It's been my experience that Magic Hat makes some really good variety packs. When I head back to the East Coast (North Carolina), I always pick up the latest seasonal offering. The most recent one I tried (Night of the Living Dead) was awesome! I particularly enjoyed the Deveiled Amber and HIPA. I also had their Summer Scene pack. IPA on Tour and Hibiscus beer were good, not so much for the Cucumber one. Of course, #9 is hard to beat and deserves to be packaged in all of the variety packs. Anyone else impressed with the variety packs?
Have a soft spot for the Heart of Darkness Stout in the Winter Mix Pack. Used to drink a dangerous amount of it when I moved to the Boston area in 2000, wouldn't mind checking it out again. Tried the Encore Wheat IPA recently, was meh...Lagunitas Lil Sumpin Sumpin is far superior for the style. Per their website it contains a ginger holiday beer - I'd give that a shot, I love ginger ale/beer plain & mixed with cocktails - sounds interesting.
magic hat is not what it used to be. 9 used to be a legitimately tastey beer...now its a shell of its former self. Or maybe its just that my tastes have changed. But i doubt it.
That's why there are so many breweries out there...something for everyone. Personally, I don't spend my money there.
Heart of darkness is great. I actually will buy a 12 pack for them and give away the rest to guests. I'm not really a fan of any of their other beers
Individually, I agree there are better beers out there. However, I would argue that their variety packs are very good. Saranac is another East Coast brewery that I think does a nice job with their mixers. The point is that you have 4 beers in there that meets most taste profiles and if you're just in town for a weekend, you usually find a few crowd pleasers. If you guys have other recommendations in mind, I'm open to hearing them.
Night of the Living Dead was alright. Their packaging sucks and its hard to make out what the beer is.
i picked up the most recent mix pack about a month ago. it included G-thing, Heart of Darkness, Encore and #9. Heart of Darkness was solid and G-thing was a decent spiced ale. encore is a boring, uninspired IPA with very few hops and #9 just isn't what it used to be.
