Flying Fish Brewing Co. Salt and Sea Session Sour Ale

Posted on by Evan

Brewed with strawberry and lime Flying Fish Brewing Co. Salt and Sea, 4.3% a session sour from Somerdale New Jersey, which Flying Fish claims to have enticing aromas of saltwater taffy. Salt and Sea pours a light golden color with a one half finger white head and with sour, tart, fruity aromas with faint semi-sweet notes as well. Taste is similarly the aroma with tart fruity sour notes of light strawberry and lime with nice salty touches, but is it like saltwater taffy? Well a little but not entirely. Salt and Sea finish tart with light fruity sour notes with a medium salted tart aftertaste with a light mouthfeel that is all refreshing. Flying Fish Brewing Co. Salt and Sea is well deserving of an A. I found Flying Fish Brewing Co. Salt and Sea to have enough flavor to convey what’s they were going for, and yes I would recommend it. It is well balanced, refreshing and easy to drink. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Westbrook Brewing Company Yu Zuper Nice Rice Lager Brewed with Yusuf Juice

Posted on by Evan

You probably haven’t heard of a Yuzu fruit. Well, Yuzu is a citrus fruit similar to the Kaffir Lime and looks like a small yellow grapefruit. Westbrook Brewing Co. Yu Zuper Nice, 4.5% is brewed with rice, a touch of Yuzu and lightly dry-hopped with Loral Hops. Rice lagers are typical of China and Japan. Yu Zuper Nice purchased from Total Wine pours a yellow lemon color with an almost two finger fluffy white head with an aroma of Yuzu, lemon sweetness hitting your nose with a rice sweetness as well. Taste is light with a nice juicy Yuzu/lemon flavor that slightly enhances the light rice sweetness that comes in on the middle and back of the mouth that is quite refreshing, especially on a warm humid day. Yu Zuper Nice finish with a light sweet crisp flavor and the] aftertaste is slightly and lightly tart from the Yuzu all with a light mouthfeel. This is Super nice and refreshing something that I could drink a bunch of, and I recommend you do the same. Westbrook Brewing Co. Yu Zuper Nice is one great beer, very well balanced and great use of Yuzu fruit with Loral hops in a rice lager. Hit hits the spot hard! I give it an A+. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Throwback Thursday: Saranac Brewing Blueberry Blonde Ale

Posted on by Evan

Originally posted August 1st, 2015

Blonde ales are always a good style that can have a wide range of styles. Some breweries brew blonde ales with fruit that usually present in the spring or summer times of the year, and can be popular. Here we have one example Saranac Brewing Blueberry Blonde Ale, 5.0% ABV. This beer was bought because it can in the cool looking one quart, thirty-two ounces, or 0.946353 liters. This is a small growler that can be refilled with more delicious beer. Saranac makes other beers in this one-quart bottle, like Our Pumpkin Ale, and this one. Saranac is located in Utica New York and is part of the F.X. Matt Brewing Co. Blueberry Blonde Ale pours a golden color with a two finger bright white head that slowly dissipates into fine whips of good lacing. I found nice amounts of lights streaming in through the glass with nice carbonation. The aroma reminds me of fresh blueberries and a bit of a blueberry pastry. The taste is light with ale and big blueberry upfront, but you don’t get very much tartness from the blueberries. The middle of the mouth get just a tick more of a tartness for a second or two, then towards the back, it all fades into a nice refreshing sweetness. The mouthfeel is light and refreshing, with a nice sweet blueberry finish that leads down to an aftertaste of sticky somewhat tart blueberry flavor. This is quite good. I would say Saranac Blueberry Blonde Ale is a B. It’s good, easy to drink, and refreshing but after many of these I think the blueberry flavor would get to be a bit much and you’d have to move on to another different beer. But I did go through and enjoy this entire small growler myself. But I think thirty-two ounces is just the right amount to enjoy on a warm spring or hot summer day. I recommend trying Saranac Blueberry Blonde Ale for you. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Gizmo Beer Works Gizmo Gose Wild Strawberry Gose Ale

