Magic Hat's #9 pours a light amber color with a half-inch white head on top. The beer smells slightly spicy and somewhat like fruit. The bottle offers no ideas as to what type of fruit might be in the beer. The smell is very sweet, but not overly so.
The beer feels light to medium bodied in the mouth with a small amount of carbonation. At 5.1% ABV, Magic Hat's beer has a standard level of alcohol for a beer. The alcohol flavor is imperceptible against the other flavors in the brew.
All flavors in the beer come off as very mild. No flavor stands out more than any other, making it quite a balanced experience. The taste is sweet, just as the scent promised, though not sweet to the point of being syrupy and unpleasant. The fruity notes are much more prevalent in the taste than they were in the smell. I can't quite put my finger on what fruit the beer tastes like, but I'm thinking it's along the lines of apricot. There are also notes of spices that go amazingly well with the fruit. It's almost as though #9 were some type of apricot cobbler or crisp in beer form. There is barely any bitterness at all in the beer.
The name of Magic Hat's beer brings many questions into one's mind, and this air of mystery seems to permeate the brew. Why is it named simply #9? Was it the ninth beer that the company brewed? What spices and fruits go into creating this brew? I can't help but be reminded of the song Love Potion No. 9 by the Clovers when I think of the beer's name. Maybe Magic Hat Brewing Company had this song in mind when mixing up their brew, hoping that we would fall in love with their creation.
Overall #9 is a mild beer with interesting flavors. Unfortunately I find it to be a bit too mild. There is nothing bad about the beer, but at the same time it is nothing special. The beer is very drinkable but the novelty of the flavors will only be interesting the first time one experiences them. One should look elsewhere for his or her love potion, and not in #9.
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