Not So Magical

Yesterday was much more like a day in mid May rather than mid February. To be inside would have been criminal. After a day spent running around town and taking the kids to the park I was ready for a beer or four. I cracked open the new Magic Hat Spring Variety 12 Pack that I had acquired earlier in the day*.

The first beer was called Vinyl Lager. Even though it calls itself a lager it reminded me more of an amber ale and it had a flavor I couldn't quite place. I went and put on my lounging around shorts, took off my socks and sat down on the couch. I haven't really been sockless or slipperless in the house since around Thanksgiving and it reminded me of the warmth of spring. Vinyl really added to that ambiance as soon as I placed the odd flavor, peanuts in the shell. I immediately thought of the hundreds of hours I've spent at the K sitting in the right field seats eating peanuts and drinking a beer. If you're not a baseball or peanut fan I don't think you'll like the Vinyl, I barely do, but it definitely tastes like spring.

Next up was Demo which I picked because it said it was an IPA. I was kind of confused when it poured out quite dark so I guessed it was the elusive black IPA. I'm a pretty big fan of the show  "My Strange Addiction" (go ahead and click that link, you'll feel a hell of a lot better about your own life) which has featured a lady who eats Comet, a lady who eats chalk and a lady who eats couch foam. This week the show featured a lady who was addicted to eating cigarette ashes. I only bring that up because Demo kind of tasted like cigarette ashes and given the choice, I'd pick the lady's addiction to eating cigarette ashes over having another Demo.

Circus Boy, a hefeweizen, was the next beer to find its way into my Lagunitas Mason jar. It's kind of weird to have a hefeweizen in February but Circus Boy isn't your everyday hefeweizen. It's a little more dark and moody than the standard. I think Magic Hat might have created a new style I'd call Winter hefeweizen. Winter hefeweizen is lighter on the citrus, not quite as bright on the tongue and just a bit more dank like the middle of snow covered compost pile. Circus Boy was mildly enjoyable, but I don't think the Winter hefeweizen style's going to catch on.

#9 was the last of my journey through the Magic Hat variety pack. #9 is one of those beers that people either kinda like or absolutely hate (I don't think anybody loves #9). I'm in the kinda like category, but I like a good fruit beer. I'm not saying it's a good fruit beer namely because it's made with a fruit I dislike greatly, the demon apricot. #9 hides that apricot pretty well, but it's there. #9 proclaims itself "not quite pale ale" and I mostly agree with that, it's also "not quite a fruit beer". It falls into a somewhat nice middle ground. Plus, I can't go without saying that I absolutely love numbers divisible by 3, there's something so wonderful about seeing a number like 165 and immediately adding all the numbers together to see if they're divisible by 3 (1+6+5=12, 12 is divisible by 3, so 165 is divisible by 3). Does anybody else do that obsessively? If not, forget I said anything.

Magic Hat spring variety packs are available only in Missouri. The Vinyl Lager is also available in six packs. It was an interesting ride through the Magic Hat variety pack, but I won't be going back for more.

*Disclaimer: I received my variety pack gratis from a representative inclined to sell Magic Hat products. This freebie did not affect my review, but you can be the judge of that.

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