Beer of the Week! 08/18/20

Not all summer beers are made for lawnmowers.

Ommegang Hennepin

Regularly $12.99 / Now on Sale for $10.96
Saison

For this week’s Beer of the Week, we’re bringing a past favorite back into the store. Summer is the season for Saison ales, and that’s more than enough of a reason to reach up to Cooperstown, NY and revisit Brewery Ommegang’s Hennepin.

With Pilsner malt, flaked corn, and dextrose, Hennepin seems on its way to being a very light ale. Styrian Goldings and Spalter Select hops do a respectable bittering job, never being braggadocios or extravagant. However, Ommegang’s house yeast is ready to take us to a different world.

Hennepin clocks in at one of the richer Saisons out there. With Ginger, orange peel, coriander, and grains of paradise (a favorite Ommegang addition), Hennepin is wonderfully complex with an aggregate background taste of cloves or even bubble gum. It’s one of those beers you should regularly revisit to remember how good it is.

Conceived by Ommegang, brewed by Liefmans, this is one of our favorite sours!

Bonus Beer of the Week (‘Cause we all need a little something special right now.)

Ommegang Rosetta

Regularly $12.99 / Now on Sale for $10.96
Sour Ale with Cherries

"Leinhart’s [Phil Leinhart — Ommegang’s Brewmaster since 2008] recipe calls for a perfectly balanced blend of old (aged on cherries at least three years) and young Flemish brown ale (or oud bruin) with a lively and fruity kriek, or cherry beer. The result is a complex yet refreshing mahogany-brown brew that is an intriguing interplay of tartness and sweetness. Its elegance and depth would make Madame Rosa Merckx proud – Liefmans’ former Brewmaster and the first Belgian woman with that title in whose honor the beer is named.

“ 'I wanted a sour fruit beer that invites you to have another,’ said Leinhart ... ‘So many of the ones I find today are either so tart or so fruity, that I think beer lovers struggle to have more than one. Balance and the right blend was the key for me, and I really believe we hit the sweet spot, so to speak.  I am looking forward to hearing back from drinkers on what they think and if the response is favorable, consider bringing this beer in draft next year as well.' ”