Oh look, a wheaty beer I like!

Last night we went to Ledger's, originally just to pick up some extras for a beer trade shipment we're sending out this weekend.  But, SPOILER ALERT, we bought some more beer just for us.  And by "some" I mean "a fuckload."  When the proprietor said "did you get everything?" I said "huh...there's still beer in your store so I guess not."

I picked out some personal favourites; they had a case of Abyss 2009 which was super exciting, since we can't find that anywhere anymore (and we totally controlled ourselves by only buying 2 more bottles).  I also grabbed a 6-pack of Mirror Pond, which I had for the first time up in Tahoe over the Fourth of July weekend, and was very pleasantly surprised by it.  Sweet and malty, this is a perfect afternoon beer to have while hanging out.

But!  The point of this post is: Reutberger Heller Bock (Heller Bock, 6.7% ABV).  Despite the lackluster reviews on Rate Beer, I thought it was really good.  It's light gold/amber, with a thick head at first that takes a while to die down.  Sort of a dusty, lemon/honey scent.  At first it tastes like wheat and honey, then a nice malty sweetness kicks in.  It's very pleasant, a little syrupy, with a nice subtle malt aftertaste.  I usually dislike beer with a strong wheat flavour, but the malt and honey in this really tamed that to the point where I could enjoy it.  It was $4.95 for the pint, which seems to be a pretty reasonable price.

Also tonight the Lumberjack picked out this bizarre (meaning: sounded weird to me, but I'm sure you chefs think this is totally ordinary) chicken/apricot/tarragon recipe that turned out delicious, and complemented the beer nicely.  Try it out!  The light beer went well with the light meat, and the sweetness in the beer matched the apricot quite well.  Hooray for leftovers!