Sugar Creek Brewing Company White Ale

Local beers from you town are always good to at least try. Here is a good example of that, Sugar Creek Brewing White Ale, 4.9% ABV. Sugar Creek takes its name from the local Sugar Creek that flows through Charlotte. White ale or witbier is Belgian style that is usually cloudy due to that fact that it’s unfiltered, and is brewed with high levels of wheat and oats that are used in the mash. Sugar Creek White Ale pours a cloudy bright yellow color with a half to one finger head of brilliant white that quickly fades away in to foamy lacing. The aroma is somewhat sweet with hints of oats and faint wheat. White Ale taste at first like most white ale and the middle you get a thick flavor of a yeast note followed by a nice semi-sweetness in the back. The mouth feel is on the higher side of medium. This beer has nice smoother faint sweet finish with wheat like light sweet aftertaste. This is good white Ale but I’ve had better so I give it a C+. Hoegaarden is a better example but not to say that Sugar Creek White Ale is bad. This just lacked the lemon notes that are sometime found in good white ales. I might have this again. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly

Coronado Brewing Comapny Crown Series Sock knocker IPA

IPAs are good and I enjoy them, but I’m not a big fan of Imperial IPAs. They tend to have too much hoppy intense flavor and can be quite bitter, and in your face. I do try them to see if it’s a good Imperial IPA. Well he is on Imperial IPA from Coronado Brewing Company in Coronado California is Their Crown Series Sock Knocker IPA, 8.5% ABV. This is an Imperial IPA that is brewed with Amarillo, Centennial, Columbus, and Simcoe hops.  Sock Knocker pours a lighter copper color with some orange hues and a one and a half finger white head that fade quickly into some light lacing. Aroma is dank and bitter with earthy notes and touches of strong pine aroma. You definitely smell that this is an Imperial IPA. Sock Knocker up front is slightly bitter with flavors of light onion then becomes a more earthy, piney and bitter in the middle and the back is big with hop resin flavors and bitter pine and earthy notes. The mouth feel is medium Sock Knocker finishes earth and bitter with a bitter after taste that lingers just enough to wallops you in the face. As this beer warms you get more of a onion flavor with some hoppy notes This beer proves to myself that I am not a big fan of Imperial IPA. So it gets a D-. Too much bitterness isn’t to this is not to my liking. I found to Sock Knocker to kill your taste buds, so this isn’t a beer you want to drink first when have multiple beers. I won’t beer have Sock Knocker again. Cheers! Please Enjoy responsibly!   

The Pike Brewery High Five Salish Lodge & Spa Hopped Honey Ale

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The Pike Brewery in Seattle Washing is one of my favorite breweries. While I was in Seattle this past spring I happened to go to The Pike Brewery and have some of their beers. One, in particular, I had I tap, Pike High Five Salish Lodge & Spa Hopped Honey Ale, 5.6% ABV with 24 IBUs, really caught my attention and I said I need to review this. Well, it just so happens that they have bottled it and are distributing into here in North Carolina. High Five is collaboration, but a different kind of collaboration, not just between to breweries, but between the Pike Brewery and Salish Lodge & Spa. Salish produces the honey that is used in this beer, along with aromatic Yakima Valley Hops. High Five pours a dark yellow color with a deep orange tint to it that makes it look more of an orange color. The head is a bright fluffy white standing two fingers tall and slowly fades into thick gorgeous laving.  The aroma is sweet with tiny traces of a hopped aroma; there is also a faint biscuit scent. The taste is that you’ll what to enjoy over and over. There is sweetness from the honey up front and a biscuit flavor in the middle and a very faint hoppy note on the back. High Five has a nice faint hoppy-sweet finish that lingers into a sweet honey biscuit aftertaste, which coats the mouth. When I had High Five on Tap at the Pike Brewery I knew it was excellent and had to review it for sure. It’s is most definitely A+ beer. I highly recommend it and would rush to have it again, and I can’t say enough good things about The Pike Brewery. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

