Fish Brewing Company FishTale Ales Beyond The Pale Pale Ale

The other day I was in a Borders Books and bought a few magazines and one of them was volume one of the 2015 World Beer Awards. This magazine has all the winners in every category and their respected countries, great magazine. But this is not a review of that magazine, no, it’s a review of the worlds best beer 2015, Fish Brewing Company FishTale Ales Beyond The Pale, Pale Ale, 5.0% ABV. This is from Olympia Washington. So I had to try it. Beyond The Pale pours a deep orange color with t foamy two and a half finger white head that dissipates at a nice pace while leaving behind some average lacing. The beer is not to clear so some light is coming through. The aroma is a bit earthy and citrusy with grapefruit and faint hints of orange.  Now the taste is nice with grapefruit bitterness and a few hoppy earth notes and towards the middle and back of the tongue, it is slightly malty. The bitterness becomes stronger as the beer warms a bit but nothing too bitter or overwhelming. The mouthfeel is medium with a nice bitter finish and a good malt bitter aftertaste with a slight lingering of bitter citrus fruit. I see this beer trying to be a more than a pale ale without stepping into IPA territory which some pale ales tend to do and for me, that is not what they should do. IPA’s should be IPA’s; Pale ales should be Pale Ales. Beyond The Pale Takes the pale ale style and adds some IPA qualities to it without it tasting like or being an IPA. With the huge popularity of IPA, I see why some brewers what to make a pale ale as close to an IPA. That’s cool, just don’t make an IPA with bigger malted flavors and say here is our pale ale. Fish Brewing FishTale Ales Beyond The Pale is an A. I enjoyed it and would have it again. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Champion Brewing Company and The Hold Steady Positive Jam Wheat Ale with Spices

Here we have a collaboration beer, but it’s not the usual collaborative beer. No it’s not! This is collaboration between Champion Brewing Company of Charlottesville Virginia and the Brooklyn, NY rock band The Hold Steady called Positive Jam Wheat Ale with Spices, 4.5% ABV. This Wheat ale is brewed with coriander and lavender. Positive Jam pours a clear bight golden color with a quarter finger white head that quickly fizzes away. The look of this beer is lackluster. The aroma is like floral ginger perfume. Not the best aroma on a beer. Taste is well off putting a bit with a lot of lavender, so much so that is like drinking old lady perfume with some floral ginger. I think that perfume is to be worn and not swallowed, and the coriander is nowhere to be found. I assume it is there but hidden be hind the huge perfumey lavender that is so pungent. The mouth feel is light and a bit sticky. The finish is bad, awful and just so not good and with an awful after taste of perfume. This Positive Jam from Champion Brewing and The Hold Steady is an F. No I will not have this ever again, because I now know how the old lady perfume smell taste like, and you should not know that so I am warning you not to try this. You will regret it for sure. I know I am! Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Foothills Brewing Hop of the Month Polaris Pilsner

It’s Foothills Hop of the Month time, this is Polaris Pilsner, 5.3% ABV with 58 IBU (International Bittering Units). Polaris is a very young (2012) German Varietal with resin glands that produce high alpha acid levels. Polaris Pilsner pours a bright hazy golden color with a big three finger bright white fluffy head. The aroma is slightly minty with some herbal and bitter notes. Now the taste, there is a nice floral note on the front with some hop resin notes. The middle is nice hop character with a slight acidic hop note with a faint mint flavor. The back has about the same as the middle but just not as full and the hop bitterness jumps out and bites a bit towards the very end. The mouth feel is light and Polaris has a nice hoppy floral finish with a bitter earthy sweet after taste. This is good but not as good as last month but really close. I say that Foothills Brewing Hop of the Month Polaris Pilsner is an A-. It has a lot of flavor. I recommend Polaris Pilsner. Try it and you will like it. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!   

Mystery Brewing Company Jake Thorne London-Style Porter

Well I have not seen to many dark beers as a spring seasonal but Mystery Brewing Company in Hillsborough, NC have and this is Jack Thorne English-Style Porter 5.2% ABV. I represented from the brewer has told me that Mystery Brewing brews different beers for each season but they are the same or similar style and that they do not have any year round offerings. Jake Thorne pours a thin black color with a slightly off white head of one fine size. The aroma is very porter like but on the lighter side with nice malted notes (malts which are from RB Malt). There is a faint coffee aroma as well. The taste is lighter for porter, which is nice for this time of year, but nothing like a summer beer. Jack Thorne has some sweetness to it but just a little bit. But this is a drinkable beer. The mouth feel is light for this type of beer style. Jack finishes light and smooth with a subtle sweetness. After taste is malted with some sweet light roasted flavors. This is a good dark beer for springtime, so I would say this is a B+ beer. It is neither to alcoholic nor heavy, it’s good and drinkable. Yes I highly recommend trying Mystery Brewing Jack Throne London Style-Porter, especially if you like Guinness. But it wouldn’t beer my number one choice for an 80 to 100 degree day, but it’s not a bad one either. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Kona Brewing Co. Castaway India Pale Ale

IPA’s or India Pale Ales are brewed pretty much by every brewery out there today and are widely popular. This style has been popular for a long time and I think will continue to be just popular for a long time. This IPA comes from Kona Brewing Co. in Kona Hawaii, and is Castaway India Pale Ale, 6.0% ABV. Castaway pours a nice pale orange color with a bright whiter tow finger head that slowly fades in to decent lacing. The aroma is a bit floral and earthy with subtle hits of citrus fruits. There is a little bitterness upfront on the taste with some nicer citrus notes in the middle of the mouth and a bigger hoppy bitter bite on the end or back of the mouth. That hoppy bitter bite is a negative toward this beer. The mouth feel is medium to light with a bitter finish that fades a bit quickly. The after taste is much like the finish. Over all not the best IPA but it somewhat okay. So I give this a C-. The bitterness on the end is a bit to bitter so that hold it back as well as the little bitterness up front. I don’t think I would rush to have this again. Cheers! Please enjoy responsible!

White Street Kölsch Kölsch-Style Ale

Kölsch-style ales are overlooked a little in the world of beer especially in the craft beer world. But I seem to find them to be good and I love to seek out new Kölsch beers. Here is a local North Carolina example White Street Kölsch 5.2% ABV. White Street brewing Youngsville, NC with a tap/tasting room in downtown Wake Forest. This White Street beer is a German-Style Kölsch/Köln-Style, that is a world Beer Cup Gold Award winner 2014 in that category. Kölsch pours clear and gold with a fine, white two finger head that sticks around for a little bit and fades. Light and subtle pear and melon aroma hit the palate. Kölsch has a crisp and refreshing taste with slight sweetness and little hints of bready notes. The mouth feel is light with a nice semi-sweet finish and an after taste of that same type sweetness. This is a great beer it is truly worthy of its 2014 award. I give White Street Kölsch an A. I can’t tell you enough on how good this is. You will just have to see for yourself. I highly recommend that you try it. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!