The Olde Mechlenburg Brewery RPA, Rein Pale Ale

Yes my favorite brewery has been hard at work and here is a NEW brew RPA, no not Rye Pale Ale, this is Rein Pale ale, 5.2% ABV. This is a cross between an American pale ale and a German-style lagered ale. OMB brews this with a combination of four different American and German barly malt verieties, spicy American Tettnag and noble Czech Saaz hops. This OMB pours a beautiful light amber color with a thin-ish white head. You can really smell the Hop scent here on this with a nice grassy note. Smells just like a fresh hop field. Nice! This RPA has a moderately bitter taste about it. Not to much bitterness, just the right amout to make it great. Great for most any occasion. There is a very very faint spicy note on the finish along with a still moderate bitterness that finishes light and crisp. This beer is a good NEW brew for OMB and they have done it yet again, in making a awesome and tasty beer. I love this brewery and can not say enough good things about them. This RPA is part of small growing trend of hoppy/bitter beers that have been hitting the market recently, after the height of IPA crazy hit, which is now not so popular as it onces was. Now the trend is more toward less hop and more bitterness, but to much bitter and it sour which is the next trend I think. But this hit the trend make well with it's hybrid American pale ale and German lagered ale. Great beer and I give The Olde Mechlenburg Brewery RPA, Rein Pale Ale an A+. Just the right amount of bitter in this one. Not too much, yet not too little. Good work OMB! Keep it up. I would by this again, have it over and over again, just like all the beers they brew. I love a good tasty OMB brew! Cheers! Please drink responsibly!

Leinenkugels' Summer Shandy

Summer is here and in full swing! Gosh is it hot out! Well this will refresh you well! This comes to us from Chippawa Falls Wisconsin. This brew is low at 4.2% ABV. This is a nice weiss beer with nice lemonade. Very nicely done. Shandy here pours a nice yellow lemon color and is hazy and cloudy, with a bright white head. There is plenty of nice lemon zesty scent here and that pretty much it. It's has a scent that really brings summer time to your mind with that nice lemony lemonade scent. Yes there is a strong great lemonade taste to this that is crisp and lemon with a nice refreshing taste too. This is good outside beer. Go try one outside. Now the aftertaste is a bit tart and somewhat faintly sweet like lemonade and the finish is quit good on this. I think this Shandy is real nice and really good. I would have this again, but I could see this getting to to be to much lemon after a few, but not in a bad way, just to much to lemon and/or lemonade. I also see this as a summer only beer, so drink all of the Summer Shandy's you have before summer ends. I wouldn't think this would be as good for a winter beer if you have a warmer winter, not bad, just not so good as having it now. But there is a draw back or down side to this, the lemonade in this Shandy does over power the beer flavors, such as wheat malt barly and such. So it is a bit week on that side of this, but not so much that it makes it bad or undrinkable. Leinenkugel has made one good beer and I will continue to have this again and again, and so should you! Cheers! Please drink responsibly!

RJ Rockers Son of a Peach

Oh I love peaches, this sounds good, and it is! This here is an unfiltered wheat American ale made with real good peaches. This is 5.8% abv, mild but good. RJ Rockers hales out of Sparatanburg South Carolina. Not so far from me here. SOP pours a nice cloud golden slightly hazy color with a nice white head that makes nice lacing throughout the enjoyment of this brew. Nothing really neat or so different from all of the other fruit wheat ale. This has a normale wheaty scent, crisp and clean. There is a nice citrus peach scent there too that is quit good. No suprises there, just average and yet good. The taste is wheaty followed by a nice tart yet sweet peach flavor. That is very nice, crisp, refreshing, and tasty. Finish is still peachy and less wheaty but just as good as before. I don't think this beer is something extra special or just plain special, I find this averge amoug fruity wheat beer, but good. Yeah I could sit here and tell you how many or how much peaches they put into this but that just isn't that execiting, and yes the amount of peaches does make it good, but not overly good or better than others. But there is not alot of peach beers out there on the market but some. Peaches are good for making beer with they are just the right amount of fruit flavor and sweetness to go well with malt, hops, and barly. Average yes, good yes, refreshing yes. Would I buy this again? Yes! Would I recommend this? Yes? New favorite? Not really, but I like this enough to have another. Cheers! Please drink responsibly!

