Zonker Stout - Snake River Brewing Company

    Zonker Stout is a Foreign Style Stout brewed by Jackson, Wyoming's Snake Rider Brewing Company. The can explains that the Stout gets its name from a particularly effective fishing fly. It also touts that the beer has medaled multiple times at the Great American Beer Festival.

    Zonker pours a deep, chocolatey black with a creamy, two-finger head that is just darker than khaki.

    Snake River's Stout smells lightly of chocolate and coffee, as well as some roasty notes. Hops can be slightly detected at the end of the beer's aroma.

    The Stout has a moderate body with a medium level of carbonation. The beer has an extremely creamy texture and finishes a bit sticky.

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    Zonker's flavor comes mainly from the malts used in brewing it. Up front you can taste the light roasted malts. The slight bitterness of the hops as well as a slight coffee flavor follow up the roastyness. Finally, rounding everything out, sweet, sticky caramel and chocolate malts finish off the flavor and leave a pleasant candy-like taste in the mouth.

    After trying this beer, I was glad that I poured it into a cup, rather than drinking it from the can. There are a lot of reasons that you can hear people give for why you should always pour beer into a glass, but this time, none of those come into play. My reasoning? I wouldn't be surprised if Snake River Brewing Company was run by fish, and that they have created the cans as a way to capture humans. It's classic trapping really, offer something that tastes good to the prey so that in partaking of the treat the prey unknowingly falls into the hunter's trap and is captured. If the Zonker fishing fly really is such an effective lure, perhaps the fish got tired of falling for it and have created Zonker Stout as revenge. I wouldn't be surprised if some sort of hook or net comes out of the can while you're drinking the beer and then fish appear with little S.C.O.B.A (Self-contained out-of-water breathing apparatus) suits and carry you off. Another narrow escape!

    I was pleasantly surprised with Snake River's Stout. I can see why the beer has won many awards at the Great American Beer Festival. I would completely recommend anyone who is a fan of Guinness Stouts give Zonker a try as I feel that it is a much better Stout overall!

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Snake River Pale Ale - Snake River Brewing Company

    Snake River Pale Ale is an American Pale Ale created by the Snake River Brewing Company which is located in Jackson, Wyoming.

    The beer lives up to its name by pouring a pale yellow color with around a finger of head. Some slight lacing can be seen on the glass.

    The Pale Ale smells of citrus hops with a slight aroma of caramel malts. The hops scents are more floral than piney in this beer.

    Snake River Pale Ale is medium bodied with a moderate level of carbonation. This beer is an example of where a beer's body and carbonation can work together to make the mouthfeel seem much thicker than the beer would alone. There is absolutely no alcohol character to the 5.2% ABV beer.

    As opposed to the usual hops-forward flavors of other Pale Ales, Snake River's Pale Ale first tastes like light caramel malts. This sweetness is followed up by a nice citrus hops profile which comes off as more flowery than bitter. Neither the sweetness, nor the bitterness is out of balance in this ale.

I bet snakes are angry drunks.

    I have to admit that when it comes to phobias, snakes are my main terror. I can't even imagine what Snake River must be like. I'm going to just hope that it got its name from it's windy nature rather than that it is full of snakes. My mind jumps right to a river which is made up of writhing, slithering snakes instead of water. You would fall into it and be covered by their long, squirming bodies. At that point, being bitten by a poisonous snake would be a blessing to me.

    Luckily, this beer is nowhere near as terrifying to me as a river made out of snakes. This Pale Ale is actually very well balanced and manages to bring out the flowery nature of hops rather than just bringing the bitter, pineyness that so many beers can't get past. I would say that Snake River's Pale Ale is a good Pale Ale, but it really doesn't do anything for me past that. Overall I feel that it is solely an average Pale Ale.

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