Foothills Brewing Company Craft Happiness IPA Project Domicile IPA

Foothills Brewing has introduced a new IPA series, Craft Happiness IPA series. Each month a new and different IPA will be produced and Foothills will dedicate a portion of the sales proceeds to an area of need in their region. The first IPA in this Craft Happiness Series is Domicile IPA, 6.5% ABV. Domicile is double dry hopped with Cascade hops. Dry hopping is a method that uses dry hops that have been harvested then set aside. Domicile pours a clean golden color with a three finger white head that has wonderful retention; it sticks around for a while and leaves behind decent whips of lacing throughout. The aroma is somewhat fruity with some onion and garlic with a dank resin note. Taste is slightly hoppy up front with some sticky earthy notes and a little bit of some spiciness. Toward the back you get little more of a hoppy note. The mouth feel is light to medium but does coat your tongue with its flavors. Domicile finish with a hoppy flavor and a faint bitterness. The after taste is hoppy for a few second then you get a little bitterness that fades away. But as Domicile IPA warms up the spicy notes fade away and give way to a little bit more hoppy bitterness. Overall this is Domicile IPA is good but this didn’t have a really fruit presence to it like some of the other IPA foothills has brewed in the past. I’m not saying this is bad, it was different form the others. So with that said I give this Foothills Brewing Craft Happiness Series Domicile IPA an A. I liked the little spicy note in this IPA it was good and helped to keep the hoppy/bitter notes from taking over the flavors of this IPA. Not to say that this IPA was too bitter or hoppy, it could have just be one sided in the flavor department and that would have held it back slightly. Yet I cannot see a bad IPA coming from Foothills Brewing. This Craft Happiness is going to be a wonderful IPA series and I can’t wait for the next one. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Fullsteam Brewery Carver Sweet Potato Lager

Now you probably know that you can pretty much brew beer with all types of things along with hops, malt, water and barley. Some things make of a good tasty beer was other make for not so tasty beer. I mean everything should be brewed into a beer. Here is Fullsteam Brewery Carver Sweet Potato Lager, 5.3% ABV. This beer comes out of Durham North Carolina and is brewed with 200 pounds of North Carolina Sweet Potatoes. Carver pours a deep orange color with a one finger thin white head the fizzes away rather quickly with no traces of itself left behind. Carver has a bit of a strange aroma; there is a real faint lager scent with a funny semi-sweetness there. Not really getting any sweet potato on the nose. Taste is first cloyingly sweet for a moment, then the lager flavor come into the mix with a slight semi-crispness that quickly gives way to a yam like sweet flavor. There is a little sour note to it as well. The mouth feel is medium with a yam like finish and an after taste of fake and faint sweet lager. I am now no that I don’t like yam, sweet potato, squash, or pumpkin beer, and this Fullsteam Carver Sweet Potato Lager gets a D-. This is one of those thing in which I do not think should be brewed in to a beer. I really sweet potatoes but I don’t need them in a beer, certainly not this one for sure. Don’t try this one! Fullsteam makes plenty of good beers, which makes me wonder why this one isn’t great. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!   

Abita Brewing Company Cold Brewed Macchiato Espresso Milk Stout

I like coffee, I like beer, I like those things together. It is a good and somewhat popular style. This Abita Brewing Company Cold Brewed Macchiato Espresso Milk Stout, 6.0% ABV is three dark beer styles in one, Coffee, Milk, and Stout. Macchiato Espresso Milk Stout is brewed with Pale, caramel, chocolate, and roasted malts along with Willamette, natural milk sugars and oats, as well as PJ’s coffee Espresso Dolce Beans. Macchiato Espresso Milk Stout pours and black color with a big foamy tan/beige three finger head that stick like glue, but eventually gives way and leave behind cream lacing. The aroma is like a freshly roasted dark coffee. Smell really nice. Taste is fresh roasted dark coffee, some faint chocolate and very faint sweetness. I think the heavy coffee flavors hind the faint sweetness from the natural milk sugars and oats. Macchiato Espresso Milk Stout finishes like a cup of coffee with out the coffee bitterness but more of a stout bitterness that is pleasant. The after taste lingers a bit with dark roasted beans with bit of faint chocolate. This is a good beer but I would have like to have a little more on the sweetness, just a half notch more. So I give Abita Brewing Company Cold Brew Macchiato Espresso Milk Stout an A. It is like a fresh cup of Macchiato coffee. Good stuff to have. Abita’s select series never disappoints and are always a good beer, everyone I’ve had so far has bee real good. You should try this one and the rest of Abita’s select series beers. Can’t go wrong with Abita Beer! Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!   

21st Amendment Brewery Marooned on Hog Island Oyster Stout

Stouts come in many sub-styles with their flavor and taste, like imperial stouts, Belgian stouts, English, American, dry, oyster, and fruit stouts. They are all dark beer and have some similar qualities. 21st Amendment Brewing in San Francisco brews Marooned on Hog Island, 7.9% ABV and brewed with Hog Island Oyster shells. Oyster Stouts are a drier type of stout but aren’t the dry type of beer. Marooned on Hog Island pours a black/deep brown color with a three-finger beige head that leaves behind nice decent lacing. The aroma roasted with cocoa, bits of chocolate, and the faintest/tiniest saline note.  Taste is similar to the aroma with a semi sweetness that comes in and then goes in an instant. There not many saline flavors to it. But it does shine through at the end as this beer warms. I also found the roasted note to be a bit fainter than you on the aroma. The mouthfeel of this beer is full. Marooned on Hog Island does finish with a  saline-like note that fades and then the after taste of roasted cocoa/chocolate that does not stay. Marooned on Hog Island is a good beer, but I would like to have more from the added oyster shells. I give this Stout a B-. Not too bad, but not really what I was hoping it to be. It is off by just a little. 21st Amendment is a great brewery. They make a great summer beer, Hell or High Watermelon, and they’re no longer in production  Beer Bitter American was fabulous, so I know they can brew great beer Marooned on Hog Island was close, but not close enough. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly! 

Blitz-Weinhard Brewing Co. Henry's Hard: Orange Soda

I am not much a novelty alcoholic beverage type of person; I like some of them like the hard root beers. There is small number of hard sodas out on the market. Blitz-Weinhard Brewing Co. in Wisconsin, which is a subsidiary of Coors makes Henry’s Hard: Orange Soda, 4.2% ABV.  Henry’s Hard: Orange Soda pours a bright neon orange color with no head and not a think left behind. The aroma is overly orange and sweet like an orange creamsicle. Taste is pretty much the same, there is a big carbonation flavor with plenty of sugar sweetness; mind you this is made with real cane sugar; creamsicle and very fake orange flavoring. The mouth feel is full of sugary sweetness Henry’s Hard: Orange Soda finishes sweet and bubbly and has an overly sweet creamsicle after taste. This Henry’s Hard: Orange Soda is an F. I didn’t like this one at all, too sweet and fake for my taste buds. I don’t recommend this at all. It’s no good and nothing could make it better. Do not have Henry’s Hard: Orange Soda. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!