Foothills Brewing IPA of the Month August (Spot)

Another month is here and so is another Foothills IPA of the Month. Here is Foothills Brewing IPA of the Month August  (Spot), 5.8% ABV with 54 IBUs. August is melodically dry-hopped with Simcoe and Soirachi Ace hops. August (Spot) pours a deep hazy orange color with a bit of cloudiness to it and a four and half fluffy off white pillowy head that retains it’s fluffiness and slowly fades into somewhat thick whiffs of lacing around the glass. No light was found coming through, and there was a little amount of carbonation bubbles there. This is all due to the hazy and somewhat murkiness of the beer. August aroma is big with orange, light orange peel and some lemon with a little bitterness around these other aromas. The taste is a big zesty and bitter orange with nice lemony flavors along side them. There is a nice low bitterness with a tiny earthy flavor that comes in and goes out just as quick. The flavor on this months IPA are smoother and easier to drink. The mouth feel is medium and has a nice citrus orange with some lemon in the finish that goes down smoothly. The after taste is slightly bitter and orangey with a faint hip note there. This is yet again a great IPA. I give Foothills IPA of the Month August (Spot) an A+. As always Foothills IPA of the Month series is so great. I loved how easy this IPA was to drink and that it wasn’t so hoppy and/or bitter. It was a good amount of nice fruit with a nice hop bitterness to back for on tasty IPA. This August is probably the best yet. I think that it’s the best tasting. This is one you need to buy two of. I highly recommend pick this one up. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Fullsteam Brewery Summer Basil Farmhouse Ale

Not too recently I’ve seen a grown number of Saison or farmhouse ale being brewed and on the store shelves. This tells me that this is style of beer is growing in popularity. Brewers are experimenting with different ingredients in these Saisons. Some brewers are keeping their Saisons more traditional to the style than others. Fullsteam in Durham North Carolina brews a Saison Summer Basil Farmhouse Ale, 5.0% ABV and with an IBU of 32. This is a canned Saison with fresh basil. Summer Basil pours a pale yellow that is almost white with a four finger bright white head that slowly dissipates into bight thin lacing. I could see very minimal light coming though as well as little carbonation, but its there. The aroma is faint with a funky aroma and full of a light basil scent that gets bit stronger as this ale warms with a nice perfume scent. The taste is like what drinking a bouquet of flowers would taste like. There is a nice mellow basil flavor with small hints of faint lemon tartness and slight funk. The mouth feel is light with a nice smother refreshing finish, Now the after taste has a nice basil finish the is a bit more lemony but not to much to make it sour. It’s just the right amount. This is an interesting take on a popular and yet growing style of beer. This Summer Basil Farmhouse Ale from Fullsteam Brewery is an A. The basil works with the saison and doesn’t overwhelm the other flavors and drag this beer down into a not so good or bad territory, and it’s surprisingly refreshing and drinkable. I’d say its even sessionable. It’s good and I recommend that you try Fullsteam Brewery Summer Basil Farmhouse Ale. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Sagres Cerveja

You can find national beer in almost every country in the world. Some are better than others and some are even imported/exported around the globe. I guess this is one part that makes the world a smaller place. Here is one beer comes to me all the way from Portugal and cannot be found in the USA. I got a hold of it through my Portuguese exchange student Manel. Sagres Cerveja, 5.0% ABV is a pilsner and is one of two national beer of Portugal. Sagres pores a golden color with a two finger bright white head that dissipates quickly and leaves minimal to no lacing behind. I did see plenty of light streaming through the glass with nice streams of carbonation bubbles. The aroma is similar to the national beers of the USA. I found there to be a sweet grain scent that was a bit like cereal gain and corn. There is a faint metallic scent as well. The taste is light with a thin corn like sweetness and bits of cereal gain but not much else was there. The mouth feel is light and very drinkable and somewhat refreshing. Sagres has a nice smooth even finish with a thin after taste of a slight bland sweetness. I say Sagres Cerveja is C+ beer, nothing bad about it nor is they’re too much good going on. It’s just average tasting and easy to drink. I would have this again. I kind of recommend try Sagres Cerveja just for the fact that it’s not sold here in the USA. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!  

Olde Hickory Death By Hops India Pale Ale

India Pale Ales are more and more popular everyday and there are more brewing brewing different verities of IPAs. I am not a big fan of IPAs but I a like them a little more and more. I have here a local IPA, Olde Hickory Death By Hops, 7.0% ABV with 108 IBUs. Olde Hickory Brewery is local is Hickory North Carolina which is one hour north of Charlotte. Death By Hops is a west coast style brewed in the southeast with 7.5 grams of hops per pint. Select west coast hops are used but I could not really find out which in particular are used in this. DBH pours a copper color with big four and half finger fluffy white heat that never really wants to fade and leaves thick lacing behind. The aroma is strong with a hoppy, earthy, bitterness that overwhelms your nostrils. I found there to be decent light coming through the glass in between nice herds of carbonation bubbles. The taste is strong with a hoppy piney earthy bitterness but not as strong tasting as the bottle says it is but it’s up there in strength. You get a strong bitter grapefruit in the front and middle of the mouth but then it fades on the back into a smooth pine note. The mouth feel is light but not to light. I know that is not what you’d think for an IPA with an IBU of 108 but it’s nice. The finish on DBH is smooth for an IPA like this, and there is nice faint strong grapefruit note. The after taste is of strong sticky grapefruit with touches of earthy notes that linger on the tongue. Olde Hickory Brewing Death By Hops really surprised me with how good it tasted eventhough I am not a big fan of the IPA style. I did like this one even with 108 IBUs. So with that said I give DBH an A. I recommend that you try Olde Hickory Death By Hops. It surprised me! Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Off Color Brewing Surry

Dark beer isn’t seen too much during the summer time, but you might fin a few around here and there. I did find one or one found me. I have here Off Color Brewing Scurry, 5.3% ABV. This beer Scurry is another beer brought to me by Brewpublik (www.brewpublik.com). Off Color Brewing is located in Chicago Illinois. Scurry is a beer brewed with honey, molasses and oats (flacked oats). Off Color also uses Pilsner malts, Dark Munich malts, Wheat Chocolate Malts, Northern Brewer hops, Hersbrucker Hops, and Strisselspalt hops. They even use some secret ingredients such as Honey Molasses and flacked oats that were mention early. Surry pours a deep black color with a tow finger head that dissipates at a normal speed and does leave behind some lacing but not great but not bad. No light came through the glass and I saw there to be no carbonation, the beer is too dark to see that. The aroma on Scurry is sweet and faintest bit roasted. The taste is at first sweet with a little honey the you get a little less sweet with a molasses but with the help of the oats still keeps a little sweetness, then towards the end/back you get more of a roasted flavor. The mouth feel is medium to slightly heavy and with a nice sweeter finish that helps an after taste of honey sweetness and faint roasted notes. Scurry sound better on the label then it actually does. So I would give this a C-. It doesn’t have any bad flavors; it just does taste as good as it sounds so that is where it looses points. All of the ingredients work well with one another. I didn’t hate Scurry; I just didn’t like it as much as I thought I was going to.  You should try Off Color Brewing Scurry just to try it. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!