Samuel Smith's India Ale

One of my favorite breweries in the world is Samuel Smith Brewery in (Tadcaster) N. Yorks, England. I have pretty much had all of they’re beer in the breweries lineup, and they are all great beers. But I found one from Samuel Smith’s that I’ve not had yet, India Ale (IPA). Like all Samuel Smith beers, this is Brewed with hard well water and fermented in ‘stone Yorkshire squares. Samuel Smith’s India Ale 5.0% ABV and an IBU of 46,  which pours a crisp coppery orange color with a big four finger white bubbly, rocky head that sticks around for quite a while before fading away slightly, leaving behind great strings of lacing around the glass. There is plenty of light coming through the glass with nice carbonation bubbles racing towards the white foamy head. The aroma in India Ale is lightly grassy with a slight malted scent and touches of some light tropical fruit. The taste is very low on hoppy flavor but there is a slight hop flavor present to let you know you are having an IPA. There is a nice small tropical fruit note here with a nice malt backbone to go right along with the faint grassy notes. The taste is much smoother than some American IPAs. The mouthfeel is light to almost medium. Samuel Smith’s India Ale finishes nice but dry and has a nice faintly grassy fruity aftertaste. Samuel Smith’s didn’t disappoint me with this India Ale at all, so Samuel Smith’s India Ale gets an A+. A solid smooth drinking English IPA, well balanced. Samuel Smith’s India Ale isn’t overwhelming in the hops department. I highly recommend this to anyone looking to try their first IPA or to anyone who likes beer. So please go out and try Samuel Smith’s India Ale and see what you think of it. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!   

  

Foothills Brewing IPA of the Month May 2014 (Maya Bonita)

Springtime is here and so are all the spring beers. I really enjoyed Foothills Brewing’s last IPA of the month April it was good. So I though I would wait for their next month in the series. I loved how foothills showcased a single hop and really profiled the flavors of the individual hop. Here is the next month in the series of IPA of the Month, May (Maya Bonita), 6.4% ABV and 69 IBU. This month Foothills is using the rare Azacca hop, and pilsner malt backbone. Foothills say this beer drinks like a day at the beach. So a summery taste topical beer I guess. Well let’s find out! May pours a light hazy orange/dark yellowish color with three and a half fingers of fluffy white head that has stick around for a while. The aroma is tropical with nice pineapple, grapefruit, orange, and some papaya. There is a very faint hop grassy note there as well. The taste is much like the aroma, sweet and tropical. I found they're to be a nice pineapple, orange, sweeter grapefruit and nice papaya with some light bitter hops grassy earthy notes. Sweeter than I was expecting for an IPA and not as bitter as some IPA are. I did get a nice pilsner malt backbone as described on the side of the label, which really balances this beer out well. The mouth feel is Simi-light to almost medium, and has nice sweet and bitter finish with a nice aftertaste of tropical fruit and a touch of a hoppy earthy note. I really like this beer as well as the IPA of the Month series. May gets an A+, this is better than April, but April is still a good beer as well. This beer is near perfectly balanced and has a nice drinkability to it that makes it great for warmer weather, and yes it does drink like a day at the beach. I did think about the beach a bit while drinking May. I highly recommend Foothills Brewing IPA of the Month May. It’s a great IPA. So go out and try Foothills Brewing IPA of the Month May 2014 and see what you think. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Resignation Brewery & Red Hook Brewery KCCO BLACK LAGER

I am a fan of dark roasted beers, because some have a touch of coffee roast flavors. But not all of them that I’ve had were great. One of my favorite dark beers is Black Lager, or Schwarzbier. This style of beer isn’t as big, heavy, and/or alcoholic as other dark beers. This is due to being lager brewed. This beer, KCCO Black Lager, 5.1% ABV, 22 IBU is a collaboration between the Resignation brewery in Austin Texas and Red Hook Brewery in Portsmouth New Hampshire. KCCO Black Lager has a bit of a cult following and has given a little more exposer to the Resignation Brewery, this is due in part to the Red Hook Brewery, which has been brewing widely popular beers since 1981. KCCO Black Lager pours a deep dark brown to a black color, with dark ruby edges, and a off white, tan/beige two finger head that dissipates into a much thinner head and leave very little lacing behind. I found very little amounts of light coming through and some small packs of carbonation bubbles. The aroma is roasted and has a nice toasted scent with nice malted aromas as well. The taste on KCCO Black Lager is nice and roasted with hints of toasted malts and bits chocolate. This beer has a little sweetness to it and a bit of a little bitterness too. The mouth feel is slightly medium with a nice smoothish finish that is somewhat sweet, malty and roasted. The after taste of a roasted chocolate note lingers just enjoy to get a good taste of KCCO Black Lager then it’s gone. Overall KCCO Black Lager is not a bad beer for all the hype. So I would rate KCCO Black Lager, as B. KCCO Black Lager isn’t as good as my number one favorite Schwarzbier Rahr & Sons Ugly Pug. As I was drinking KCCO Black Lager they are parts where I though that it was a bit thin, but overall it was a good black lager. I do recommend KCCO Black Lager. So go out and try KCCO Black Lager for yourself. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Rolling Rock Premium Beer Extra Pale

