Little Sumpin’ Sumpin Ale

Lagunitas‘s “Little Sumpin’ Sumpin’ Ale” was purchaed on a whim at my local beer store.

For me, Lagunitas’s labels are what make impulse purchases so incredibly easy. As a set, they supply excellent brand cohesiveness (this even though the typeface for “Lagunitas” changes from label to label). Inconsistent, distressed type aside, each label has a dog, funny text, and an amusing beer name. As evidence of Lagunitas’s beer naming perspicacity, they have both a brown named “Brown Shugga’” (obvious yet brilliant) and a copper quite clearly not named “Kronic” (less obvious).  The brewery, like Dogfish Head or Rogue, provides an excellent label that does what it should: makes it incredibly easy to spot familiar but new beers from a trusted (or at least known) source.

Lagunitas Little Sumpin Sumpin Ale

The Label in Question

Their beer, of course, makes repeat purchases easy for me. Each is like it’s own post-craft brew, post-I-memorized-the-BJCP,  post-I-give-a-shit-about-other-people homebrew awesomeness. Drinking anything from Lagunitas, I get the sense that the brewers would be very sad if the beer didn’t align with my personal tastes; however, it’s hard to say if they would be sad that they failed me or if they’d be sad that I had bad taste. Thankfully, I agree with their taste, and their beer always leaves me incredibly pleased regardless.

“Sumpin’ Sumpin” does not disappoint. It tastes like a wheat-based homage to Racer 5 that was lovingly dipped in caramel. It has, on the whole, much less hops than an IPA like Racer 5, but a similar abundance of pine and floral hop notes. I imagine that it’s pefect for the mild summers of Northern California, but it may have a bit more body than you’d like after a day of yardwork in the swelter summers of the southland.

For me, it was a pleasant reminder that the earth is spinning back towards the sun and I’ll be drinking spring and summer beers soon enough. Hopefully, some of them will have dogs on the label.