Posted on by Evan

Gizmo Beer works from Raleigh, North Carolina produces this Gizmo Gose Wild Strawberry Gose Ale, 4.3% ABV which was purchased from Total Wine. Strawberry Gose Ale is first kettle sour, which means to sour a beer in a stainless brew kettle, with there house Lacto, or Lactose sugar and with freshly crushed coriander and pink Himalayan salt with loads of freshly puréed strawberries. Strawberry Gose Ale pours a light yellow cloudy color with a one and half finger white head with salty yet sweet strawberry notes with a nice fresh tartness. Taste is sweet up front with a bit of strawberry for a second then comes the salted tartness on the middle with a little stronger strawberry note on the end with a little sour, salty, and tart note, then Strawberry Gose Ale finishes with a tart yet light sour strawberry salted note and a salty strawberry aftertaste with a light refreshing mouthfeel. The salt does overshadow the strawberry flavors a bit but not too much, and overall Gizmo Beer Works Gizmo Gose Wild Strawberry Gose Ale is actually good, B+ to be exact, and it’s a nice spring/summer beer. You get the right amount of strawberry and salty Gose that ties it all together is a good refreshing beer that I think you should try! Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

D9 Brewing Company Wild Things Le Peche Mode

Posted on by Evan

D9 Brewing Company Wild Things Le Peche Mode, 7.5% ABV is purchased from Total Wine is a sour beer, brewed with peaches and vanilla, and is part of D9’s (Cornelius, North Carolina) Wild Things series. Le Peche Mode pours a slightly hazy yellow color with a one and a half finger of quickly fleeting white head that leaves no traces of itself behind. The aroma is sweet, bubble gum like sweetness, fruity with nice peach notes with a tartness wafting into the nose with hints of a faint yeast note. Taste is somewhat similar to its own aroma with a nice fruity peach sweetness at first then fades into more of slight vanilla notes with tart sour fruited notes on the middle and the back of the mouth, that finishes with a light sweet fruity tartness and a very faint peach vanilla tart aftertaste and a light mouthfeel. D9 Brewing Company Wild Things Le Peche Mode has a little flavor that reminds me of a Gose style but a just a very faint flavor. Le Peche Mode is a C+. The vanilla is light as the peach is more dominant and I like peaches a lot but I think that the vanilla flavor needs to be taken up a notch for this to be any better, it’s just slightly above average and this is not something you should stay away from, it’s nice and refreshing. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Mikkeller Brewing San Diego Passion Pool

Posted on by Evan

Pick up Mikkeller Brewing San Diego Passion Pool, 5.0% ABV from Winestore here in Charlotte a few days ago. Passion Pool is a Gose style ale brewed with Passionfruit and Sea Salt from Mikkeller in San Diego California. I find that the Gose Style is a great summer weather beer. Passion Pool pours a dirty yellow color with a two finger white head with nice retention giving tart tropical fruity, sour salted aromas on your nose. Taste pretty much follows the nose with nice tart tropical fruits up front with nice salted sour notes on the middle of the tongue and nice funky notes on the back with a nice tart, salted sour finish that is a bit fruity and has a nice salty tart tropical aftertaste with a light mouthfeel. This is definitely a summer beer that can be easily drank anywhere and probably would go great with a good taco or two. Mikkeller Brewing San Diego Passion Pool is very refreshing and well deserving of an A. I just cannot find a thing wrong with Mikkeller Brewing San Diego Passion Pool, and I think you won’t either. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Throwback Thursday: Watermelon Gose

Posted on by Evan

Originally posted Monday, September 19th, 2016.

Gose (Goes-uh) is a traditional German-style beer brewed with sea salt and coriander. Gose is a making a come back especially with craft beer breweries and brewers. It is more of a summer type of beer, but I think it is good any time of the year. One of my favorite breweries Terrapin Beer Co. in Athens Georgia brews Watermelon Gose, 4.5% ABV.  Watermelon Gose pours a clear darker golden color with a fast fading two finger head of brilliant white. The aroma is tart and there is a nice watermelon fragrance with a faint hint of coriander. Taste is somewhat sweet with watermelon up front with a bit of salted tart flavor, but then as it passed over your tongue it the beer become a more tart. Nothing that is overly tart though. The mouthfeel is light and refreshing and Watermelon Gose has a tart watermelon finish with a tart but salty watermelon after taste that is more tart than anything else. Terrapin has done a good job her adding watermelon to an already tropical beer, but the finish and aftertaste are a little too tart. So with that in mind, I give Watermelon Gose a B-. I do think you should try this one, and I am not saying that the finish and aftertaste kill the beer and make it undrinkable, no that is not it at all; it’s just a little more than I would have liked it to be that’s all. I would have this again but it’s not a go-to beer. I liked Terrapin Beer Co. Watermelon Gose. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Westbrook Brewing Company Fruit/Wood/Time Passionfruit Rum Barrel Finish

