Atwater beers

[Homercidal]

Picked up a couple of Atwater beers this past weekend and sampled two. The Michigan Lager, and a Cherry Stout.

I popped the top on the Michigan Lager and went to get a snack. When I got back to me seat, the thing was starting to foam out through the top. Interesting. This was a cold bottle from the fridge.

So I pour it with a tilted glass and the foam shoots straight up and out before I have a chance to react. Wife is mad, but runs out to get a towel. Several minutes pass before I am able to put a significant amount of beer in my glass.

After several tastes I can verify that it has a slightly tart, nutty flavor. Carbonation is sharp and acidic-feeling. I'm guessing that I got a bad one. But I drink it all anyway.

On to the stout, which I had the next night. This time no massive over foaming of the beer. However, the pour produced a mild amount of head, which dropped back very quickly. I"m sure I have rinse agent in my dishwasher, but I've never seen a beer do this since some of my own first homebrews.

On to the taste... Hmmm... interesting. Nothing much like I'd call a stout. Fairly tart again, but missing the cherry flavor that I was looking forward to. Again the texture is not creamy at all, but the carbonation is very sharp on the tongue. Def. not my style of beer. But I finish it all.

Wow. Strike two for Atwater. I have one more of their beers in the fridge, and we'll see soon if there is any redemption. This also reinforces my opinion that I should not even bother with fruit beers. I don't know why I even bought the cherry stout, if stout is really was. Seems like a crappy beer brewed with black malt.

This is the first Michigan brewery that I would stay away from altogether so far.

 

[brewt00l]

Oi...I had some of their beer when they first hit the shelves at my local bottle shop and I though they flat out sucked.

 

[no1likesme]

I had their vanilla java porter on tap and it was pretty good.

 

[cercueil]

Picked up a couple of Atwater beers this past

So I pour it with a tilted glass and the foam shoots straight up and out before I have a chance to react. .

This happened to me with Souther Tier. They have great beers in general but I bought a rasberry porter and the whole six pack was like gusher bugs. I coudn't even get a 12 oz beer in a 23 oz glass! But the last beer was very intersting. Obviously everyone knows what a porter looks like. The last beer looked like a rasberry wheat beer! It was strange. The only thing I could think of was that they brewed a rasberry wheat and a regular porter and mixed the 2 together?? I looked up the brewery online and was going to send them an e-mail. I wasn't looking for free beer or whatever but I wanted to make sure that they know the bottling was messed up somehow.

 

[Homercidal]

I just checked the fridge and no third bottle of Atwater. I checked the website and realize that I already drank that one. It was called Dirty Blonde, and I can tell you that the name is very accurate. That one was fine for carb, mouthfeel, etc. However, the Dirty part came with the flavor. Not bad enough to not drink, but it certainly had a strange flavor in there somewhere. I think they got the water from the Detroit river...

That is strike 3 for me.

I got lucky today and found another sampler box of Arcadia Ales. IIPA, IPA, Whitsun Wheat, and a Lager or something. Those were all good. The brewery said you can even buy the goblet with the sword on it, like the picture shows! Some day I'll drive down to the brewery and get one!

 

[cercueil]

You know what they say about 1st impressions..To me this applies to beer unless someone else tells me otherwise..If I pick up a 6 pack from a micro brewery that I have never had before I basically judge all of their beers from whichever one I bought. More than likely if I dont like the 1st beer I tried I will not buy from that brewery again. Unless of course my friend says so and so beer from them is good but the rest suck..lol

 

[Revvy]

Interesting, I just went to their website and looked at their labels, and realized that I've never tried any of them. Which is weired. I have seen them, and they are often even in the mixed sixer fridge at my local bottle shop. But I have never been moved to try them.

I don't know if it's becasue of their labels, or what beers of theirs is available, but I always pass them by.

They aren't owned by the folks that owned Woodward Avenue Brewery are they? Maybe that's why, I wasn't impressed with their stuff either.

 

[Homercidal]

Beats me. I tried them because the beer sounded good and I wanted to try some different Michigan beers. I would be interested in seeing what you think of them, though. Maybe I'm just wrong about them. I'm not a very picky drinker though. I think my sensitivity to taste is a bit suspect. That is why I am reading up on BJCP styles and trying different beers. So I can honestly evaluate my own.

 

[jvh261]

I tried their dunkel...since I'll pretty much try any dunkel as it's one of my favorite styles.

same problem. every bottle was a gusher. the brew itself was just average. Nothing i'd purchase again. I still have one bottle in my brew cabinet. Been there since around fall '07. I'm in no hurry to drink it.... I just can't bring myself to throw a beer out.

 

[Homercidal]

I was reading the latest edition of the Michigan Brewers Guild newsletter andit shows Atwater scored pretty well in several categories. WTF? Am I just getting the crap bottles??