Beantown Brews: A Boston Beer Blog

North American Breweries sealed the deal on Magic Hat as well as the entire Independent Breweries United, Inc.

You can check out the story here at BeerNews.org. No word yet on the Magic Hat, North American Breweries, or KPS websites.

It will be interesting to see that changes, if any, take place at Magic Hat. I am a long time fan of their beer, so I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out.

More beer in honor of Shark week. Today – Harpoon Brewery’s Big Bohemian Pilsner. Part of Harpoon’s Leviathan Series. Leviathan. Sharks. Bam – Connection made!

For those of you unfamiliar with the Leviathan Series, Harpoon describes it as “an exploration in brewing big beers for adventurous palates.” How big? Well, Our beer today, a pilsner, weighs in at 9% ABV. Your typical bohemian pilsner typically contains between 4.2-5.4% ABV.

Let’s take a look at what I found -

Appearance: A crystal clear, clean copper beauty, well carbonated with a huge, puffy white head that stays point.

Smell: Rich, sweet malt with spicey hop aroma.

Taste: Much like the smell, we have a rich, sweet malt upfront that fades to soft spicy hop goodness.

Mouthfeel: smooth with a nice dry finish. Medium to nearly full-bodied.

Drinkability: Unbelievably drinkable for such a big beer, but not as drinkable as its diminutive namesake. Beware the 9% ABV.

Overall Grade: B. I really like this beer. It is positively packed full of flavor. It is such an interesting take on the pilsner style – just made larger.

I guess if I had to pick a down side, it would be the following.While tasty, the Leviathan Series comes at a pretty high cost. be prepared to drop around ten bucks for a 4-pack. While this certianly isn’t breaking the bank, you can score a six-pack of “normal” pilsner for around the same or cheaper. And at 9%, this isn’t a beer you are going to have many of, or it’ll be a short night.

So you have a choice – are you looking to go all night, or do you like it big and hard? Feel dirty? Me too.

So what does this have to do with Shark Week? Well, aside from Harpoon’s awesome name and prominent position in Boston’s Waterfront district, here is some more loosely related shark knowledge for you.

The Whale Shark is very similar to the Leviathan Series beers. They are just like their namesakes, but just horrifyingly larger. The largest specimen recorded was 12.65 metres (41.50 ft) long, weighed more than 21.5 tonnes (47,000 lb). (Wikipedia) Ziggy says that “Whale sharks are actually quite gentle and can play with divers. Divers and snorkelers can swim with this giant fish without risk apart from unintentional blows from the shark’s large tail fin.[14]” The same is true of our big old pilsner here. sure it has nearly twice the alcohol content, but you have nothing to fear so long as you always remember to respect the beer.

Slow and steady