Sugar Creek Brewing Co. Bottle Conditioned Dubbel Belgian-Style Ale

Posted on by Evan

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The Sugar Creek Brewing Co. has quickly become my new favorite brewery. They brew fantastic beers mostly in the Belgian-style and are just as good as the Belgians if not better. This is there Bottle Conditioned Dubbel Belgian-Style Ale, 7.6% ABV. This only comes in a corked 750ML bottle and can be found on tap at various bars and resturants. This Dubbel pours a light brown hue with a thin one finger beige head that flees quickly into a small bubbly island as it fizzy away. This Dubbel gives off nice fig, raisin aromas with slight plum and cherry notes mixed with a candied sugar note that invites you into a flavor of figs, raisins, with nice candied sugar slight alcoholic notes with some faint cheery and plum, that all finish with a bold flavor with some slight alcoholic plum raisin with finger that end with a lingering aftertaste of more raisin and fig sweetness. The mouth feel is on the fuller side but this isn’t a heavy beer.  Sugar Creek Brewing Co. Bottle Conditioned Dubbel Belgian-Style Ale is definitely an A+. This true to the Belgian Dubbel style and is so very similar to the Belgian brewed Dubbels. I highly recommend this to anyone. It is a very well crafted beer and tops my list! Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly! 

Uinta Brewing Co. West Coast-Style IPA

Posted on by Evan

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West coast and west coast-style IPA are probably one the most popular beer styles if not the most these days. Uinta Brewing Co. in Salt Lake City brews West Coast-Style IPA, 6.3% ABV, which is gluten-reduced. West Coast-Style IPA pours a golden orange color with a two and half finger white head giving off a dank resinous mango, grapefruit, and slight pineapple earthy aromas. Taste is loaded with hops, earthy dank resinous mango and grapefruit on the front and middle of the mouth and the back you get bitter earthy hoppy notes with some bitter grapefruit, that finishes hoppy with a few fruity notes and a bittering aftertaste that really coats your mouth. The mouth feel is medium with a bit of a full hop flavor. I don’t think your taste buds could handle more than two of those before the hoppy flavor becomes overwhelming.Uinta Brewing Co. West Coast-Style IPA is a solid B. It’s definitely a west coast-style IPA and is pretty good. It’s fruity hoppy and balanced drinking IPA. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!         

Throwback Thursday: Olde Mecklenburg Brewery Captain James Jack Pilsner, May 20th, 1775

Posted on by Evan

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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 horse back 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, note that is light and refreshing with the tiniest bit of bitterness. You get a nice clean crisp refreshing finish that goes down rather smooth, that makes this is a good everyday kind of beer when you just want to good plane beer. This Captain is good and drinkable, not too light not too 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. This is an A+ beer. That is key to good beer drinking. Try this and you’ll agree! Cheers! Please drink responsibly!

Rivertowne Brewing Co. Hala Kahiki Pineapple Ale

Posted on by Evan

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Pineapple is good and probably one of my favorite fruits and if you didn’t know I love beer. So pineapple beer what could go wrong. Export Pennsylvania’s Rivertowne Brewing Co. brews Hala Kahiki Pineapple Ale, 4.8% ABV, that pours a clean and clear yellow color with a two and a quarter thin white fleeting head with no traces of it left behind and gives off a big pineapple and pineapple juice aroma and nothing else. Hala Kahiki (translates to rooftop) Taste just as it smells, there is big pineapple and pineapple juice but more juice than anything else. This doesn’t really taste like a beer, taste more like a pineapple cider if that is a thing. If you like pineapple cider than this is your drink. Hala Kahiki finishes with a sweet crisp pineapple flavor and an aftertaste of crisp sweet pineapple. The mouth feel is light to medium. Hala Kahiki is not a bad beer just not really a beer so I say it’s a C+. Like I said if you like pineapple cider than I recommend Rivertowne Brewing Co. Hala Kahiki Pineapple Ale. But it’s just not a beer in my opinion. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

The Beer News

Posted on by Evan

Here is this weeks beer new, and happenings in around the Charlotte area.

