Peeper Ale

Review Date 3/11/2016  By John Staradumsky

  Style: American Pale   Brewery: Maine Beer   Country: USA   State: Maine   $ Per OZ: $.39 (B)   ABV: 5.5%

So, here I am reviewing my third beer from Maine Beer Company. Amongst beer geek circles these days Maine Beer is renowned for beers like Lunch and Dinner, those two being beers I haven’t been able to find. Yet. Still and all, I’m glad I found the three I did that include Maine Beer Company Peeper Ale, the one I’m going to tell you about shortly. I got all three in Massachusetts while there on business, and they were in fact the only three beers they had from Maine Beer.

Anyway, when I saw Peeper Ale my own peepers played tricks on me and I thought it was pepper ale, not peeper, but hey what can you do. When I got the beer home and went to drink it I noticed the real name, and that it’s really an American Pale Ale rather than a pepper ale. If you don’t already know, American Pale Ale is a hoppy pale ale sort of in between pale ale and IPA.

From the website:

We wanted to find a better way. We wanted to do things right. We wanted a delicious beer you could drink all day. And the frigid Maine winter wasn’t going to keep us out of our garage until we had all three. We first had the idea for Peeper in 2006, and officially released it in 2009. This American ale is dry, clean and well balanced with a generous dose of American hops. While we love all our beers, Peeper will always be our firstborn.

Ingredients, also from the website:

Malt: American 2-Row, CaraPils, Vienna, Red Wheat

Hops: Amarillo, Cascade, Centennial, U.S. Magnum

Maine Beer Company Peeper Ale has an alcohol content of 5.5% by volume, and I paid $6.59 for a half liter bottle.

Maine Beer Company Peeper Ale pours to a hazy blonde color with a medium sized head of creamy foam and a peppery hop, lemon zesty citrus nose. A very thick layer of Brussels Lace forms on the sides of my glass and follows the liquid all the way to the bottom of my glass. Taking a sip, I get very light malt with a bit of wheatiness underneath, then zesty lemon peel and light grapefruit citrus hoppiness. A nicely balancing bitterness rounds it all out.

Maine Beer Company Peeper Ale definitely has wonderful hop aroma and flavor going for it, though for me the body is thin. On its own merit I would give it 4 stars but…and here it comes…once again I have to demerit a half star for price. At $6.59 for a half liter bottle, Maine Beer Pepper Ale is just too expensive. It’s a great American Pale Ale, but there are a lot of other American Pale Ales out there just as good and costing a lot less. Just click on the American Pale Ale button above to explore a few of them.

Glad I tried it?  T