The story of Clown Shoes is a great one. We can't think of many other brands that have come as a result of a liquor store loving beer so much that the owner decides make a line of beer of their own; that's exactly what Berman's in Lexington, MA has done, though. Jesse Dooley, Berman's beer manager and brand ambassador for Clown Shoes, began improving the store's beer offerings a few years ago. Eventually Gregg Berman, one of the owners, became interested in the craft beers he was bringing in. They started to talk about the idea of making their own beer, and then the realization clicked...they already had a distribution license. They could make a beer and distribute it! They initially contacted a few breweries to work with and Mercury Brewing Company, brewers of Ipswich Ales, stepped to the plate with open arms. Head Brewer Dan Lipke was the perfect match because he didn't merely listen to what Berman and Dooley were saying, he really understood what they wanted out of the brand. As Jesse puts it "Dan has the ability to visualize and then translate our thoughts into great beer!" Based on our time drinking Clown Shoes beer there's a lot of great ideas and a lot of great beer happening.

For a new brewery Clown Shoes has been able to come out with several great products early on. Their Black IPA, Hoppy Feet, and new White Ale, called "Clementine," have both quickly become favorites of ours.

We asked Jesse exactly how they come up with their recipes and got some insight: "We take some factors into consideration such as the seasons but other than that we find a style of beer that we feel could be improved upon such as black ales or brown ales or white ales. We line them all up and sit down with Dan Lipke and discuss what aspects we like and dislike about the beers and how we think we could improve upon them.  We then come up with multiple ways that we all think that they could be improved and do test batches in each style.  We take a poll on the winner and there we have it!"

What really sums up Clown Shoes is how they look at beer. We asked them what the goal of Clown Shoes was and their response says it all: "To bring fresh, local and innovative beers to the folks without pretension. Ultimately, if we can make beer that people enjoy we have accomplished our goal." Amen to that, we say!

We're calling it right now, Clown Shoes is going to be big. If you haven't tried the beer go out and find some. We've reviewed their current offerings below and we can't wait to see what they put out next.

Our Reviews

Clown Shoes Clementine

This is the third installment from Clown Shoes. We had high expectations for this beer after hearing what went into it...our expectations were blown away. This beer is amazing, we just got out of work, it's 82 degrees out, and this exactly what we want. Sitting outside at the picnic table with a great white ale makes life pretty good. This is not a normal white ale. It tastes like a hoppy clementine orange but it's very dry and insanely drinkable. The orange flavors are subtle but have amazing depth. You can pick out the sweetness of the fruit along with the bitterness of orange peel. What really makes this beer shine is the balance, no one flavor dominates, they all seem to work in perfect harmony. We only have one bottle of this and we're already wishing we'd bought more.

Clown Shoes Black IPA

This was our first introduction to clown shoes. The black IPA style is completely made up, but we like made up styles. What it really means is a nice roasty hoppy beer. Made up styles are what american craft beer is all about, taking great ingredients and combining them to create a new drinking experiences. This beer combines all the roasty coffee flavors we love in a good stout with the mouth feel and piney hop goodness of an IPA.

Clown Shoes Brown Angel

This is a very hoppy brown, once again this really doesn't fall into a style. You can taste it's english roots but then you get slapped with a nice hoppy finish. The hops definitely dominate in the beer but the malt puts up a good fight. If you like Lagunitas Brown Sugar then you should definitely gives this a try.

Troegs Sunshine Pils is a great example of a Pilsner done well. When summer rolls around we still enjoy stouts and porters, but there's no denying that a crisp refreshing pilsner or saison really hits the spot once it gets warm out. We recently stumpled upon Stoudt's Karnival Kolsch, which was universally praised every time we brought it to a friends house. Sadly the Karnical Kolsch was a limited batch and I haven't been able to find it anymore. Its absence me searching for something to fill the void it left. I went to my local beer store and picked up a few pilsners; only one really stood out, Troegs Sunshine Pils.

It was exactly what I wanted in a pilsner, crisp and refreshing with just enough hops to make it something special. Spicy noble hops blend nicely with just the right amount of lager taste to create a balanced and refreshing beer. Sunshine Pils is dry, crisp and incredibly refreshing, in short everything that I wanted it to be. This is going to be a staple in my cooler as the summer goes on and I've already stocked up on it for Memorial Day weekend.

About a year ago, we found ourselves at Sunset Grill in Allston, MA with Brooklyn Brewery's Sorachi Ace Saison on tap. A new hop strain called Sorachi Ace? Saison? Lemony hops you say? We couldn't resist ordering and were quickly bowled over by this beer which, as you can probably tell, showcases Sorachi Ace hops.

Sorachi Ace are a new and rare hybrid of hops that was developed in Japan. They characteristically have a very lemony/lemongrass aroma and flavor. Since they're so new and still rare, they are only recently able to be found in many commercially produced beers. We hope to see more!

The lemon from the Sorachi Ace hops complemented the yeast profile of the Brooklyn Brewery beer so perfectly! We wanted more! Sadly we were driving, and couldn't partake of any more (Don't Drink Craft Beer & Drive!). It was a one off in Brooklyn's Brewmaster's Series and we figured we'd never see it again. Well you can believe we were stoked to hear they were bringing it back in their 750 ml bottle line, especially since it was during Summer of 2010, the Summer we've deemed "Summer of Saison!" We picked up a bottle at Berman's Wine & Spirits in Lexington, MA as soon as we heard it was out and here are our thoughts:

Appearance: Brooklyn Brewery Sorachi Ace pours with a hell of a puffy, white head just as a Saison should! Creamy on top, the froth is light and airy with big bubbles if you look at it from the side. The nectar itself is only the slightest bit hazy (maybe we should have mixed the yeast up a little better?) and light golden. It sure looks like a Saison!

