Brewed By: Magic Hat Brewing Company in South Burlington, Vermont
Purchased: 12oz bottle from a 6-pack bought at Jewel in Chicago, IL; 2011
Style/ABV: Amber Ale, 5.4%
Like a rebellious teenager, Magic Hat is flagrant, flashy, and often requires you to bail its ass out and give it a second, third, or fourteenth chance. I like Magic Hat - for their willingness to try new things, for their cool artwork, for their constant rotation of new beers - but they are a frustrating company.
Magic Hat is renown in the beer world for their "Magic Hat #9," an apricot-infused fruit beer that is of the love-hate, polarizing variety. Magic Hat is also famous for releasing a lot of one-offs and constantly rotating their seasonals. This means that while the company has released some stellar beers in the past that people have absolutely raved about, those beers may no longer exist.
I found #9 to be on the low-end of Average, but I would perhaps try it again. My introduction to Magic Hat came earlier in the year when I picked up their Summer Scene mix pack. I was attracted to the cool artwork and the promise of four beers that looked interesting. In reality I got to try the average #9, the just above-average Single Chair Ale, the below-average and nasty Wacko, and the surprisingly intriguing (but average) Blind Faith. The mix pack was a bit of a letdown, but in the process I researched Magic Hat and learned about the controversy surrounding their beer from the craft beer community. Like #9, it seems like beer drinkers are pretty divided on Magic Hat.
But wait...this is me, a guy with an opinion, giving a beer review. I try to be as objective as possible, so let's focus on the good things and cool things. Magic Hat has one of the better designed brewery websites I have come across. The website is interactive, and has lots of good information on their beers. Magic Hat has been around since 1994; they brew 4-year round beers and 4 seasonals, and they also brew a ton of one-offs. They turn out about 150,000 barrels annually, and they own Pyramid Breweries.
Like a rebellious teenager, Magic Hat is flagrant, flashy, and often requires you to bail its ass out and give it a second, third, or fourteenth chance. I like Magic Hat - for their willingness to try new things, for their cool artwork, for their constant rotation of new beers - but they are a frustrating company.
Magic Hat is renown in the beer world for their "Magic Hat #9," an apricot-infused fruit beer that is of the love-hate, polarizing variety. Magic Hat is also famous for releasing a lot of one-offs and constantly rotating their seasonals. This means that while the company has released some stellar beers in the past that people have absolutely raved about, those beers may no longer exist.
I found #9 to be on the low-end of Average, but I would perhaps try it again. My introduction to Magic Hat came earlier in the year when I picked up their Summer Scene mix pack. I was attracted to the cool artwork and the promise of four beers that looked interesting. In reality I got to try the average #9, the just above-average Single Chair Ale, the below-average and nasty Wacko, and the surprisingly intriguing (but average) Blind Faith. The mix pack was a bit of a letdown, but in the process I researched Magic Hat and learned about the controversy surrounding their beer from the craft beer community. Like #9, it seems like beer drinkers are pretty divided on Magic Hat.
But wait...this is me, a guy with an opinion, giving a beer review. I try to be as objective as possible, so let's focus on the good things and cool things. Magic Hat has one of the better designed brewery websites I have come across. The website is interactive, and has lots of good information on their beers. Magic Hat has been around since 1994; they brew 4-year round beers and 4 seasonals, and they also brew a ton of one-offs. They turn out about 150,000 barrels annually, and they own Pyramid Breweries.
Today's beer, Hex, is one of the brewery's seasonal beers. Specifically, this beer is available in 6-packs during fall months, or you can pick it up in the "Night of the Living Dead" variety pack. Being a huge zombie fan and a nerd, I had a nerdgasm when I discovered the name of Magic Hat's fall variety pack. Against better judgment, I may need to seek it out.
