HPR1684: 5150 Shades of Beer Jacob Leinenkugels Winter Explorer Pack

Jacob Lienenkugels Winter Explorer Pack "Chippewa Falls, WI since 1867"

Winters Bite - Do you know what it smells like when you open a tin of cocoa (the semi-sweet kind, not the unsweetend) and no matter how you do it, a litle of the powder puffs out? The best descrition I can give this beer is it tastes just like that smell, even down to the dryness. Neither cloyingly sweet or leaving you wondering who mixed the chocolate syrup into you beer, just a sublte taste of dry cocoa. This lager pours dark with very little head. This beer (my favorite it this group) is only available in the Explorer pack, and it's ABV and ingredients are not featured on leinie.com.

Helles Yeah - (German blonde lager, Helles means "light" in German, but unlike American beers, it refers only to color). Straw color, very clear, moderate head that disapears w/o lacing. Sublte flavor, a hit of hops and just slightly more than a pinch of pepper. 5.5 ABV Malts: Pale malts Hops: Five All-American hops including Simcoe and Citra

Cranberry Ginger Shandy - [From Wikipedia, Shandy is beer mixed with a soft drink, carbonated lemonade, ginger beer, ginger ale, or apple juice or orange juice.] Pours cloudy yellow amber, moderate head that disapears w/o lacing. Leinenkugel managed to resist the urge to color it red. Not as syrupy as Shock Top\'s Cranberry Belgian Ale, but unlike many fruit adjunct brews, neither is the flavor so subtle you have to go searching for it. I like to use ginger in cooking, and I can also detect the taste of that sweet spice in this weiss beer as well. 4.2% ABV Malts: Pale and Wheat Hops: Cluster Other: Natural cranberry and ginger flavors

Snowdrift Vanilla Porter - Pours dark brown with just a litle carmel color head that disipates imediately. Vanilla bean aroma. Vanilla flavor is perhaps more subtle than Breckenridge's Vanilla Porter, but there will be know doubt you are enjoying a beer flavored by vanilla and roasted malts, with a hint of chocolate to keep it from being too sweet. 6.0 ABV Malts: Two- and six- row Pale Malt, Caramel 60, Carapils, Special B, Dark Chocolate and Roasted Barley Hops: Cluster & Willamette Other: Real vanilla

BONUS ROUND -Leinenkugels Orange Shandy - Wheat beer, likely exactly the same one that's in the Cranberry Ginger Shandy, but in this case the tart/sweet orange juice taste dosn't completely obscure the flavor of the beer. I like them both, but I think I would grab the orange shandy on a hot day. 4.2% ABV Malts: Pale and Wheat Hops: Cluster Other: Natural orange flavor

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