Beverage of the Week: SweetWater's got a new West Coast IPA (yay) and a light beer (... OK)

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.

SweetWater is like Firestone Walker or Elysian or Three Floyd’s to me; it’s a circle of trust brewery.

It may not have the same cachet of those more notable brewers, but SweetWater has been a staple of my drinking life since graduate school in Nashville and $2.50 pints of Blue and 420 at the Flying Saucer. The brand has expanded since then, and while it’s always tough to find up here in the saturated boozing landscape of Wisconsin it’s always been a worthwhile find. As such, it’s landed inside the circle of trust; if I’m somewhere where there’s no real local beers on tap but there’s one of these nationally distributed brewers (like, say, an airport), they’re getting the call.

The question is whether the brewery still has the magic as it branches into new territory. SweetWater introduced two new beers this spring — a West Coast IPA to attract folks who like hoppy citrus and a lager to cover a more traditional light beer market. I drank them because that’s my job sometimes, and I fully appreciate how lucky that makes me.

Here’s what I thought — along with a bonus look at Hendrick’s newest gin offering.