Magic Hat #9:
Hello one and all and welcome back to my little attempt to show the wider world a little more of the small- but growing- world of craft beer.  Today let’s take a look at Magic Hat…no not sorting hat (damn Potter fanatics) but Magic Hat, a great little brewery out of Vermont that makes today’s brew of record: #9.  Why #9?  No one really knows but 1 - 8 were poor sellers and #9 sold the best so it sticks around and never got named officially.  The beer pours a nice slightly hazy gold color with a bone white head of foam and a nose of fruity and sour hops and some bready malts.  The beer’s initial taste is a similar to a nice clean pale ale but without too much hop bite but moves to a mysterious tropical fruit flavor on the mid tongue though never becoming overly sweet and finishes very dry and clean on the aftertaste.  The beer is classified as a “not quite pale ale” by Magic Hat and as a fruit/vegetable beer (who say’s you can’t drink your veggies?) by all others out there in the beer world and as any good interviewer or investigator knows when you have two different stories (or beer types) somewhere in-between lies the truth.  So call this beer a “pale fruit ale” or “vege ale” or something that fits your fancy but in the mean time I hope you enjoy this tasty beer for many summers to come.  Cheers!