Here on the last day of August, the heat's outrageous. Hell, most of this month has been damn near unbearable, temperature-wise. There was a span of something like four days a few weeks back that was nice and cool, putting me in a pleasant early-autumn mood. Before I could get too comfortable in it, however, the oppressive heat came back full-force.

Oh, well. That just means that I'm not quite ready to shift into Oktoberfest season on the blog yet. I have three (looking for possibly one more) Oktoberfest-themed beers to do up next month. But, for now, let's send out the standard summer season. Michelle and our son are inside taking a nap and I'm out on my porch, weathering the humidity, with a beer in-hand and my laptop open on the wrought-iron table before me. Let's get into it. Here, for your reading (and my drinking pleasure) is State of Brewing's Shuteye Peak.

State of Brewing isn't an actual brewery! It's a brand controlled by the grocery chain Aldi which, to my knowledge, is contracted out to Octopi Brewing. Here's an article that talks a bit about the brewery's contract work, for those who might need some convincing of my claim.

Before going any further, pointing out that Octopi brews Aldi beers isn't a knock against them. The Waunakee, WI brewery does great work--here's a post I made a few years back about a legit Octopi stout that I found to be fantastic.

Since there's nothing on the internet that's a better official description of the ale than what's printed on my can, I'll just list what I have about Shuteye Peak at hand (and I'll include a picture of it below): We're looking at a pale ale that clocks in at 5.6% ABV. That's it. The rest is what we discover today.

Shuteye Peak's nose is incredibly pleasant. I get toffee and straw from the malt. There's a bit of graham cracker in there, too. I'm picking up juicy fruit notes from the hops, orange, pineapple, guava, and some slight mango. I can't find anything here to complain about. Purrl likes the bouquet as much as I do, seeing as how she gave my can a whopping twelve whiffs.

The ale tastes a little more subdued than what it's nose made me think it would. The malt isn't super forward in it (it's mainly just straw here, anyway, with toffee popping up momentarily before the finish). The hops loom large in the flavor profile. They're more bitter than sweet, with only mild fruit appearing before a grounding bitterness carries the beer through it's finish. There's a quality here that I can only describe as "homebrew." Something wild and untempered by an exacting brewery's hand. I love that quality in a beer.

Surprise, surprise. Shuteye Peak drinks like an ale. A little full, a little sharp, immensely quaffable.

The very first beer I ever made myself was a pale ale from a kit. I watched a few videos on brewing before diving into it one evening during our first year in Cincinnati. I had the apartment to myself that night and figured I could kick it out before I needed to head to bed. I had no idea how long and involved of a process brewing is.

I didn't have a boil-over or anything, but when I finally made it to bed it was well into the wee hours. But I'd done it. The beer was set to be fermenting in the carboy into which I'd transferred it. How'd it taste? Wild. Untempered. Crafted with passion and without an exacting hand. I loved it, much like how I'm finding I adore Shuteye Peak.

State of Brewing's Shuteye Peak was something like $15/twelve-pack at Aldi when I grabbed it. What a steal! This beer is fun and a great companion for a hot and lazy summer Saturday afternoon. It's a 9.5/10. Aldi offerings come and go quickly so if you see this in your store, get it and enjoy.