Thomas Hooker Watermelon Ale

Brewed by Thomas Hooker Brewing Company
Style: Fruit Beer
Bloomfield, Connecticut USA

Pours salmonflesh pink/ orange with a frothy, quickly dissipating white head. Nose is watermelon, high-fructose corn syrupy with essence of Jolly Rancher swimming about the room from the moment I open it. If it tastes like it smells, then it should be a malternative. Flavor is a bit mild with less assertive watermelon flavors than I imagined. Flavor lingers with mild watermelon and some rind. So-so. I am glad I tried it, but it is light bodied and has potential. What would this be like with brett??

Okay, even before I smell or taste this one, I am dubious. Open mind, I remind myself. The beer looks nice. Good head, decent lace. Golden-amber color, cloudy. Think Sweettart when smelling this beer. Quite candy-like--it also reminds me of the taste of children’s aspirin. If I were blindfolded, I would never guess that this a beer. The taste is an improvement from the smell. Still, it is closer to soda than a beer. The body is appropriate. First thought, I’d place this beer in the Fruit category. Secondly, I cannot detect any watermelon. A clear miss in many ways.

12oz bottle from Datz Deli (Tampa, FL). Pours a generally clear dark strawberry color with thin white head. Aroma is sweet and fruity with strong notes of watermelon, simple syrup, wheat, yeast, ripe fresh fruit. Flavor is sweet and fruity with watermelon, syrup, ripe fresh fruit, jolly ranchers, yeast. Generally medium body with a fruity finish. Interesting ale.

12oz bottle, Knightly Spirits. Now I’ve had 3 Watermelon beers before this one. All have been made with watermelon juice. This one is straight up Jolly Rancher! Pink in color just like the candy. Aroma just like the candy. Flavor is a liquid version of the candy. Thin bodied, light fizz. I really have to keep this one away from my 8 year old. mmm, candy. 01 Aug 09

Can… Pours clear and lightly golden with a mid-sized, fizzy, white head. Decent retention. Smells just like a watermelon Jolly Rancher - very cool, as I happen to be a fan of watermelon Jolly Ranchers. Light-bodied with fizzy carbonation. The flavor offers pale grains with only a hint of watermelon. Finishes crisp and mildly sweet.

Bottle from Knightly Spirits. Light red pour. Aroma smells just like a watermelon jolly rancher mixed with some light beer. Flavor is odd. Artificial watermelon, too much carbonation and not a good malty note. Didn’t enjoy it. Not at all. Poured it out.

12oz bottle. Pours a pinkish color with a small white fizzy head. Nose is watermelon jolly ranchers (as previously noted) and that sums it up. Palate is filmy and sugary, quite fizzy and carbonated. Flavors is stale, sugary water, corn syrup, leaves an awful feeling on the tongue that is dirty.

Pours crystal clear, rosey-amber hue with a minimal, fleeting head of fizzy, light pink foam. Zero lacing of note. It smells exactly like a watermelon Jolly Rancher, overly saccharine and artificially fruity. If there’s a single hop in there, I can’t find it. The flavor is exactly the same. Sweet, sugary watermelon is all that truly shows, with no yeasty spice or hop bitterness. The palate is somehow simultaneously light and syrupy, with an overly prickly carbonation. It’s not refreshing in the least bit, despite the mere 4.5% ABV. Pretty poor overall.