Samuel Smith's Organic Cider

Here we have something different than a beer, but it is not far off from a beer. This an English cider, at 5% abv. Ciders are general made with apples, well so is this. Ciders are made like a wine and like a beer. But where you find beer you'd most likely find a cider. Beer drinkers would be more to drinking a cider that would say a wine drink, but I am not saying that a wine drinker wouldn't like cider. It's just that ciders are marketed more towards beer drinkers. This cider poor a nice rich gold color, like an apple juice, and has lots of bubbles an no head. Now the taste starts out with lots of sweet apples, when I say sweet I mean it, this is very sweet. It's good but have a lot of this and you'd want to move to something different and less sweet. There is a nice wine like flavor to this as well but it come toward the end. The finish is slightly dry sweet and wine-like. Nice finish to this. I like this somewhat and I would have it again. But it just not as good as I thought it would be, this is whole different animal then beer when it comes to the taste. The main think about the taste of a cider is sweet. In some ways to sweet for me, but not in a bad way. It's good every once in a while. But a little bit goes a long way with this cider. I haven't had a whole heck of a lot of cider, but beer is a bit better than cider, and yes I know that now cider is growing in popularity, but just not with me so far. I'll have a beer thank you! Cheers! Please drink responsibly!

Samuel Smith's Organic Cherry Ale

Yes I have posted about Samuel Smith's fruit ale before, their strawberry ale. This isn't as good as some of their others, but I still would turn this ale down. Cherries tend to have a strong flavor to them especially in a juice form, but here it cheer and the beer go well together, hand in had even. This fruit ale is 5.5% abv. It pours a nice deep red cherry red with a somewhat medium white head that is briefly there. Well yes there is a nice cherry scent to this and it is just strong enough, not over powering. Now you think this can't be good, it's going to taste like fizzy cheery soda, well I said this is a Samuel Smith's brew not a Carolina Strawberry blonde, that is a soda. But this has a perfect balance of cherries, hops, barley, and malt. But it's not as good as there other fruit ales like the strawberry or the apricot ale. That is all due to fact that the cherry fruit has a stronger and sweeter flavor to it. This is still good as the other fruit ale's that they brew. The aftertaste of this ale is sweet with cherries and a slight alcohol hit, but it all finishes nice crisp and refreshing. You would think that cherries and beer wouldn't go together, but they do nicely with this, but I don't think beer should be brewed with cherries. It is good just not as good as it should be. I like this one yes I do, but not top choice among Samuel Smith's fruit ales, but certainly better than other fruit beer out there. Cheers! Please drink responsibly!  

Franziskaner Weissbier Dunkel

Familiar looking isn't it, well that's because this is like it's brother the regular Hefe-Weissbier, it just that this is a dunkel, or dark beer. Dunkel's can aslo be a pilsner, or a lager. Larger being the most common of dunkels. Dunkels tend to have more complex flavors to them. Well this sure did, and it is excellent! Now this beer is a Munich style hefe dunkel at 5.8% abv.This dunkel pours a dark rich copper amberish brown color with a very very thick beige head. This hefe dunkel looks fabulous. There is plenty of roast note on this ones scent along with the nice wheat and the very faint hop note. With the first taste you get a nice hint of wheat, followed by a roasted malt that is just very wonderful. After the first taste you find a little bit of a smokey flavor, but nothing like a smoke beer, but still as good, just not as strong. The finish on this is good rich faintly smoke and plenty of roasted malt there to make every sip better than the first. Franziskaner takes their good Hefe up a notch with the dunkel. It adds a whole new level of great flavors. It's like meeting Angelina Jolie then an hour later ya get to meet Sofia Vegara all in the same day, it just gets better. They went from ten to eleven with this dunkel. I can't say one thing bad about this great tasting beer. This all around one the best I have had, and I have had a lot. Yes there isn't any complex things about this, just a simple dark rich hefe-weissbier. German beer is simple and yet so so good. The most simple beer in German is ten times better than it should be. That's why I love this one! You should! Cheers! Please drink responsibly!