I did not go to school in New England like my two brothers did, so I was not as versed in Magic Hat as they’d been. Magic Hat, of course, comes from Burlington, Vermont —where my older brother went to college — and it’s one of most popular local brews up north.

My first experience with Magic Hat was at my younger brother’s from Bates College, in Lewiston, Maine. The night before graduation, at midnight, Bates throws an on-campus party and allows the students to bring kegs. Nice weather, college kids drinking and having fun. So what kind of beer would you expect them to have? Natural Light, Milwaukee’s Best, a Miller product? Nope, he and his friends got a keg of Magic Hat #9. What? So, my first encounter with Magic Hat is at midnight at a college keg fest. I was not impressed. I felt it tasted like an apricot air freshener. In fact I paid some other people $20 to drink out of their Milwaukee’s Best keg. Hey, it’s who I am. The point is, for many years after that, I shied away from Magic Hat because of my experience with the fruity #9. My mistake.

Fast forward several years. My older brother visits his alma mater, the University of Vermont, pays a visit the Magic Hat brewery. And what does he bring me back? A sweet case of beer? A keg? No, a Circus Boy t-shirt and some glasses. Beer, people! Bring back beer! So all I got was a crummy t-shirt and continued to be in the dark about the beer.

Finally, fast forward to last and a bar in Philadelphia called The Irish Pol, an amazing bar that has 40 taps in various places on the wall behind the bar, with an amazing selection of microbrews, brews from Belgium, even Pabst Blue Ribbon. A fun, eclectic mix, and in the mix are several Magic Hat selections.

I’m thinking it was fate that brought me together that night with Magic Hat, because while we were sitting at the bar, in walked the Magic Hat Girls. I know what you are thinking: Swedish-Bikini-Team types, right? Normally when a beer company sends girls around, they are wearing tight shirts or hot pants. But not the Magic Hat Girls. Maybe it’s because the brewery is in Vermont, but these girls were…well, sort of crunchy granola. You know, Birkenstocks and hippy-ish clothes. It wasn’t that they were unattractive, just totally different and unexpected. Some of the items they were giving away were different as well — condoms and playing cards. Playing cards is normal right? But these had sayings like, “When in doubt, shroud your spout” or  “Don’t be a punk, cover your junk.” I assume Magic Hat was partnering with a safe sex campaign, but can’t be sure. Anyway, they were also giving out T-shirts if you were drinking Magic Hat. So we ordered some Circus Boy.

Circus Boy is a curious beer name (though slightly better than Hoptimus Prime) and it’s labeled The Hefeweizen! Sure, it is brewed in that style, but as with most Magic Hat beers, they are adding something to the mix. This time it is lemongrass. This cloudy unfiltered beer is delicious. Full of flavor, but light and clean enough to make a nice session beer. It is good in the winter as it would be on a hot day. Wait a second, I thought, this isn’t anything like the #9 I remember. This is so good that it’s since become a regular beer on tap at my house. Maybe it was time I took a look at Magic Hat’s other offerings.

Some of that night’s tasting were lost in the fog of so many flights, so I picked up some six packs of Magic Hat to finish exploring what they have to offer.

Lucky Cat is a reddish-colored IPA. Not as big a fan of this one. It has a nice floral nose, but the flavor — it took me a while to place, but it  was like a cherry thing that I have had before and did not like. It also had a musty bitter flavor. Not may favorite, but not near as bad as #9.

Next up was HIPA. A coppery India Pale Ale with a nice white head. It is one of their seasonal beers. I found it to have a nice hop flavor but not too much. If you are looking for a hop explosion go elsewhere. Magic Hat’s Web site said it was a beer for chillin’ out. I would agree — the 5.8 ABV is nicely hidden and it does not have too much hop bite. Also worth a look is the label designed by Stanley Mouse of Grateful Dead album design fame.

Odd Notion is Magic Hat’s special, limited-batch seasonal brew. The spring Odd Notion called Poppy Agave Pilsner came in Magic Hat’s Spring Fever 12-pack. Yes, I broke my own rule and bought a mix pack. Ugh. It comes with three of this “pilsner” that is brewed with blue poppy seeds and organic agave. That sounds vaguely like something Stanley Mouse may have used back in the day, but here it’s no stronger than 5.0 ABV. Magic Hat added a nice nutty flavor with just enough of the right balance to make a perfect spring offering.

I enjoyed most of the offerings, and am hooked. Magic Hat likes to play around and add things, change up the recipes, and experiment with new flavors — all with cute little sayings under the caps (like “Keep this bottle forever … and tell NO One”). Fun stuff from what seems like a fun brewer that’s not afraid to take some risks…So that was what I did . . .

I finally broke down to try the #9 again. Ten years is a long time. Maybe I was wrong, or maybe my tastes had changed. Nope. I really still do not like this beer. It has a strange fruit flavor that stays on the tongue. This is not beer flavor, and I still think licking an apricot air freshener is the proper analogy. Maybe instead of cards, the Magic Hat Girls can give out this beer, people would drink less and therefore remember to use the condom they gave out.

Tyler Wilson drinks beer. Email him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

"The Brew" photograph from Flickmor via Flickr (Creative Commons), "Bottle" photograph from istockphoto.com