Nancy and I had no idea what to expect when we opened the Shipyard Applehead Ale, which the brewery gave me so I could sample it before it reaches the shelves in Maine stores later this month.

Bruce Forsley, director of sales and marketing at Shipyard, said in a press release that the company asked fans of Pumpkinhead (Shipyard’s hugely successful fall seasonal) what other flavors they would like, and they said apple.

Applehead is a wheat ale with apple and cinnamon flavor at 4.5 percent alcohol. Shipyard says it will go well with pork chops, sausage, squash and apple pie.

I have mentioned in this column that I do not like Pumpkinhead. In defense of Shipyard, I have tasted pumpkin beers from Samuel Adams and other companies, and I did not like those, either. It is the pumpkin-beer mix that I dislike.

But what about the apple-beer mixture?

The Applehead poured a nice light-golden color with a fairly thin white head. The aroma was dominated by the cinnamon, with a bit of apple in the background.

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It was a little sweet, and although it is not listed in the description, we thought we tasted nutmeg along with the predominantly cinnamon taste. It had a fairly heavy gravity, and was an intriguing mix of flavors — fairly complex, actually.

We agreed it is a good thing this is a winter seasonal, because it is not a beer we would want to drink for refreshment on a hot summer day. And this will not make our list of favorites.

But it wasn’t a bad beer. And those who really miss Pumpkinhead after it disappears from the shelves will have something to satisfy them through the winter.

Compared to the other apple-themed drink I’ve tried in the past couple of weeks, Applehead is a pure winner.

I belong to a group that meets Monday nights, and after the meeting, we occasionally stop at Samuel’s (1160 Forest Ave., Portland) for a beer. On Mondays and Tuesdays, Samuel’s offers one craft beer (it varies from week to week) for $2 a pint, along with Miller Lite for $1.50.

On a recent Monday, the $2 special was Angry Orchard, which the waitress said was a new hard cider by Boston Beer Co. Three people ordered it, and only one of them could finish it. It was cloyingly sweet, and did not taste like real apples.

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When I came home, I did an Internet search and found that Boston Beer Co. is doing a stealthy launch of the line, creating it in Cincinnati and offering it in three flavors: Apple Ginger, Traditional Dry and Crisp Apple.

I don’t know which of the three we tried, but I did not taste any ginger, and it was neither dry nor crisp.

I was glad I spent the full $4 and got a Shipyard Prelude. 

MAGIC HAT, a craft brewery in Burlington, Vt., recently sent me three bottles of beer from its Winterland Variety Pack: Ravell, a vanilla porter; Howl, its winter seasonal; and Encore Fall IPA; as well as the company’s flagship, #9, which is part of all Magic Hat seasonal 12-packs.

The clear winner in the group was Ravell, which had a wonderfully smooth mouthfeel, a good rich mix of malt and vanilla beans, and just a little bit of hops.

It comes in at 5.8 percent alcohol, and would be wonderful to curl up with on the couch on a cool winter evening.

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Encore is a good, bitter beer, and in what seems to be a trend, mixes wheat beer with an IPA. Now that I have tasted this mix several times, it’s not as discordant as I first thought.

Howl is a deep black, and it was described as having a chocolate flavor, but for me, the chocolate was more like a Tootsie Roll. It was my least favorite of the three.

Tom Atwell can be contacted at 767-2297 or at:

tomatwell@me.com

 


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