River Horse Summer Blonde: 10 Beers of Summer

When it comes to beer, New Jersey is underrated. Sure, we don't host iconic breweries like Dogfish Head or Stone or Shiner or Samuel Adams or New Glarus, but we do have fantastic beer. Hell, believe it or not, when it comes to beer distribution New Jersey is one of the best in the nation. You can get a wider variety of beers here than you can in just about every other state, including California's much heralded beer scene.

Being underrated is too bad, because New Jersey has a few really great breweries. River Horse is one of them ... and since we're celebrating summer beer, let's celebrate their Summer Blonde Ale, a beer that is (obviously) intended for the summer months.

This is a light, refreshing, vaguely Belgian-style blonde ale that is as crisp and refreshing as summer beers come. The ABV is low, just 4.5% (it used to be as low as 4%), but it has more taste than the most common beers in its weight class. There is a vaguely grass-like character to the malts balanced by a lemon-tinged bitterness. Neither are strong -- compared to other golden ales they are pretty much nonexistent -- but that's the point. Nothing overpowering, nothing fancy, just simple, subdued, slightly zesty (but not too much!), and utterly drinkable.

Nothing wrong with that.

If you dig summer beers, be sure to enter to win loads of awesome summer beer stuff! It's EASY!

The Philly Beer Top 50 - Part 5

Philly Beer Week is pretty much the biggest beer thing ever this side of the Great American Beer Festival when it comes to the not-shitty side of the Mississippi, so needless to say I'm stoked to be writing the 50-Beer Countdown To Philly Beer Week for the Philadelphia Weekly.

And hey, I care for you (not really), so I'm happy to divide it up into handy little five-beer lists like this. So here are five of the 50 beers available in Philly that you MUST drink. Part 5 of 10!

Dogfish Head Aprihop
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/drink/philly-beer-week/Dogfish-Head-Aprihop-PWs-50-Beer-Countdown-to-Philly-Beer-Week-Day-22.html

River Horse Tripel Horse
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/drink/philly-beer-week/River-Horse-Tripel-Horse-PWs-50-Beer-Countdown-to-Philly-Beer-Week-Day-23-205957481.html

Yuengling Lager
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/drink/philly-beer-week/Yuengling-Lager-PWs-50-Beer-Countdown-to-Philly-Beer-Week-Day-21-205643831.html

Oskar Blues Mama's Little Yella Pils
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/drink/philly-beer-week/Oskar-Blues-Mamas-Little-Yella-Pils-PWs-50-Beer-Countdown-to-Philly-Beer-Week-Day-25-205962681.html

21st Amendment Hell or High Watermelon
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/drink/philly-beer-week/21st-Amendment-Hell-Or-High-Watermelon-PWs-50-Beer-Countdown-to-Philly-Beer-Week-Day-26-206294801.html

Quick Sips: River Horse Hop-a-lot-Amus Double IPA

River Horse is very quietly one of the best breweries in New Jersey. For my money, Flying Fish is the best, but only by a hair. River Horse is nipping at their heels. It helps that River Horse has a double IPA like Hop-a-lot-Amus and Flying Fish (as of this writing) doesn't.

This is a pretty straightforward DIPA, with a pine-laden aroma and a fat malt backbone. The malts are maybe too much a part of this beer, however, but it's hard to tell. River Horse doesn't date its bottles, and that is ESSENTIAL to knowing if you have a great pale ale/IPA or not. For real, date your damn bottles.

Bottom line is, this is a good beer that could be better. What I got had decent citrus hops and strong malts, but who the hell knows if I got it in optimal condition? Come on, people. Date it. Balance it. And date it again so us beer geeks know when we're getting an old bottle.