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Throwback Thursday: Full Sail Brewing Pale Ale

Originally posted November 10th, 2012 

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On today’s shelves, you find many different IPA, (India Pale Ale) styles. But if there becomes more and more different style then a regular IPA might be somewhat forgotten. But not here, we have Full Sail Brewery IPA, 6.0% ABV from Hood River Oregon. This is just a simple IPA, and it’s sometimes good to go back to an original. This IPA pours a light orange color with a pillowy white head that looks like vanilla ice cream. The head does stay for a little while, and some light coming through the glass. I didn’t find a whole lot of carbonation on this, but I did see nice lacing though out. The aroma on this Full Sail IPA is a big soapy lemon and citrus fruit with a hint of a grassy note. This really smells like a good typical IPA. The taste on Full Sail IPA is lemony slightly citrusy and has a faint bitter hop dryness. The mouthfeel is medium with a good amount of crispness. This IPA kind of coats your tongue a little. The finish is good crisp with a nice bitter lemon flavor that stays in your mouth. The after taste really stays around in your mouth with a nice bitter hop. This is receiving a B+ from me. A great IPA, but could have some other citrus fruits, but still good with a lemon flavor. I DO recommend this IPA, any hoppy beer lover or IPA lover would like this, even a non-IPA/Hop drinker would like this. Give this a try please! I highly Full Sail Brewery IPA. recommend Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

NoDa Brewing Company Chocolate + Peanut Butter Brown Ale

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I found NoDa Brewing Company Peanut Butter + Chocolate Brown Ale, 5.4% ABV in a mixed four-pack at Reid’s Fine Foods, a local specialty food market. This Peanut Butter + Chocolate Brown Ale is part of a Girl Scout cookie inspired mixed pack, and this particular beer is brewed with Cocoa Nibs, Epiphany malt, and condited on peanuts. Peanut Butter + Chocolate Brown Ale pours a dark brown color with a four-finger beige head that gives you wafting of big peanuts/peanut butter aromas with earthy chocolate sweet notes. You take a sip and a flavor of peanut butter hits your tongue with nice sweetness on the middle of your tongue with an earthy chocolate note towards the back then it comes to a nice peanut butter finish with a similar aftertaste but with a faint chocolate dry note with a medium to barely full mouthfeel. NoDa Brewing Company Peanut Butter + Chocolate Brown Ale is not back, good in fact, and does taste like a peanut butter chocolate cookie. I give it an B+. It has a great peanut buttery flavor with just the right amount of chocolate for a good overall flavor. NoDa Brewing Company Peanut Butter + Chocolate Brown Ale is one that I recommend trying. Please stay safe at home and please enjoy responsibly! Cheers!         

Wooden Robot Brewery Pilmatic American Pilsner

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Wooden Robot Brewery Pilmatic American Pilsner 5% ABV purchased from Pop The Top Craft Beer Shop is brewed locally here in Charlotte with Crystal Hops and aged in stainless tanks. Crystal Hops are woodsy, green floral, and fruity with herbal notes of nutmeg, cinnamon, and black pepper. Pilmatic pours Yellow clean/clear color with a three-finger creamy whipped bright white head that is super slow to fade, but when it fades a bit the head leaves behind thick lacing behind and gives your sense of smell a semi-sweet biscuity bread aroma with a crisp light hoppy note. Then you are ready to take a sip and your taste buds are greeted with a nice crisp biscuity flavor with a semi-sweet bread note come to you on the middle of the tongue with a faint hop note toward the rear of you tongue culminating to a nice refreshing crisp hoppy biscuit finish that turns to an aftertaste that is slightly hoppy crisp, refreshing with the faintest hint of a sweetness that light just long enough then is gone all with a light mouthfeel. Wooden Robot Brewery Pilmatic American Pilsner is a wonderful beer an A+ beer, a beer that is very crushable, sessionable, and you can have a whole four-pack of these and love every pint. I could not tell you anything but good things about this beer, that I highly recommend! Please stay safe at home and please enjoy responsibly! Cheers! 

