A tale of two beers.

Well, with summer drawing to a close, I thought it was time for two classic summer beers, Anchors Summer Beer, and Goose Island Summertime. Both are light coloured beers meant for summer drinking, and go well with summer style food.
Here's the links for;
Goose Island Summertime-http://www.gooseisland.com/pages/summertime/22.php
and a pic stolen from their website (some day I promise I'll take my own)

And here's the link for Anchor's http://www.anchorbrewing.com/beers/summerbeer.htm


That out of the way, I can start talking about the beer, and just to confuse you, I'm going to start with Anchor.
The beer is a wonderful wheat colour, crystal clear with a nice, light head. The first taste is, as you would expect, also light, but with wonderful subtle citrus fruit notes. According to the brewers it's fermented with a traditional ale yeast to give it clean flavours, and this has definitely worked. As you drink it you can feel it cleansing your palate, not scouring, but subtly refreshing. I drank this beer with some salmon and a few pepperdews stuffed with cream cheese, and it complimented them brilliantly. Every mouthful cleansed my palate and left it refreshed and ready for another one.
      All in all this is a great summer beer, its light and refreshing, with a wonderful silky wheat sensation that seems to coat the roof of your mouth just after you've swallowed, leaving a gently, light malty after taste. This is one of the nicest beers I've had in a while, clean and cool enough to be refreshing on a hot day, but complex and interesting enough to be worth writing about. All in all then, at least 18.5 out of 20, another great beer from Anchor (see my previous ravings about Anchor Bock)

On to the Goose Island offering now, this is a kolsch beer,  brewed in tribute to the many brewers of Cologne  who produce this kind of beer. Once again it is light and crisp, as refreshing as a good lager, but with more complex notes. This could, for me, quite easily become a session beer, and I think I could stand to drink quite a lot of it before I eventually keeled over or gave in. It seems more carbonated than the Anchor offering, more prone to producing bubbles on the edges of the glass rather than forming a substantial head on the beer. This made it a more refreshing beer than Anchor Summertime, and the European influence, ie the imported yeast and hops really do show through. The beer is light straw coloured with quiet citrus and fruit notes. However, I took the suggestion from the brewers of trying it with a fresh tomato straight from the garden, and this really brought the fruit out. Sat in the sun drinking great beer and eating home grown produce gave a great end to the day. (That said, I'm now drinking Flying Dog's Gonzo Imperial Porter, and loving it.)
Summertime then is another firm favourite with me, and I'd mark it at around 17.5-18. I'm sorry Goose Island, but for me, that strange-yet-wonderful wheaty/malty coating from Anchor Summertime was just enough to pip you at the post.
Another 2 phenomenal beers then, courtesy of Ben at the Wineyard. I must also thank the Wineyard, both Ben and Barry for their hospitality in my hours of need. As some of you may know, I recently became stranded in England due to a combination of bad weather and booked up boats, and this is why the blog hasn't been updated. During this time, my truck decided it would be fun to have a loose connection preventing it from starting. Fortunately this happened right outside the Wineyard as I was loading my new haul of beer, and their support helped keep me sane.
Thanks again then, next time I'm intending to talk about home grown veg, Gonzo Imperial Porter, and my home brewed IPA which should be going in the barrel any day now!