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PHOTOS: Metro sips spring’s new beer batches – Metro US

PHOTOS: Metro sips spring’s new beer batches

Samuel Adams Little White Rye

Marketing description: “Innocent yet beguiling, this hazy golden brew at first appears to be a classic witbier. But behind Samuel Adams Little White Rye’s sweet malt exterior is an intriguing blend of white sage and rye for a spicy yet refreshing kick.”
Metro description: The brew “tastes like a solid ‘beer’ beer. So, beer-flavored beer. Remarkable.” Some staffers marked this one as their “favorite” but a few found it “very typical.” One summed it up as: “Is this Bud?”

Dogfish Head Dogfish Sixty-One, $8.99

Marketing description: “The name Sixty-One is a reminder that this beer is Dogfish Head’s best-selling 60 Minute IPA plus one new ingredient: syrah grape must from California.”
Metro staffers: The big note staffers picked up on was that the Sixty-One “smells like marijuana,” with one employee echoing, “Someone must have been brewing something else.” This is a “good beer for a dive bar” and gets high marks for being “drinkable” and “interesting” but “not too fancy.” The off-pink color also got high marks: “It looks like a kid juice, tastes like an adult juice.”

He’Brew Funky Jewbelation ’13; $11

Marketing description: “A blend of six ales aged in rye whiskey and bourbon barrels.”
Metro staff description:Metro found this brew too sweet, “like the Manischevitz of beer.” The scent of this beer was alternately described as “gross,” “like molasses” and “cough medicine.”The overall experience was disappointing, with one news reporter forcing herself to drink “out of solidarity with my people.” Although someone did give it some props by saying it “gets better after drinking other drinks — for once, beer goggles get turned on beer.” The label got the highest marks in the entire tasting. “I want that dude’s sunglasses.”

Brewery Ommegang, HBO’s Iron Throne; $8.50

Marketing description: “With a Lannister currently on the throne, it made sense to do a delicate, but piercing golden blond ale with Noble hops. Iron Throne is certainly fair in color and soft in appearance, yet it still possesses a complexity and bite to be on guard for.”
Metro staff description: This beer is as “velvety as the royal capes in ‘Game of Thrones’” and even got props from one non-beer drinker, noting they can “actually drink this without cringing.” Some thought the partnership with HBO was “weird” but the “tasty” blond ale is “crisp” and “like a girl beer a guy won’t be embarrassed to drink.” Although one did wonder, “Is this just Blue Moon in a fancy bottle?”