Never a brewery to avoid controversy, today's beer is advertised by Magic Hat as an "Ourtoberfest." This is the type of retarded shenanigan that only Magic Hat could pull, and so I point back to my rebellious teenager analogy. You might be mislead into thinking that Hex is an Oktoberfest, but it actually is an Amber Ale. This beer is probably not worth dissecting, but according to Magic Hat's website Hex is brewed using German Ale yeast and Apollo and Hallertaur hops. I know nothing of brewing, but the fact that thsi beer is brewed with German "Ale" yeast leads me to believe this beer is an ale and not a lager. Traditional Märzens and Oktoberfest are lagers. Furthermore, the Apollo hops are American, and the Hallertaur are German/European. Hex also uses Vienna malts and Cherry Wood Smoked Malt. All-in-all the beer sounds like it has a lot of flavors of an Oktoberfest, but it also sounds a lot like an American Amber Ale.
There is nothing wrong with all this, of course. Amber Ales capture a lot of the essences of a fall beer or an Oktoberfest. But Magic Hat does advertise this as an "Ourtoberfest." So like your kid who dances ballet but listens to Motorhead, we have a beer with an identity crisis. Let's dive in and see how this all stacks up.
The body of this beer is a nice amber-brown color, and has a nice Autumn-esque quality. I was able to get a nice one-finger, slightly off-white head. The head is slightly amber in color, and consists of thin soapy bubbles. This is a transparent, filtered beer, and there is a ton of rising carbonation. This is quite the lively beer. And if any Magic Hat fanatics are reading this, I am sad to report that my review bottle did not have anything noteworthy on the back side of the cap. However, the other day I did open up a Hex that had "all my friends are brown and red" on the back of the cap.
The aroma on this beer is quite malty. I smell a lot of caramel and a lot of sweet malts: I detect notes of toffee, red delicious and granny smith apples, and just subtle hints of smoke and cherry.
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| Magic Hat Hex |
This has a really mellow taste to it, with lots of sweet malts and caramel notes being supported by a soft doughy undertone. There are pulls towards that smokey note, as well as some bursts of hop-notes including apples. This is malty and earthy, but sweet and soft. There is some nuttiness in here, as well as some hints of a toasty bread-note on the finish. But the main flavors are sweet malts, a doughy undertone, and some supporting hop characters.
This is not particularly complex, but it is mellow and has good depth across your palate. I would call this a medium-medium beer. The carbonation actually works for and against this beer: it seems to make it very drinkable at first, but catches up to you and adds a heaviness to the beer midway through. You get a ton of carbonation and sweet malts on the front end; the middle is more sweet malts with some pulls towards the apples and smoke; and the back end is doughy, bready, nutty, and mellow. It seems to be slightly drying on the back.
This is not particularly complex, but it is mellow and has good depth across your palate. I would call this a medium-medium beer. The carbonation actually works for and against this beer: it seems to make it very drinkable at first, but catches up to you and adds a heaviness to the beer midway through. You get a ton of carbonation and sweet malts on the front end; the middle is more sweet malts with some pulls towards the apples and smoke; and the back end is doughy, bready, nutty, and mellow. It seems to be slightly drying on the back.
Rating: Average
Score: 73%
At 5.4% this is pretty drinkable. I worked my way through 5 of these pretty quickly. I still don't get the whole "let's use an ale yeast" to brew an "ourtoberfest" beer. Is this angst and rebellion? Ingenuity?
Score: 73%
At 5.4% this is pretty drinkable. I worked my way through 5 of these pretty quickly. I still don't get the whole "let's use an ale yeast" to brew an "ourtoberfest" beer. Is this angst and rebellion? Ingenuity?
I really don't give a shit. The bottom line is that this is a good beer. This is a good fall beer. This is one of the better Magic Hat beers that I have had. I would not have gone out of my way to buy this beer, so thanks to my girlfriend for buying me a 6-pack of this.
I would drink this again. If you can pick a six-pack of this up for 6, 7, or even 8 dollars, you would be doing right in finding a cheap Autumn beer. On the flip side, I do not understand the Magic Hat "ourtoberfest" angle. But then again, I don't get a lot of things that Magic Hat does. I guess that is the magic.
Magic Hat's Hex is a surprisingly good Amber Ale with a nice Autumn twist.
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