New Anthem Beer Project Cinders and Rain Imperial Stout

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Not too long ago I reviewed New Anthem Beer Project and this another is New Anthem Beer Project, Cinders and Rain Imperial Stout, 12% ABV which I purchased from my favorite beer shop, Pop The Top Craft Beer Shop here in Charlotte, North Carolina. Cinders and Rain pours a thick oil black color with one and a quarter finger beige/tan khaki head that does stick a little with a nice aroma of bitter dark roast coffee with nice malt notes and some bitter dark chocolate wafting into your nose that leads you to a flavor it’s bitter with dark roasted coffee with hints of bitter dark cocoa chocolate that comes in on the middle that has a burnt malty quality on the back that all comes to a bar of bitter chocolate roasted coffee finish that continues into the bitter aftertaste with a full mouthfeel that coats your mouth. The bitterness on Anthem Beer Project, Cinders and Rain Imperial Stout didn’t really sit well with me and my tastebuds and I give Cinders and Rain a D+, and as this big beer warms up the bitterness grows. All that bitterness does affect all the other flavors of this Imperial Stout. I know New Anthem brews good beers, but this is not one of them and I may not go back for Cinders and Rain again. Please stay safe at home and please enjoy responsibly! Cheers!

Birdsong Brewing Company Paradise City Session IPA

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Not too long ago I received Birdsong Brewing Company Paradise City Session IPA 4.8% ABV with 45 IBUs, (International Bittering Units) from a coworker of my father. Paradise City is brewed here locally in Charlotte, North Carolina, and brewed with Two-row, Caramel 40L, Red Wheat, Oats, Carapils malts, Chinook hops, Cascade, Amarillo, and Idaho 7 hops. Paradise City pours a light orange color with a one-finger steady fading white head that exudes a litter bitter citrus hop aroma of light grapefruit and some orange to your sense of smell that leads you into a taste that is somewhat similar to the aroma with a slight bitter grass grapefruit and orange flavor with bites of hop flavor rushing in and out until the finish of bitter juicy citrus fruit that contiues at a faded capacity into the slightly bitter aftertaste with a light somewhat crisp mouthfeel. Birdsong Brewing Company Paradise City Session IPA is not bad but not the best, I believe it above average getting a C+ from me. Yes, I do think Paradise City is quite sessionable, you could crush a few of these, I know that I would. The overall flavor isn’t entirely memorable but I do vaguely remember how it tastes. Try Birdsong Brewing Company Paradise City Session IPA for yourself it’s not bad. Please stay safe at home and please enjoy responsibly! Cheers!         

Newgrass Brewing Co. Crossed Out Double India Pale Ale

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Newgrass Brewing Co. Crossed Out Double India Pale Ale, 8.5% ABV purchased from Pop The Top Craft Beer Shop in Charlotte, North Carolina, and is brewed not far in Shelby, North Carolina. Crossed Out pours a hazy yellow near orange color with a one and a quarter white slow fading white head that gives off a juicy citrus fruit aroma with nice bitter hop notes and upon tasting Crossed out you get a nice juicy grapefruit and orange taste that hits the front and middle of your tongue with a smoothness that has a nice amount of bitterness that becomes hoppy on your tongue/mouth and finishes with a nice smooth bitter juicy fruit and has a citrus fruit cup aftertaste with a smooth bitterness with a medium mouthfeel. Newgrass Brewing Co. Crossed Out Double India Pale Ale is not bad, I would say it is a B. Crossed Out’s citrus flavor and the bitter to collide a bit but are okay none the less, and yes I would recommend Newgrass Brewing Co. Crossed Out Double India Pale Ale just not more than two. Please stay safe at home and please enjoy responsibly! Cheers!    

Throwback Thursday: Olde Mecklenburg Brewery Captain James Jack Pilsner

Originally posted April 25th, 2012.

