Somerville Brewing Company Hits Boston: Slumbrew Happy Sol Hefeweizen & Slumbrew Flagraiser IPA [Beer Reviews]
Boston has been a hotbed of new brewing companies lately! It seems like every week we have a new brewer or a new beer from a Boston-area brewer hitting the shelves. It was only recent that Pretty Things and Notch Session were new and now those are established brands with people like Backlash Beer Company, Mystic Brewery, Idle Hands Ales, Night Shift Brewing and more springing up. We love it! And the latest to release their beers? Somerville Brewing Company (aka Slumbrew) out of, you guessed it, Somerville, MA (which is super-local to the Drink Craft Beer homebase)!
Jeff and Caitlin (pictured holding their brews below) from Somerville Brewing Company had their first big tasting today at Craft Beer Cellar in Belmont, MA (where I picked up my bottles), and there was a serious crowd (see the picture two below)! I managed to sneak in a few words with them, so you should see an interview on Drink Craft Beer soon, but left them to tend to the teeming hoards wanting samples of Flagraiser IPA, Happy Sol Hefeweizen and Porter Square Porter (not being released for three more weeks). But, with all that said, I know what you’re thinking...how is the beer?! So, without further ado...
Somerville Brewing Company Slumbrew Happy Sol Hefeweizen
As a hefeweizen should, this one pours with a big white head with amazing cling that looks fluffy like a sunny day cloud. The beer is hazy hazy hazy orange. It looks almost like thick orange juice, which makes sense!
You can really pick up the wheat and the yeast in this one! There’s a great balance between these two ingredients, it’s not a banana bomb like the style can sometimes devolve into. It smells smooth, yet a little minerally or chalky from the wheat, which is awesome. Oddly, the blood orange barely comes out at all, maybe just a little citrus aroma. Again, awesome, as too many people make fruit beers where the fruit is RIGHT in your face. Great to see some restraint on this one!
The balance comes from the smell and right into the taste! The yeast and wheat blend really well and the beer has a smooth, dry quality that you can only get with wheat and a not-over-the-top alcohol level (this one is perfect at 5.5% abv). The orange is handled amazingly, with just a hint to the 1,000 blood oranges that gave their lives for this batch of beer and the coriander could be merely a part of the yeast spiciness for all I know. It’s always great to see brewers use ingredients that don’t smack you over the head with their presence! The orange comes out mostly in the aftertaste as a light almost-glaze on your tongue. This would go great with a lot of different foods, like chicken or fish. This and some Chinese take-out? Sign me up!
Somerville Brewing Company Slumbrew Flagraiser IPA
The Flagraiser has a clear amber body with a sizeable cream colored head that last and lasts! Big bubbles settle to a decent covering that doesn’t go away with an almost solid looking top to it. If you can’t tell, it’s looks damn appealing!
There are some serious hops in this thing! Great aroma! It’s almost like walking into the hop room at a brewery, it’s not crazy bright citrus or pine tree...the air is just thick with hops. There’s a bit of sweetness in here, too, so you can tell that this one will definitely have a bit of a malt backbone to it, which is especially nice at the nights get colder here in Boston in October!
Upfront there’s a bitterness, but it’s not harsh at all. The malt swoops in right away to balance it and what you get is a bitter IPA that cradles your tongue in a hammock of sweet, smooth malt. Rather than citrusy or piney, as I mentioned, these hops are just dank. They were dank when I smelled them and they taste dank too. It’s pretty awesome, as that’s a tough flavor to nail! The aftertaste is all bitter, with a little of the hop citrusy flavors that many have come to expect from American hops. I’d say drink this one with some steak that has a hefty coating of salt and pepper. Delicious!
As a secret (not-so-secret) sidenote: Try blending these two brews 50/50. What you get is a mildly bitter, orangey, wheaty IPA. Cheers!
