The Beer Drinking Man’s Guide for Michigan Football
The Michigan football team defeated Hawaii 63-3 Saturday in Ann Arbor. And while the Wolverines won, there is more you need to know to properly enjoy their games for the rest of the season.
Michigan Football is upon us, and that means that for a fair share of football fans, increased beer consumption season is also upon us. In the spirit of sport and revelry, I’ll be recommending a beer to drink that’ll get you through the game–win or lose.
Related Story: Game balls for Michigan vs Hawaii
The Hawaii Rainbow Warriors visited Ann Arbor to kick off the 2016 season (for Michigan at least, the poor Warriors had to travel to freaking Australia to face off against Cal before going back to Hawaii for a few days before flying to Michigan).
The Michigan football team rolled Hawaii, winning the game 63-3. But there is more to watching football than just football.
There is also beer.
As the summer winds its way to a close a new slate of brewery releases with stark differences in flavor profiles, texture, and alcohol content will take over the market. Pumpkin ales, ambers, some ports and stouts will take the place of blondes, light ales, fruity ales, and wheat beers on store shelves across the country. Hang on to the summer for at least one more week and pick up a sixer of Bell’s Oberon.
You always want to start the season strong, so sticking with Bell’s is the right choice. For my money, its either the best or second best brewery in the US (check out Great Divide out of Denver) and the pride of Michigan, the best beer state in the Union, in my humble opinion. They don’t make any bad products, but Oberon and Two Hearted Ale are revered like few other well distributed craft beers, particularly in the Midwest.
The arrival of Oberon in March signals warmer days on the horizon, and its disappearance in late August/early September means that Fall and Winter have returned. It’s a refreshing summer wheat beer that is quintessentially Midwestern. Oberon is light and refreshing but also packs a punch. The first thing you notice is the fact that it’s unfiltered; not uncommon for wheat beers, but more uncommon for summer beers. The consistency of the liquid is heavy when it first hits your tongue and makes you think that this is a much more substantial beer.
Just when you’re wondering how this could be construed as a light warm-weather beer, the citrus hits your palate. Its nose is orange and leads into a well balance wheat flavor, bordering on too sweet but just restrained enough to get you to the back end of the sip, which finishes remarkably cleanly for an unfiltered beer. It’s sweet and smoothly savory, unfiltered but clean, and–somehow–only made with four ingredients that do not include fruit or spices. This is a remarkable feat of a beer, and, in my mind, the perfect summer beer.
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Crack one open, toast the Summer gone by and the football season to come.