  • North Carolina has passed the Brunch Bill which means you can now sell and or serve alcohol before noon on Sunday. So go out and enjoy brunch this Sunday
  • Thursday, July 27th Birdsong Brewing Co. Extra Special Small Batch, Hotel Yorba! A White Wine Barrel-Aged Blonde w/sour grapes add. Limited quantity and will tap at 5 pm.
  • Friday, July 28th 3 pm – 10 pm The Unknown Brewing Co. By The Boardwalk. There will be mini-golf, airbrushed t-shirts, giant water slides. Amazing food by Big Tasty (including funnel fries…which is better than funnel cake)
    and LIVE MUSIC.     
  • Thursday, August 3rd The Unknown Brewing Co. and Babalu will have a four-course beer dinner paired with Unknown beers and a special Babalu menu. $55 per ticket purchased here eathere.com.
  • Saturday, August 5th 4pm-8pm 2nd annual Friends + Beerfest Legion Brewing IPA Edition, local breweries, food, and live music. Tickets $18.
  • Saturday, August 19th 12 pm Triple C Brewing 5th Annual Block Party, 114-133 Fairweed Ave. 1-2:45 Jamorah with special guest Shortly. 3-5 Mojo Rucks. 5:30-8:30 Brushfire Stankgrass.     
  • Sunday, August 19th LOSO Neighborhood, LOSO Neighborhood Block Party 11am-10pm, free admission. Yancy and Southside Dr.

 

Champion Brewing Company Melee Seeeion India Pale Ale.

Posted on by Evan

IMG_5160There isn’t enough session or sessionalbe beer out there, and I think there should be. Not every beer needs to have big bold flavor with a high ABV percent. Sometimes you want something a bit lighter with low ABV. Melee Session India Pale Ale5.2% ABV and 35 IBUs from Champion Brewing Company in Charlottesville Virgina is a lighter take on the IPA style which can range anywhere from lighter hoppy and bitter all the way to extremely harsh and bitter with loads of in your face hops that destroy your taste buds. Melee IPA pours a clean yellow color with a two finger quickly fleeting head that leaves nearly nothing behind, giving off light grapefruit notes. Male is brewed with Citra and Amarillo hops. So you do get toned down citrus notes upfront with a little bitterness in the middle of the mouth with bitter orange grapefruit in the back that finishes crisp with little bit of citrus bitter hops. Aftertaste is pretty tame with faint bitter citrus notes. Nothing on this beer is really memorable, it’s not bad Champion Brewing Company Melee Session India Pale Ale is a C+. Yes, it is sessionable, refreshing and easy to drink but the flavor is overly or too sessionable. This drinks more like a slightly hoppy pilsner than an IPA. But you can taste that this is a session IPA to much so.  Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery Reinheitsgetbot Party

Posted on by Evan

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My favorite Brewery in Charlotte, North Carolina The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery, they brew mostly German-Style beer and have been doing that for eight years now. This past Saturday the Olde Mecklenburg celebrated the one-hundred anniversary of the German purity law, Reinheisgetbot. Which I would say was more of a thought than a celebration or party. Seemed like an average Saturday at the brewery. But for the brewery itself is pretty cool. It’s a Munich Germany beer hall with a vast beer garden or Biergarten outside. All table at the Old Meck are communal so you have to be somewhat of a people person. They have a food menu. Beers on tap are mainly of the Greman style. IMG_5158

I start off on a very hot Saturday afternoon with the Hornets Nest Hefeweizen. Which a pretty straight forward true to the style Hefeweizen

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Olde Mecklenburg Hornets Nest Hefeweizen, 5.4% ABV

This is a great beer with the familiar Hefe banana flavor and refreshing. The service is quick as this place is usually busy especially on weeks. Olde Mecklenburg has a lot of staff. Almost the entire inside was filled with thirsty patrons. I finished the Hornets Nest, named after Charlotte’s nickname during colonial times because Charlotte was then a hornet’s nest of activity. I decided to have Captain James Jack Pilsner, named after Captain James Jack a tavern owner who on May 20th, 1775 rode to the Continental Congress with important documents declaring they would be part of the now United States. This is a German style pilsner and I will be putting a previous review of this beer up as this coming week’s Throwback Thursday review. The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery is a fantastic place to go and have a great beer to two. But I thought the Reinheitsgetbot Party was not much of a celebration. It seems more like a normal busy Saturday. I had a good time and really enjoyed my favorite beer. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!   

