I know I promised to do a lot more with this blog earlier this year, but I haven’t managed to get there. Not only have I been busy working the day job, but I’ve also been consumed with book publishing. In June, I released Wine Bottles and Broomsticks, my first novel, and I’m preparing for publication of my second book The Dark Queen of Darkness later this year – That’s a long way of saying I’ve been busy, distracted and I think it’s time for a beer*.

So, here is my firstest EVER beer review. The cool thing is that I think this is a beer I probably shouldn’t have – in any case, when it came into my hands it hadn’t been released yet. What I can tell you is that it was gifted to me and I thought what better way to deal with this beer than to give a review!

What we have here is the Pribilof Pounder by Broken Tooth Brewing (local Alaskan Brewery well known for its association with the Moose’s Tooth Pizzeria and the Bear’s Tooth theater pub in Anchorage, AK.) The beer has a fun little story on the back explaining how it was named for Alaska’s first baseball team on St. Paul Island (details: aleut.com/baseball). It’s a lager clocking in at 4.3% ABV and 13IBUs. When poured, it’s pretty much what you’d expect – the color of straw and fizzy like a soda with a somewhat thin, but persistent head.

Setting the can & details aside, this is, as advertised, absolutely a hot-day baseball beer. I can picture myself at a local midnight sun ball-game sipping. It’s got mild flavor with hints of fruit (you could put a lemon or lime in this, and it would work well – think a heavier version of Carona). I think my favorite part of this beer is the clean, sharp finish. What surprised me was that this was a maltier brew with more body than I was expecting. It vaguely reminds me of a hefeweizen, but without the characteristic banana or clove flavors.

For drinkability – this is going to be a pretty versatile brew. Most of the time, you drink it and beer, and it’s great, other times you want to stick a lime or something in the neck to give it a bit more kick. Sometimes, like at Tex-Mex restaurants, they’ll serve you a margarita with a Carona upended in it. This is the sort of beer that would go well in all three circumstances.

In all, I’d call this a pretty solid specimen of the style. I’m not a huge fan of lagers as it is, and won’t spend a lot of my time investing in this one, but I would recommend this to anyone looking for a craft brew who isn’t a fan of really malty or bitter drinks.

Have you tried it? What do you think?

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*Let’s not talk about the diet, it’s time to review beer – Yes I’m still watching my weight/food intake etc… and trying very hard to lose those last pesky 20lbs.