Sand Creek Brewing Company's Woody's Wheat

I guess you can tell that I just got a shipment from a beer of the month club in, because this is my second beer form Sand Creek tonight. Wheats are some of my favorites, too, so I'm looking forward to this one.

This one pours a deep, unfiltered and glowingly-opaque hazy yellow with amber where the least light penetrates the beer. Looks like it's going to be one of the more substantial hefes. Fairly strong carbonation that still can't keep the light off-white head at more than a collar. That's OK though, wheats are like that.

Smells sweet, a little phenolic though. Uh-oh, I hate that, and all that it implies. Damnit it looks great, but smells like a band aid. Damnit, I have to drink it. And I know I'm not going to like it.

Yeah, it's like drinking a band aid. I always like the way band aids smelled as a kid. The ones with the plastic tan sticky parts, and the cloth ones, always smelled the same. Medicinal, like you just knew that it was going to make your cut better. Johnson & Johnson must have intentionally imbedded that smell into the materials they used to give a sense of comfort to the six year old that was about to put it on his finger. It was comforting.

Not so with beer though. It reminds me of the Belgians I no longer enjoy. It's well within type though, because hefes are acceptably phenolic. This one's better than most, too, because it's drier and a little more tart than others. I often hear that people get banana and clove tastes in beers like this, but I disagree completely with that. I like bananas, but not this. And cloves are distinctive, but this has none of the clove spice to it. I think that people taste phenols and just say clove and banana because that's what they think they're supposed to say, because this isn't even close to that.

Objectively, this is probably a good beer. It's like a Blue Moon or Shiner Hefeweizen on roids. Well within the type, leaning toward the heavier-bodied side of the style. Well worth it to folks who love Belgians, but it's just not for me.

Sand Creek Brewing Company's English Style Special Ale

It's hard to get excited about an English Brown Ale, but they can be solid beers that are god to go to when you want something a little more robust than a pilsner or kolsch, without all of the hoppy nonsense of a pale.

This one pours more like an imperial red than a brown, at least in color if not body. Light tan head that stays longer than any brown I can remember, and that's a good sign. Moderate carbonation.

Another malty, bready beer for tonight. I've had so many uber-stouts lately that I've kind of lost touch, but it's great to have a few in a row that are more mild but perfect for their type.

Malty with a nutty, almost coffee bitterness. A great alternative to the in-your-face grassy bitterness that comes from hops in unadulturated quantities that mask every other thing about a beer. Solid malt backbone to it, although the bready smell doesn't really translate to the taste. This is a well balanced brown that I wish was more widely distributed.