Zoe Happy Hoppy Amber Ale

Review Date 10/21/2015  By John Staradumsky

  Style: Amber Ale   Brewery: Maine Beer   Country: USA   State: Maine   $ Per OZ: $.39 (B)   ABV: 7.25%

Let’s get one thing straight. I hate the term “whales”. Mind you, I have nothing against cetaceans, and fully admire their majesty and nobility. No, it’s the use of the term within the beer world to connote a very rare beer that drives me insane. So, when I went into a small liquor store in Lawrence, Massachusetts near my hotel, I wasn’t looking for Maine Lunch IPA, which some call a “whale” (I hate that). I was actually looking for Geary’s Pale Ale, which they didn’t have.

I did, though, score three beers from Maine Beer (my first chance to try them), including Zoe Happy Hoppy Amber Ale. I didn’t actually drink it until I got back home to Canton, Georgia, and that’s when I saw those dreaded words on the label:

“Enjoy this beer fresh, hoppy beers do not age well.”

They didn’t really say that, did they? They did, though I wish they hadn’t. It’s not true folks. I’ll give credit to Maine beer for a lot of things, but I really and truly resent this type of misinformation. Hoppy beers do age well, hops are and long have been used as a preservative in beer. Ever heard of India Pale Ale guys? You know, that hoppy beer that was designed to age? I get that modern beer geeks want all that fresh hoppy flavor, and that’s fine. But don’t say hoppy beers don’t age well. They change over time, sure, but they can and do age well. That said, Maine Beer suggest drinking Zoe within 90 days of the bottling date (07/21/15 here), and I drank mine on October 2^nd.

OK, now that I’m off my soapbox let’s look at the label, shall we?

On a rainy day in 2009, my five-year-old daughter Zoe and I were wandering the streets in Bar Harbor and stumbled across the Whale Museum. Zoe Loved it! It put a smile on her face. Hopefully our ale will do the same for you. Cheers!

And so, you see, what made me think about whales. Here’s raising a glass to Maine Beer for contributing 1% of the profits from Zoe to Allied Whale’s Adopt-a-Whale program.

Ingredients from the website:

Malt: American 2-Row, English Maris Otter, Caramel 40L, Caramel 80L, Victory, Munich 10L, Chocolate

Hops: Simcoe, Centennial, Columbus

Maine Beer Zoe has an alcohol content of 7.2% by volume and I paid $6.59 for a half liter bottle. Half star demerit for the high price. Come on, folks. This is an amber ale after all.

Maine Beer Zoe Happy Hoppy Amber Ale pours to a deep mahogany color with a thick, towering creamy head formation and a vibrant resin fruity hop nose. A thick layer of Brussels Lace forms on the sides of my glass and follows the liquid all the way to the bottom of the glass.

Taking a sip, the beer has a firm lightly chewy caramel maltiness with hints of chocolate and roast, but not really as much of the dark malty notes the color implied. Hops! This beer is packed with them, resiny, grassy, herbal oregano-like even. They permeate the beer and leave it with a long dry bitterness in the finish. That bitterness is rather intense for the style, but hey, this beer is a weird amber ale that isn’t at all amber anyway.

I found Maine Beer Zoe Happy Hoppy Amber Ale to be a very interesting, idiosyncratic brew. I was glad to try it and really enjoyed it, but in all honesty, I wouldn’t pay the high price for this beer again.

Oh, and in case you’re worried about the Geary’s Pale Ale, don’t be. I got a case at the brewery in Portland the next day.

Glad I tried it?  T