Brooklyn Sorachi Ace

Brooklyn Brewery is a company with strange stardards. They can create some amazing brews (Local 1, Black Chocolate Stout) yet let a couple slip past them and continue to be sold on the market (East India Pale Ale, Pennant Ale.) The brewery is much like the city it is from- some amazing things and some things that we'd rather not see again (another Yankee pennant or George Steinbrenner) So when we noticed a new Brooklyn 750ml bottle on the shelf, we were intrigued.

Sorachi Ace is a 100% bottle refermented saison ale. It boasts a respectable 7.6% ABV and is brewed with the rare Sorachi Ace hop and a Belgian yeast strain an re-fermented with champgne yeast in the bottle. This sounds like it could be a home run.

Sorachi Ace pours cloudy and golden with a fizzy white head with sweet lemon-y smell. SA hits the tongue with sweetness, a tarty lemon zest and a crisp hop flavor with a bit of carbonation. The alcohol is the hidden treasure hid beneath the complex and completely refreshing flavors. This brew would pair nice with a light dish and cheeses and is perfect for a summer evening split with a good friend.

Brooklyn Brewery's Sorachi Ace delived what we hoped for. It acheives where many Jolly Pumpkin beers fail, tart and sweet but that flavor does not overpower the rest of the beer. This is what a saison should be, light and crisp but with enough alcohol to encourage the purchase of an expensive brew. While not quite a grandslam, this beer is a walk off home run.

Oz Scale: 8.5

Mike Scale: 8.4

Brooklyn Brewery's Brooklyner-Schneider Hopfen-Weisse

A collaboration between two different breweries brings us the Brooklyner-Schneider Hopfen-Weisse. Brooklyn Brewery and Schneider Brewery's brewmasters collaborated on this weizenbock that is similar to Schneider's weisse with a Brooklyn's EIPA hop kick. This is a one time collaboration, so Mike didn't mind dropping $12 on a single bottle. By New York standards , this beer is reletively cheap.

With a surprisingly light color, hazy to the eye, the brew pours from the 25.4 oz. with a frothy head and a floral, yet hoppy smell. Given the higher alcohol percentage (8.5%) it is surprisingly light bodied. Tastes of citrus and fruit, it slivers down the throat to welcoming stomach. This brew has the best of both worlds, the light bodied drinkability of a weisse bier with the hop flavor of an IPA the tongue desires.

Brooklyn Brewery has had a couple beers that tickled our fancy (Black Chocolate Stout & Winter Ale) and a couple that were average (Lager & Octoberfest) but this once scores on the former. We could rip on New York apart all day, but after sipping on this brew, we don't want to even make a smart ass remark on their accents or annoying attitude or some other John Travolta Saturday Night Fever joke. That Nanny TV show sucked as well. Anyway...

Oz Scale: 8.2

Mike Scale: 8.6