News & Articles

This beer has been calling to me from the shelf for weeks now, and finally I could no longer refuse its siren song. Hallo Ich Bin Berliner Weisse is a cheery cherry offering from the always offbeat Danish brewer Mikkeller. This particular German beer was actually brewed for Mikkeller by the Belgian De Broef Brouwerij.

I’m thinking if your day is feeling gray or you’re just a little down in the dumps, pour one of these and the sight alone should cheer you up, with its deep cheery fizziness topped with a thick, pinkish rocky head. It’s just a happy looking drink in an eye-appealing pint can.

And the happiness continues as you pour it down your gullet. Yumdillyumptious. Tart cherry brightens the natural tartness of the Berliner Weisse style. The fizziness implodes on the tongue in a thousand teasing prickles. In Berlin this beer is known as “the people’s champagne.” This beer certainly plays on that concept, and should certainly be shared.

This is a very light, sessionable beer, but coming in at 3.7 percent alcohol, it’s on the high end of the scale for this traditionally weak style (they often range from 2.5 to 3 percent).

I can attest to the healing powers of this cheery beer for it quickly cleared a Sunday funk that had settled on my brain. Its cheeriness just cannot be denied. Good old beer! At least you can always count on it.

Digging deep into the magic fridge, I pulled out a 2015 Snowstorm from August Schell Brewing Co. of New Ulm, Minn. Wow! That’s been in there for a while.

But, let’s see how this Wallonian-style brown ale tastes. Yum, it tastes just like a good winter beer should – rich, warming, comforting. Yes, this malty brown ale hits all the right notes. And, of course, any winter ale worth its weight should be able to stand up to a year or more in the bottle. At the very finish I get the long-lingering note of black licorice, a flavor that people either love or hate. I happen to be a black licorice lover, so I love the finish on this beer.

August Schell is always a good, reliable brewery, and I love the way they play with their winter offerings because, as they say, “As every Midwesterner knows, no two Snowstorms are ever alike.”

Snowstorm 2016 will be an English strong ale. I look forward to snagging some of that, and I won’t wait a year to try it.