Yesterday evening Babalu Tacos & Tapas had a collaborative dinner with The Unknown Brewing Co., four courses paired with four Uknow Brewing Co. beers. The restaurant sat us at a bar table with all the other people in attendance, sitting at this type of table with a barstool is not so comfortable a table would have been more comfortable. The dinner started off with a snack of Charcuterie, house made sausage, Spanish cheese, beer bread, and paired with Unknowns Pre Game Session Ale. This beer is categorized at as a Pale Ale.
This beer is smooth and easy to drink. It is like a better craft version of Bud, Miller, Coors beers. it has a very light citrusy smooth flavor to it, and didn’t over power the any of the snacks. The first course Serrano and Melon; cantaloupe, red onion marmalade, whipped queso fresco was paired with Let’s Get Tropical IPA.
This American IPA was slightly hoppy with nice pineapple, mango, melon, a little bit of grapefruit and some faint coconut on the end and finish. I see why this was paired with this, it was the melon in the dish and the melon flavor of the beer. Nice touch and not a bad IPA but I’ve had some that are better. The second-course was Seared Scallops, sea beans, burgundy truffle, water melon radish paired with Hospitali-Tea Amber Ale.
I have had this before and very briefly talked about this beer in a review of the South Blvd Harris Teeter bar. In a nutshell, it’s like iced tea with some honey on the end. It has some nice sweetness to it. I found this beer to be quite good as was the second course. The third course was dry-aged ribeye, mole Amarillo, roasted vegetables, honey garlic, purple Peruvian chips paired with over The Edge American IPA.
This is there more hop forward IPA and you can definitely taste the hops on this one. It’s a big full hop flavor up front and slightly mellow though the rest of the mouth and finishing with a big hoppy note that is on the drier said. Not a bad IPA but there is a lot of hoppy flavor to this beer with some lighter grapefruit and earthy pine notes. I think this could use more of the earthy pine and grapefruit notes. Now the dessert was chocolate pot de creme, burnt orange syrup, Grand Marnier pearls, and thyme paired Unknown Craft Ginger Ale cocktail, which was Jack Daniels, muddled orange and Unknown Craft ginger ale, which is non-alcoholic. This Ginger Ale is great with bourbon and rum and great all on it owen. Much better than all the ginger ales you find at the grocery store. This isn’t so sweet like the average ginger ale.
Overall the whole beer dinner was good but could have been better, the food wasn’t bad but I’ve had better, and the beer was good. Sit us at a table next time. Cheers! please enjoy responsibly!
Foothills in Winston-Salem, North Carolina has another in their Crapt Happiness IPA Project, Clean IPA, 6.0% ABV and 55 IBUs. Clean IP is benefiting clean water. Clean IPA pours an orange color with a two finger big but thin white head giving you an orange/orange peel, citrus fruit, like grapefruit with piney, earthy and some hoppy aroma notes which lead into a similar taste. You get citrus fruits, earth hoped pine notes that are just enough and Clean IPA finishes nicely with a bit of with a bitter orange and grapefruit but the after taste halts quickly with a bitter citrus flavor. This beer is very easy to drink for an IPA and give this Clean IPA an A. Everytime I have one of these beers from Foothills brewing I can’t say enough good things about it. This is a good one that I recommend trying for yourself. It just the right amount of hoppy flavor. But not as bold as some of the others in this series which helps this beer to be an easier drinker. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly! 
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