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On May 19, 1775, twenty-six local civic leaders convened the Mecklenburg Convention at the corner of Trade and Tryon in downtown Charlotte, NC. One day later on May 20th, the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence was unanimously adopted. It was the first such declaration by any civic body in the British colonies. Captain James Jack, a local tavern owner, volunteered at great personal risk to carry the Declaration more than 500 miles on horseback to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. That’s the interesting story on this Old Mecklenburg Pilsner’s name, no on to the beer itself. This is a pilsner at 4.9% abv and has nice sharp gold color with a brilliant white head that is thick but is gone before you know it. It has a nice calm light hop scent with a sort of grassy aroma to it that smells like a spring lawn, not bad. On the taste, you get a crisp hop, not that is light and refreshing with the tiniest bit of bitterness. You get a nice clean crisp refreshing finish that goes down rather smooth, which makes this is a good everyday kind of beer when you just want to good plane beer. This Captain is good and drinkable, not to light not to heavy, a good balance of things. This is good on any day, especially a hot one. Old Mecklenburg Brewery seems to pride themselves on making each beer special, great and tasty in my opinion and that’s how you need to feel about most beer in general, pride, and happiness. That is key to good beer drinking. Try this and you’ll agree! Cheers! Please drink responsibly! 

New Anthem Beer Project Dance Floor Heater

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New Anthem Beer Project Dance Floor Heater, 5.2% ABV is a New Zealand Hopped Pilsner brewed in Wilmington, North Carolina with Motueka hops, Mexican yeast, Pilsner Malt, and of course water. Dance Floor Heater pours a nice crisp yellow color with a one and a quarter finger bright white head that fizzes down to a thin layer giving of nice crisp beady aromas with some light hop notes and a bit of bitterness that beckons you to take a sip where you’ll find a nice crisp beaded/biscuit note with a light hop note in the middle of the mouth that continues to the end with a faint bitterness that shows itself in the back of your mouth. Dance Floor Heater finishes with a bitter crisp with a very faint lemon-like note that carries into the aftertaste with a light bitterness but with less of a lemon note with a  light mouthfeel. New Anthem Beer Project really nailed it with Dance Floor Heater, this is a really good flavorful pilsner without being overwhelming and yes I think that many Dance Floor Heaters could be had without being too much on your tastebuds. New Anthem Beer Project Dance Floor Heater is an A+ beer and should be tried if you haven’t already. Please stay safe at home and please enjoy responsibly! Cheers!  

Blowing Rock Brewing Co. Cloud Rise Hazy IPA

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Blowing Rock Brewing Company Cloud Rise Hazy IPA, 7.2% ABV from Hickory North Carolina was gifted to me through my father’s business associate. Cloud Rise is brewed Cashmere, Mosaic, and Simcoe hops. Cloud Rise pours light hazy orange with a three-finger sticky white pillowy, cloud-like head that gives off hoppy citrusy tropical fruit notes of orange and freshly crushed pineapple that gives you a taste of juicy orange and fresh pineapple with a nice bitterness on the middle of the mouth with a crisp flavor of grapefruit that comes together for a fruity juicy finish and aftertaste that of fresh hops with nice orange and light grapefruit pineapple with a medium mouthfeel. Blowing Rock Brewing Co. Cloud Rise Hazy IPA is a refreshingly fruity hazy IPA that gets a B+ here. I think that the 7.2% ABV and the bitter hoppy notes do tend to become too much after three of these and that is the only thing I found to be negative about Cloud Rise, the beer is good with nice flavors and you should try Cloud Rise for yourself! Cheers! Please stay safe at home and enjoy responsibly! Cheers!    

King Canary Brewing Co.

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King Canary Brewing co. Dark Side of the Loon, 5.6% ABV purchaser in Crowler form from Pop The Top Craft Beer Shop is an English-style Porter brewed with fifteen pounds of golden raisins, vanilla, and a touch of coconut. Dark Side of the Loon pours a black color with a quarter finger beige bubbly head that fades into nothing as soon as it from with no traces of it being left behind. I found there to be nice chocolate, black licorice with very faint raisin with some light coffee aromas on the nose that then lead into similar flavors of chocolate, black licorice, nice but light coffee notes with very faint raisin come in for a second on the back of your tongue that comes to a slightly bitter chocolate licorice finish with a licorice aftertaste. King Canary Brewing co. Dark Side of the Loon is not so great but not the worst Porter, I think its a D, and was something that I did finish two pints of from my crowler but I wouldn’t have again, the weird bitterness towards the end was not that pleasant nor was the chocolate and licorice together, when but together those two tasted weird and bitter.  I didn’t enjoy King Canary Brewing co. Dark Side of the Loon, as much as I was thinking that I would I would not try this beer. Please stay safe at home and please enjoy responsibly! Cheers!