HARPER’S BEERS: AN EXTENSIVE REVIEW

Harper's brews from left to right, Greasy Beaver Stout, Harper's brown ale, Grove-street PA, Raspberry wheat, Spartan wheat, and Harper's English ale.

Harper's brewpub!

We feel like this review is long over due and we are happy to bring this to anyone who is curious about Harper's in house brewed beers.  Before we kick things off we want to make it clear that we enjoy all types of beer and unlike like most bud light chuggers who think they can properly review a beer and cant, that's not us.

We're going to review these beers with a simple yet effective set of 4 categories.  Appearance, Smell, Taste, and Drink-ability.  A point total of 20 would equal the perfect beer, 15-19 would be considered great, 10-14 good , 5-9 bad, and 1-4 horrible.

We respect the effort that goes into brewing and understand it's difficult nature, with that being said we're going to be honest on this review.  We appreciate Harper's, but without an honest review this would be of little value. Oh, and occasionally Harper's switches up their drafts, and as that happens we will revisit and revise this article.

Following the rule "Stop, think and drink" helped us properly review Harper's brews!

All right, let's get started! In order of left to right , starting with the...

Greasy Beaver - This stout was overall our favorite draft Harper's had to offer, a great dark appearance and great roasty smell.  Malty and strong but still drank very well. This beer had a very clean overall taste and stands up well! [A4, S3, T4, D3 - 14]

Harper's Brown Ale - Brown ales can be difficult to review due to the extremely diverse term that a "brown ale" is. Brown ales can be a dark amber all the way to a rich brown.  Some are very mild while some are overly hopped and spiced.  This ale had a mild and low hopped initial taste, with a strange medium spice mid and finish.  I'm really not sure how to describe the spice without being rude, however it had a nice lightness drink-ability to it. [A3, S2,T2,D3 - 10]

Grovestreet PA - This PA had a great pale malty taste and was hopped just right.  PAs are meant to have  hoppy and floral like taste and this one had it.  Overall this was a pleasant beer despite its lackluster appearance.   It had good flavor and drink-ability though. [A2,S2,T3,D3 - 10]

Raspberry Wheat / Spartan Wheat - These two are by far the most popular drafts that Harper's has to offer.  Wheat beers can also have a vast range in flavor.  Brewed with significant amount of wheat and malted barley this beer fits the name but just doesn't have much to it.  Is that a bad thing? Most college kids seem to think not, and tend to agree they would rather have better drink-ability and alcohol than flavor. (Which is fine!) [A2,S1,T2,D5 - 10]

Harper's Ale -This English style Summer ale had a peculiar taste. It had a resiny and perfumy finish that left us really perplexed.  East Kent Golding hops were used, This hop has a unique spicy aroma and refined flavor. If you like this style of Ale you should try it, we however did not .  [A2,S1,T1,D1 - 5]

EDIT: We were mis-informed on a few things, the blackstrap porter was actually a stout that goes by the name of "Greasy Beaver Stout". Also the Belgian whit was improperly reviewed, it was in fact an English Ale that "off" in some way.  We are going to retry it next time we are at Harper's.

Harpers brew pub - Winter draft review complete!

Thanks for reading our review of Harper's brews!  Feel free to hit up our discussion forum, follow us on facebook or twitter, and as always be safe, have fun, and enjoy ELB!