Some people say that in this country Lager is a bad word, due to beers like Bud, Miller, Coors, and etc. for it lack of good taste. But most people do find them good, because people buy them. There beers are what are known as adjunct lager, which means a beer brewed with some ingredients like corn or rice. Most American adjunct lagers are brewed with corn. The corn tends to add a little bit of sweetness, but nothing overwhelming. Adjuncts tend to have low alcohol, thin malts, and are pale and fizzy. Here we have Rolling Rock Premium Beer Extra Pale, or know as Just Rolling Rock, 4.4% ABV. Rolling Rock is a pale adjunct lager. Rolling Rock pours a light yellow color with a one finger thin white head that fades super quick within seconds. I could see all the way through the glass with lots of fast carbonation bubbles race to the top. The aroma on Rolling Rock is tiny bit sweet with a slight, faint metallic scent.  I did find an aroma of light corn that was like some sort of creamed corn. Rolling Rock has a light sweet plane effervescent taste, with hints of flat malts that are barely there. I also got a slight wet cardboard taste with something metallic.  The flavors on this aren’t very strong; they all seem to be light and almost flat and a bit watery. The mouth feel is very light, watery even.  Rolling Rock has boring flat watery finish with not much of an after taste except for a slight corn sweetness that isn’t a sweetness that liked. Over all this is very boring and not so great I did not like this very much, so this beer gets a D+. In my opinion you could almost drink this beer and not really know that you were drinking a beer. As a whole I find that adjunct lagers aren’t such a great style of beer. Rolling Rock would have to do a whole lot to make this a great beer. So go out and try Rolling Rock Premium Beer Extra Pale for yourself and see what you think of it. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

George Killian's Irish Red

There are some beers that we mistakenly call craft beer when it really it isn’t. It is either not or “crafty”. Blue Moon and Shock Top are good examples of crafty beers. Crafty beer falls in between Macro and Craft. I think that crafty is not a bad thing (or bad beer). Some are good and some are not so good like most things in this world. Some of these crafty beer breweries are owned and operated by some of the bigger macro brewing companies. This here beer George Killian’s Irish Red, 4.9% ABV, a Coors brewing company, and is brewed here in the U.S. George Killian’s Irish Red pours a copper/amber color with a three finger off white thick head that dissipates at an even pace. I found there to be minimal amounts of light and nice amounts of carbonation. George Killian’s Irish Red has a nice lightly sweet malty aroma with a very faint dark fruit scent in the back. The taste is somewhat sweet and malted with light touches of a dark fruit that appears on your taste buds for only a second. The mouth feel is light to medium with a nice light sweet smooth finish that leads your taste buds to an after taste of nice caramel malts and a quick hint of some darkish fruit. Overall not a bad beer, and better that I expected it would be. I think George Killian’s Irish Red is a B. It has good qualities that shine through but just enough to make it really enjoyable. I think there isn’t much that could be done to this beer to make it better, because I think if they were to try that it would just be to much and then this beer would be worse off then When they started. If they were to do this a tiny bit it would still be at a B rating in my opinion. So go out and try George Killian’s Irish Red for yourself and see what you think of it. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

No-Li Brewhouse Born & Raised IPA

One state here in the U.S.A. that is big on beer is Washington, and on growing hops. A lot of breweries use hop from Washington state. Many different types of hops are grown there. I found it very cool that Washington State breweries use hops grown in their own state. Here we have No-Li Brewhouse Born & Raised IPA, 7.4% ABV. No-Li is brewed Spokane Washington and for Born & Raised they make it from hops and barley harvested within three-hundred miles of their brew house. No-Li uses Washington’s own Cascade, Columbus and Chinook hops span across two-row malt from Armstrong, BC. Born & Raised IPA pours a very deep orange color that is almost a light brown, with a three finger fluffy, pillowy white head that stick around forever and leaves wispy white lacing around the glass. I found little amounts of light coming though with nice average amounts of carbonation. The aroma is grassy, earth with a slight malted pine with a hint of faint grapefruit. The taste on Born & Raised is hoppy upfront with touches of pine resin and some faint citrus grapefruit and the smallest flavor of some sort of pineapple.  When this bee warms it becomes hoppier. The mouth feel is medium with a nice slightly hoppy and malted finish with a nice hoppy after taste of piney, citrus grapefruit and grassy notes. No-Li Born & Raised IPA is a good beer and gets an A-. I thought this beer was well balance and well brewed. This is a tasty IPA with and nice malt backbone to even out the hops in it. But I think that number of hops used is just a tad too much, but sill a good beer (IPA). Born & Raised IPA is just a tiny tick on the hop side for me. I do recommend No-Li Born & Raised IPA, so go out and try No-Li Brewhouse Born & Raised and see what you think of it. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!