.00 in early 2009 to $6.50 in mid 2010. Check out the Nasdaq symbol “HOOK”.

You might also like: Red Hook’s Copper Hook or Red Hook’s Late Harvest

Price: 8.99 – 6 pack

ABV: 3.9%

Grade: C-