The Year in Beer

Name: Circus Boy The Hefeweizen!

Brewer: Magic Hat Brewing Company, South Burlington, Vt.

By the numbers: About 135 calories per 12 oz.; 4.4 percent alcohol by volume

Notes: This is the second beer I’ve had from the very interesting Magic Hat Brewing Company. The first was the peach-infused #9 Not Quite Pale Ale. Like that beer, this one was very good, even if Hefeweizen is not one of my go-to styles. It poured a cloudy pale yellow, as you’d expect, and had a citrus aroma which was likely the result of the lemongrass it’s brewed with. The taste was crisp and spicy, with cloves and pepper. It’s refreshing and would make a good summer beer.

Try it with: Finding craft beer in the strangest of places. I stopped by my local Freedom gas station this week (American Craft Beer Week, of course) and found the aforementioned #9 in their cooler next to Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and Samuel Adams Summer Ale. When you can get a beer from Vermont in the cooler of a gas station in Downs, that’s saying something.

    — Posted by Mike Freimann