Fullsteam Brewery Crack-A-Lacky Ginger Pale Ale

Using spices in brewing beer isn’t anything new; brewers and breweries have been all different kinds of spices for sometime now. Some spices coincide with a particular season, like nutmeg and gingerbread during Christmas, pumpkin and allspice during fall especially during October, and pepper, peppercorn and ginger during spring and summer. Spices can be mixed with other ingredients and all together they create a bigger taste that could make a beer good or bad. But that is up to ones taste and taste buds. Well I have one example of this type of beer from Fullsteam Brewery here in Durham North Carolina. This is Cack-A-Lacky, 5.0% Abv. This Cack-A-Lacky, which is a slang way of Carolina, is a ginger pale ale.  I like ginger; it is a good tasting root spice in my opinion. Cack-A-Lacky pours a deep kind of darkish gold like color with a two and a half finger of a white head. I found some light coming through with nice amounts of carbonation bubbles racing to the head. The aroma is pretty strong on Cack-A-Lacky with ginger and little light whiffs of grassy hops. But the ginger really overpowers your sense of smell, it’s like a ginger root has been shoved in your nose. Not a bad smell, but after awhile the gingery power gets a bit much. Taste on Cack-A-Lacky is huge with ginger up front, a little to much to the point where it becomes a bit bitter towards the back of your mouth. There is a bit of a tiny hop flavor on the back as well that adds just a pinch of bitterness to it, but nothing harmful or overpowering. Cack-A-Lacky has a slight spiced and bittersweet finish and you get nothing less than a slight bitter and gingery aftertaste that linger for just enough time to let you know that this is a ginger flavored beer, as if you didn’t know that already at this point. This beer is mostly ginger but it somehow works as a pale ale. I am not saying this is the best beer. I am saying this is a B- beer. Fullsteam should have not used as much ginger with this and used a little more malt to help balance Cack-A-Lacky out, not that it isn’t balanced. Cack-A-Lacky doesn’t have that down perfectly. I kind of liked this, but I wouldn’t have bought a six-pack of Cack-A-Lacky nor would I rush out and by this again right now. Would I recommend this? Not off the top of my head. Shiner Ruby Redbird is much better and easier to drink. Try them both and see what you think of them. Cheers! Please drink responsibly!