Last night was the start of a three-day weekend, which includes the Veterans Day holiday on Monday. Obviously you can connect the dots by now… it was time for a fine ale or two.

One beer I’ve been meaning to open up and savor is Hop Back Brewery’s Summer Lightning, which I picked up in North Carolina about a month ago. Not being available in my native state, I naturally had to pick this one up when I saw it. Imports can be tricky, as many have to endure a long journey before they reach our shores, so true quality can sometimes be a concern. You’d hate to give a beer a bad name without tasting it at the source. Then again, a beer originating in California can make that perilous cross-country trek thousands of miles to Virginia, so maybe my intermittent fears are unfounded. Nevertheless, this one was bottle conditioned, so I had a good feeling that this thing could hold up over the time and distance it took from South West England to the East Coast United States.

For an English Bitter, I was rather surprised by the flavor. I guess that’s a reminder to be wary of style guidelines, seeing as how the label calls it a Golden Ale. To be honest, I find those categories helpful, but love it when a beer breaks the mold, as this one did. Summer Lightning has an aroma akin to a lager, but in actuality is much more complicated in the taste. More hop bitterness than expected, with some nuances that separated it from your average Bitter, but I could still see it being classified as such. Either way, very nicely done, I thought.

Today, however, I had to pop the cork of a special beer I had also purchased in North Carolina a month back. None other than Left Hand Brewing Company’s Chainsaw Ale, a one-off creation that was intended to be a “double” version of their Sawtooth ESB. Definitely higher in alcohol content than its predecessor (9% compared to Sawtooth’s 4.75%), but a smooth sipper nonetheless. This one reminded me of the sweet, dark fruit flavors of an Old Ale, but with a unique Left Hand twist. I was rather pleased with the results.

I’d say I got the weekend started off on the right foot with the Left Hand. And even though it’s autumn, I’m still enjoying some Summer Lightning. Neither of which seem to be actual Bitters. Go figure.