Chicagoist's "Beer of the Week:" Magic Hat ODD Notion Summer 2009 Ale

We like coming home to a package of beer samples on the doorstep after a long bike ride; it lets us imagine we're at the general store by Kettle Moraine after a long day on the trails.

The fine folks at Magic Hat send out samples with regularity, of varying quality. Of their summer beers we found their Wacko summer ale, brewed with beet sugar, to be failure in a bottle. But we loved the ODD Notion summer ale. This is a beer that's perfect for porch sipping, sneaking into Pitchfork (not that we condone that) or a weekend grill session. Odd Notion Summer 2K9 is brewed with pale malt and Apollo hops, with a fair amount of Belgian candy sugar added to give the Belgian ale yeast a little something extra to feast on and turn into alcohol.

Here's where it gets tricky in order to track down this beer. the only way we've found it is in Magic Hat's "Summer Scene" variety 12-packs, alongside Wacko and the very hoppy Lucky Kat IPA. Binny's South Loop and Sam's both have this in stock.