San Tan's Mr Pineapple, is it the perfect summer beer?

a tad warm

OK, I am sitting here, its March 14th, 10 am, all the windows and doors open, and sun is already warming up to a comfortable 71, on its way to around 93 today. Yup, this is what we call "spring" in Arizona. In just a few short months, the temp will be climbing an additional 20 degrees or so from today's forecasted high (last summer, we hit 118 I believe, officially, my car thermometer read 122!). So, while most of the country is still butt deep in the chilly white stuff, longing for temps that don't start with "minus", we here in Arizona are already in shorts and flip flops, and contemplating turning on the A/C. This is exactly why I moved here!

Bells Oberon

This brings about thoughts of beers for summer, at least it does for me. Now, for the last 5 years, my standard, go to summer beer has been Bell's Oberon Ale, from Kalamazoo, MI (I first had it at my wedding reception, where we had a keg of it). Well, I may have found a beer that will compete for my fridge space this summer! Who could possible take the place of that golden beer with the smiling sun on the label? Well, Mr Pineapple, that's who! The best part, its brewed less then 10 miles from my house!!

I was lucky enough to receive a couple of can's of San Tan Brewing Company's Mr Pineapple the other day. Now, if anyone has been to their pub during the summer months you may have tried this already. They started making it for their annual Luau celebrations. Well, I guess it received such deserved praise, they decided to make it a staple summer seasonal beer in their pub. Now, since San Tan has decided to launch Arizona's first seasonal canned beer campaign, we will now be lucky enough to grab a six pack of this treasure to enjoy anywhere!

This award winning beer (Silver Medalist at the 2011 Great American Beer Festival) is a traditional German Wheat beer using white wheat, two row and Munich malt. They add fresh pineapple ( I read 130 oz per barrel) during the primary fermentation  then crushed, and cooled to infuse those pineapple flavors with the traditional flavors of the German Wheat beer. Its a very session-able 5% ABV, with a light 20 IBU's.

It pours a cloudy, dark golden, almost orange color. With a fluffy white head, that looks almost like frosting on a cupcake! The aroma is fresh, wheat/bread, typical of a wheat beer, but also with a fruity character, and not just pineapple, more like a fruit salad. You can pull the pineapple aromas out of it however. The aroma is very refreshing on this beer!

Now, when you take a sip, the pineapple is much more pronounced then in the aroma, but there is still that hint of other fruit (apple mostly), but again, you mainly get the pineapple, that mixes well with the fresh wheat flavors. Now, this isn't one of those over the top, sickening sweet fruit beers. While the fruit flavors are pronounced, they don't over power and take over the taste of the beer, which I just love! The pineapple flavor is more then a hint, but still subtle enough for you folks that like beer that still tastes like beer. Over all, this is a very drinkable, smoothly pleasant beer to drink. It just seems like all the aspects of this beer are so very well balanced  Not one aspect over powers and takes over, they all seem to mingle, and work perfectly together to produce a near perfect summer/poolside beer!

Will Mr Pineapple take its place in my fridge as my go to summer beer? That remains to be seen, but I will say this, there will be plenty of it, along side my beloved Oberon in my fridge this summer!

Mr Pineapple will be available in stores starting after the BBQ and Beer festival in Chandler next weekend (March 23rd). Find it where every you find San Tan beers.

Thank you Jennifer P and folks at HDE for the "sneak peak"!

Learn more about San Tan on their website here..

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San Tan Brewing is located at 

8 S. San Marcos Place

Chandler, AZ 

Opened 

Sun - Thur 11 am to 1 am

Fri and Sat 11 am to 2 am

Until Next Time

Bottoms Up My Friends

The Beer Czar