New Sarum Salisbury Brewing Co. High Rock Red Ale

I am not one that truly loves the Red Ale style of beer. I like some and I don’t like others, unlike some styles that I love, like a hefeweizen. Red Ale or American Amber is a catch-all for any beer less than dark ale/brown ale in color. Expect a balanced beer, with toasted malt characters and a light fruitiness in most examples. New Sarum Salisbury Brewing Co. in Salisbury North Carolina brews High Rock Red Ale, 6.0% ABV. This Red Ale is brewed with Marris Otter and Rye with an addition of English hops. High Rock Red Ale pours a gorgeous deep amber-red color with a slight off white tan head that sits two and a half fingers high. The aroma is sweet with rye malts and a slight yet faint caramel notes. High Rock Red Ale tastes smooth at first followed by a smooth sweetness and malted sweetness on the back. The mouthfeel is medium with a nice smooth and sweet finish with a nice light fruity sweet after taste that lingers around for what seems like forever. This is one beer that you don’t want to stop drinking it’s for sure an A+. It is smooth and very well balanced. You need to try this! Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Chimay Dorée Ale Brewed with Spices

Every country or most of them have a different take on Pale Ale if not a several. One of my favorites is the Belgian Pale Ale. This isn’t like what you’d come across flavor wise compared to American Pale ale or even English. American Pale Ale’s are hop forward with a malt backbone but not much and the English Pale Ale is malted with some slight hoppy flavors thrown in. I have here a somewhat new to the USA Chimay Dorée Ale Brewed with Spices, 4.8% ABV. No not the blue fish from the Pixar movie. This is a beer people. Chimay is one Belgium’s most famous brewer as well as one of the great breweries of the world. It’s a Trappist Brewery, which means it’s brewed by the Trappist Monks. Dorée pours a beautiful hazy dull yellow color with a slight greenish orange hue to it with a three finger bright white foamy head that slowly fades into some decent lacing. The aroma is slightly funky with some fruity notes like apple and a faint green grape. Taste of Dorée is fruity with apples on the front then you get slight funky with very light tartness in the middle and it has a light and faint bitterness on the back. The mouth feel is medium with a nice faintly fruity finish and a somewhat funky aftertaste. This is an outstanding beer from one of the best breweries. This is for sure an A+. But I think this beer’s flavor with get to be too much after the fifth Dorée. But then some might be drunk by then. But that could be said about a whole lot of beers. Great beer! You should try this one! Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!        

New Belgium Brewing Heavy Melon Watermelon Lime Ale

All right happy 4^th of July Independence Day! Now here is a beer that sounds like it goes good with a 4^th of July Barbeque. New Belgium Brewing Heavy Melon, 5.0% ABV, this is a watermelon Lime Ale. This is a fairly new seasonal from New Belgium. Heavy Melon pours coppery light pink color with a one and a half finger head. Head sticks around for a moment the fads into nothing. The aroma is light with watermelon and hints of lime. Well the taste is not overly watermelon like some beers, it just a light flavor or watermelon with hints of lime around the watermelon. It’s smooth and refreshing, as well as easy to drink. Some watermelon beers are like watermelon punch with alcohol in them. That’s too much. The mouth feel is light and refreshing with a light sweet finish that carries on in to the after taste of yes you guess it, watermelon, oh and it’s little friends the lime which is slightly there. Heavy Melon is a better take on all the other watermelon beers out there. It’s not 100% watermelon in you face type of beer. It subtle with the watermelon and that get it an A. Hey you should go and try this one and have a few. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Timmermans Oude Gueuze Lambicus

I have not had a lot of sour beers, but I had some. The Belgians brew some amazing sour beers. Some of the worlds best sours. Timmersmans Oude Gueuze Lambicus, 5.5% ABV is brewed in 2012 and bottled in 2015, by Timmermans Brewery in Itterbeek Belgium and they have been brewing since 1702. This is made by blending different lambics together to make an Oude (old) Gueuze. This beer is the Europe’s best sours. Timmersmans Oude Gueuze Lambicus pours a candy orange color with almost no head, and what head that is there is gone in an instant. There is also some sediment with in the bottle, which means that this is bottle conditioned. That means the last step in the fermentation process is done in the bottle. Aroma is quite fruity with nice apples, some pears and some funky scents and no I don’t mean a weight room or locker room type of funk. You know like a might find in white wine. There is plenty of light coming though. Taste is fruity on the front followed by a nice tartness that turns to a nice sourness almost like a sour fruit candy apple and bit of pear mostly. But as this beer warms it becomes a slightly more sour. The mouth feel is light and refreshing with a nice sour fruit finish and a sour apple after taste. Timmersmans Oude Gueuze Lambicus is a B+. The beer is good but I think it needs to more pronounce on the fruit but not too much, just a little. Other than that is a good beer. But I would not have more than two, or have it before having some other beer. It would be to sour if you had three and it would take the taste away from the other beer you would have following this. I recommend trying it. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!