Smell: Wow! Just as we remember this beer when we had it on tap about a year ago... so glad Brooklyn Brewery decided to put this in bottles! You get the dry malt along with the spicy yeast you expect when smelling a Saison, but it's like they've added some lemon to make it more refreshing... that's the Sorachi Ace hops coming through. Not fake lemon, but a nice squeeze of a fresh lemon. If you look for it, you can find an ever so slight Pine-Sol lemonyness in there, but it's slight and that's if we're looking for something to criticize this beer on. Many people would probably fine this smell just to be a lemongrass with a tad of alcohol in the back, we think, which makes sense as this beer is 7.6% abv. Also, the lemon isn't quite as up front as we remember back when it was first on tap. Before, it was a Sorachi Ace bomb! This go-around, it's a little more delicate of an aroma. Oh well, such is the variability of single batch beers! That said, it smells great!

Taste: It's dry on the front of the tongue and only gets drier as you swallow. It leaves the back of your mouth completely devoid of moisture it feels like... which is how we like our Saisons, especially on a 90°F day like today! Sorachi Ace Saison leads with a decent but medium bitterness that shows through more as the beer warms. It's pleasant to us, for sure, but a little bit more that the style traditionally showcases. We like it, and it makes sense for a beer at least partially meant to showcase this new type of hop. Despite the full head, this beer is full of carbonation in the form of micro bubbles that coat your mouth softly and smoothly. It's not prickly, just lightly bubbly like a delicate champagne. The malt is really just here to provide the bare necessities needed for beer as that's all it does. This beer is all about the yeast, Sorachi Ace hops and refreshment! This is a great brew in the vein of Saison Dupont, just with a more prominent and esoteric hop profile. Check it out for sure, we think it will become one of your favorites if you like Saisons like we do!

As a side note, we've picked up a whole bunch of Sorachi Ace hops from Freshops.com. We plan on making at least one Homebrew Recipe using Sorachi Ace, probably a Saison or Hefeweizen as these hops seem to go well with yeast forward beers. Any of you have a suggestion for a style of Homebrew you'd like to see using Sorachi Ace? Let us know in the comments below. Also, Freshops.com is where we bought the hop rhizomes to grow the Chinook hops used in our Hop Diggity Homebrew IPA Recipe. They're definitely worth checking out if you homebrew!

(Lemon Bowl image above by Amie Fedora, Amie Fedora Design & Photography)

Every year Avery puts out an Anniversary beer (it's a very sensical schedule). This year they put out a Saison with honey, jasmine and peach. It's not very traditional with those ingredients but, with that said, traditionally Saison was brewed with whatever the farm owner had on hand so... maybe it's not that far off at least a couple versions? Either way, let's check it out:

Appearance: Hazy and translucent, super light beer... it's almost the color of white peach skin. It comes along with big white head with huge white bubbles that disappear quickly.

Smell: Flowers are the first thing you get. The aroma on this beer is much lighter than Saison Dupont. There are some hints of light wheat on the end, and that's the end of it, really.

Taste: This is a very highly carbonated beer with tiny, champagne-like bubbles that prickle your tongue. It's light and very dry, even more so than the Saison Dupont. You get a bit of honey sweetness on the end, which is definitely more of a honey flavor than sweetness; this beer is bone dry. As you drink the beer, you get a major breath of the beer up the back of your nose (in a really good way). If you pay attention you really pick up the jasmine flowers. Along with honey, the sweetness has some peach notes to it.

This is an awesome beer that we love! While it may not be what traditionalists would call a Saison, the American Craft Beer scene is not known for tradition. It's delicious and, when we're craving a Saison, we'd gladly grab this one! We liked it so much, we even turned it into ice cream. Check out our Craft Beer Ice Cream: Avery 16th Anniversary Saison recipe!

If you were to look up "Saison" in the dictionary, there would be one picture, and one picture alone to go along with the definition... and that would be a picture of Saison Dupont Vieille Provision... or just Saison Dupont as it's called for the most part. This is the prototype for what a modern day Belgian Saison should and does taste like. For those not familiar with Saisons, they were historically brewed in Belgium during the spring for farm workers to quench their thirst. Because they were brewed before refrigeration this meant they were fermented at higher temperatures, causing a slight funk in the beer. These beers were traditionally low alcohol and dry... to this day, a good Saison remains dry, but now often ranges up to 8% abv. As we mentioned, this is the standard bearer for modern Saisons so let's see what a Saison should be:

Appearance: Saison Dupont pours a hazy straw color with a gigantic head that never goes away. As you drink it, the head persists unless you drink the head itself. It's a thing of beauty, this beer, especially the second time you have it and after as you know how good it's going to be.

Smell: There is a yeast spiciness to Saison Dupont with a bit of clove at the end. It has some great wheat tones in the smell, which is interesting because, as far as we know, there is no wheat in this beer. Must be the yeast! Saison is a very yeast forward style with a simple grain bill. You can also get a little bit of noble hop aroma in there. This beer just smells like summer to us, so light smelling yet so much going on. This would be our official summer beer if it wasn't for the $10 / 750ml bottle price tag.

Taste: Perfect for a Saison! Dry and amazing flavor. Effervescent wheat and dry yeast spice are the first things to hit. It has malt, but in a different way completely. Think the best wheat beer you've ever had, then better. The slightest hint of almost tartness lingers at the end. If you leave it on your tongue you get some orange for a little bit. It's sweet, but it's all in your perception as this is a dry beer. This is what a Saison is supposed to be... can any of the American Craft Brewed Saisons hold up? There are definitely some interesting interpretations out there!