Posted on by Evan

This Westbrook Brewing Company Fruit/Wood/Time Passionfruit Rum Barrel Finish, 6.6% ABV is part of the breweries Fruit/Wood/Time series, this particular beer is a blend of mix fermentation sour beer from two oak foudres. The blend is racked into six 400 liter Barbados rum puncheons and refermented with passionfruit for six months before bottling according to Westbrook. Passionfruit pours a bright yellow with a quickly fleeing thin one finger white head. The aroma is tropical fruity, tart/sour bright with some light alcoholic notes with a sour/tart tropical fruity flavor with some rum notes on the back of the mouth and finishes with a big mouth puckering sour note and a tropical fruit and rum aftertaste. Now I don’t think you need to have more than just one, a lot of sour flavor going on in this beer. I don’t dislike this beer but I wouldn’t say I love it, it’s interesting and different. With that said Westbrook Brewing Company Fruit/Wood/Time Passionfruit Rum Barrel Finish is a C. Towards the end of the bottle it slowly becomes too much flavor but okay. I think It needs more sweetness to balance it out. If you think this sounds interesting like I did then by all means go and try Westbrook Brewing Company Fruit/Wood/Time Passionfruit Rum Barrel Finish. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Stillwater Artisanal Action’s Bronson’s 7000 Dry-Hopped Sour Ale with Muscat Grapes

Posted on by Evan

From Oslo Norway Stillwater Artisanal Action Bronson’s 7000, 5.0% ABV is a collaboration between Stillwater Artisanal and rapper, celebrity Action Bronson and is a dry-hopped sour ale brewed with Muscat Grapes, yeast, wheat, and barley. 7000 pours a light orange color with a thin one and a half finger white head that quickly fizzy away giving off slight musty grape aroma with sour notes following it. The flavor is light with a dry musty grape sour note with some citrus notes fading in with a nice tart sour citrus grape finish with a tart citrus aftertaste that kings till the next sip, with a light mouthfeel. Stillwater Artisanal Action Bronson’s 7000 is very easy drinking, crushable with just enough flavor to get the dry-hopped sour beer point across your taste buds. I found that this is like a fruit wine and that’s not a bad thing, I give Stillwater Artisanal Action Bronson’s 7000 an A. This is one of those beers for when you want something, a beer, that isn’t beer and 7000 is going to really fill you up as some beer do. It’s light on filling. I would recommend Stillwater Artisanal Action Bronson’s 7000 and will be having this many more times. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Omnipollo Oaxaca Mango Margarita Slush IPA

Posted on by Evan

From Omnipollo Brewing in Stockholm, Sweden, Oaxaca Mango Margarita Slush IPA, 6.5% ABV, brewed with Lactose Sugar, Mango, Lime, Grapefruit & with vanilla added. Oaxaca Mango Margarita Slush IPA pours a yellow color with a three finger steady fading white head with fruity aromas of mango, grapefruit with a nice sweet note. Oaxaca Mango Margarita Slush IPA taste has a nice similarity to the aroma with nice grapefruit and mango with a piney sweetness on the front of the mouth and on the middle with a bitterness that start in the middle of the tongue and grows as it washing to the back and finish with nice bitter fruits and piney with a bitter grapefruit, mango aftertaste and a medium mouthfeel. Ominpollo Brewing Oaxaca Mango Margarita Slush IPA was a little more bitter than I though it was going to be but still a good beer, and I give it a C+. Oaxaca Mango Margarita Slush IPA is slightly better than average but the bitter piney flavors took over the fruity sweetness muddling them a bit. The fruity flavors that I did taste weren’t bad they were just not as forward tasting or as predominant. I would have Ominpollo Brewing Oaxaca Mango Margarita Slush IPA again and yeah you should try it for yourself. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!