Hopper Pale Ale - Madison River Brewing Company

    Hopper Pale Ale is an American Pale Ale brewed by the Madison River Brewing Company which is located in Belgrade, Montana. I received this beer a while back in a shipment from my craft brew club.

    The Pale Ale pours a pale amber color, suggesting a maltier brew than other Pale Ales. There is very little head on the beer, making me think that this one is going to be extremely lightly carbonated. The tiny head does still leave a decent bit of lacing down the glass.

    Hopper's aroma is nicely hoppy with light, sweet malt undertones. The scent of citrus fruits is the predominate hops aroma, with a bit of a floweriness as well.

    The beer is medium bodied, though there is a very light level of carbonation. I'm disappointed in the lack of bubbles to the beer. I would like more effervescence to the brew so that the floweriness of the hops would be carried by the bubbles. The Pale Ale has an alcohol content of 6% ABV.

The rare, and terrifying, Beer-Hopper.

    Hopper Pale Ale's flavor is just to the hoppy side of balanced. Citrus and flowery hops add just a slight bit of bite to the sweet, caramel malts. There is a strong sweetness left in the mouth as an aftertaste.

    Regardless of what Madison River Brewing Company says the beer is named after, I'm convinced that it is named after the rare Beer-Hopper, of the family Beerus Hopidaeus. Little known throughout the world, the Beer-Hopper is a giant insect found only in the forests surrounding breweries powered by nuclear reactors. Feeding mainly on small rodents, the Beer-Hopper is carnivorous, and has been known to lure in unsuspecting humans (unsurprisingly, most were found to have been intoxicated after a day of brewery tours) by wrapping their legs up and under their hind-end, taking on the visage of a cool, refreshing glass of beer. Once the human prey has wrapped his or her hand around the glass, the Beer-Hopper uses its sharp, pointy teeth to deliver a lethal dose of ethanol before rubbing its legs together and creating a chirping sound to let other Hoppers in the area know that food is available (this sound has become known as the "Dinner Bell of Death" to Beer-Hopper aficionados).

    Overall, Hopper Pale Ale is much sweeter than I would like for a Pale Ale. The hops flavors are good, just not as prominently displayed as I would like. I would recommend this beer to people who would like to get into Pale Ales as a style, yet aren't very keen on strong hops flavors yet. If you're a fan of Pale Ales on the other hand, I would look elsewhere for a great one.

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Salmon Fly Honey Rye - Madison River Brewing Company

    Salmon Fly Honey Rye is a Rye Beer created by Madison River Brewing Company which is located in Belgrade, Montana. I received this beer as part of my craft brew club.

    The Rye Beer pours a pale straw color with almost no head to speak of. I really expected this beer to be darker colored, and the lack of head makes me worry about the beer's body.

    The beer smells very sweet. There are notes of honey perceptible as well as bready malts, the peppery spice of rye, and some fruity notes from the hops. Strangely enough, instead of the normal citrus/pine scent of hops, this beer smells almost like apples.

    Salmon Fly Honey Rye is thin bodied with a very low level of carbonation. With an alcohol content of 5.6% ABV, no alcohol characteristics are present.

    Madison River's Rye Beer tastes much like it smells. Toasted bread malt flavors intermingle with the honey's sweetness. There is only the slightest bit of hops flavor to the beer, and only as a finish to the spicy and sweet notes put forth by the beer. Overall the flavors are very light. The beer tastes slightly watery due to the flavor's subtlety. Just as I thought I could smell apple in the beer, I also taste it a little bit in the beer's aftertaste.

    It is a goal of mine to one day be somewhere that I can regularly fish for salmonids. Unfortunately with my current skill level in fly fishing I would likely do a much better job of catching trees and unfortunate fellow fishermen. I'm starting to wonder, however, if I might be able to catch a few fish by pouring some of this beer into their natural habitat. As we all know, beer makes people stupid. If this is also true for fish, more than likely one is going to look at his friends a be like "hey dude, watch this!" right before he swims at me full speed. Of course with his  (because obviously only a male would show off like this) slowed reaction times I could easily snatch the fish out of the water as he attempted to tease me in front of his friends. Some might say that this would be unfair to the fish. I just say that it's using my resources!

    Salmon Fly Honey Rye is not really a beer that I would choose to drink regularly. There was nothing unpleasant about the beer, but there also wasn't anything that stood out. I would really rather have a beer which put flavor first a little bit more and came off as less watery. Still, if Salmon Fly is all that's on tap, it's still going to be way better than those...other beers.

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