 

 

Benford Brewing Company Irish Honey Ale

Posted on by Evan

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I haven’t heard to much of the Irish Honey Ale style in the craft beer world nor have I have very much of it. Benford Brewing Company Irish Honey Ale, 5.1% ABV of Lancaster, South Carolina is the first I’ve had in a while. This Benford pours a clear orange color with a big four finger pillowy white clean head, giving off a sweet honey aroma. The taste is sweet and sticky with honey, slight crispness. This Irish Honey Ale get sweeter the more you get to the bottom, but finish with a nice crisp sweetness and a lasting aftertaste that is sweet with clove honey with a thick mouth feel that coats you mouth which causes the aftertaste to really linger. This Benford Irish Honey Ale is a C. The sweetness is just a little to much but it is a bit refreshing. After two or three of these and I think the flavor would become to much. It not so bad just a little to much sweetness and a somewhat bland sweet honey flavor, nothing to really write home about. I won’t be rushing back to this beer. I might try this again. If you like sweet its okay, but Olde Mecklenburg Hornet’s Nest Hefeweizewen is a better choice for a sweeter beer. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Throwback Thursday: Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. Kellerweis

Posted on by Evan

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I haven’t had too many Sierra Nevada beers, but I did see this Hefeweizen, an unfiltered wheat, and though it would be good for a beer tasting on American wheat beer. This is an old microbrewery in Chico, CA and soon they will have another brewery here in the Asheville North Carolina area soon. They have been brewing beer since the eighties,& probably&older than me. I really enjoyed this hazy brew, but I can say the same about most wheat beer. Wheat beer is one of my top favorite styles. Kellerweise pours a rich hazy-golden color with a nice bright foamy white heat. There is a nice spicy clove and banana scent that is nice and pleasant and just wonderful. About the same can be said for this one’s taste, but there is a nice ripe banana too. Yes, there is a faint bit of wheat but you should know that if you’ve had a wheat beer before. The finish is nice crisps a tiny bit spicy and good. This Hefe is one I’ll try again very soon. A day or two after having this I still want more and couldn’t stop thinking of it. It is just really good but simple at the same time. Really good work on Sierra Nevada’s part. Well done! This is great with grilled sausages, a big juicy hamburger, or good chicken wings. This is also good on a hot day when you want to relax and feel refreshed, cause this Sierra is most refreshing. This is an A+. I loved it! Cheers! Please drink responsibly!

Epic Brewing Company Escape To Colorado IPA

Posted on by Evan

IMG_5133I haven’t had too much from Epic Brewing out in Denver Colorado nor do I hear a lot about them, but what I do hear is things about their Brainless series and their Big Bad Baptist Stout. No, I don’t have any of those, I have Escape To Colorado IPA, 6.2% ABV. Escape To Colorado is brewed Mosaic hops and pouts a light yellow color with a two finger white head that sticks for a little bit then slowly fades into some nice decent lacing. The aroma is of lemon, lemon grass, hops with some faint sweetness. This aroma draws you in and brings you to a taste of slightly sweet lemon, lemon grass up front with a hop bitter lemon in the middle with a little more hop flavor on the back of the mouth with a hoppy yet smooth bitter finish and a nice semi-sweet hoppy aftertaste. The mouth feel is on the lighter side of the medium scale. This Epic Brewing IPA is good, A- good. After about three or four I think the flavor might be a bit much but still, you could drink three or four. I like out it finishes on the smoother side for an IPA with a huge kick in the gut of hoppy intense flavor.  I recommend Epic Brewing Company Escape To Colorado IPA. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!