Abita Brewing Company Louisiana Spiced Ale

There are so many different beers out there these days and some are DIFFERENT. All the different ingredients that are being used to brew a beer are so different than what was being used forty, thirty or even twenty years ago. Some of them can be good while others not so much. I found this recently, Abita Brewing Louisiana Spiced Ale, 5.2% ABV. This spiced ale is brewed with hints of celery, paprika, lemon peel, bay leaves, and a pinch of cayenne as well as hopped with Cascade hops. So the idea is to make a beer that is similar in quality of a Crawfish boil. Well this beer pours a hazy golden color with a big hat of white foam up top. The aroma is somewhat like a crawfish boil, but it’s a subtle aroma. Taste is good as it washes over the front of the tongue but it slowly gets bitter in the middle then bites with a lemon hop bitterness at the end. I taste the bay leaves, paprika and the cayenne on this but the Cascade hops muted all that a bit. There is a lot of different flavors going on in the beer, a lot of taste for ones taste buds. The mouth feel is medium with a spiced finish. Now the after taste was a somehow meaty which I enjoyed, and it lingered there for a nice while. That after taste is what I can imagine eating a beef bullion cube would be like. I'd say that Abita’s Louisiana Spiced ale is C+. The aftertastes brings it to a +. The general taste on this beer is just C. So over all it’s a C+. I think that there’s a lot of ingredients in this beer and that kind of make it too complex. It all sounds better on paper that it actually taste, but not bad though, and interesting too. Abita Louisiana Spiced Ale is interesting enough for me to tell you to go and try it. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Fortnight Brewing Company & Brewpublik Dry Irish Stout

It has been a while since the last post here but after a vacation services resume as normal. There is a concept in the beer brewing industry where two breweries come together and create a beer, collaboration if you will. But I haven’t seen collaboration between on e brewery and a beer sales and delivery servicer before that is until now. Fortnight Brewing Company in Cary, North Carolina. A man from the United Kingdom started this brewery. The Fortnight Brewing Company came together with Brewpublik (www.brewpublik.com) that a person can select the amount of beer, type, and location to be hand selected then delivered in a handcrafted wooden crate each mouth. The beer that these two have collaborated on is Dry Irish Stout, 4.8% ABV.  This pours a pitch-black color with a tall rocky tan/beige head that pops and fizzes away slowly into decent lacing through out the glass. Not much on the aroma but a faint roasted note that is a bit similar to a regular coffee. Roasted barley is used here on this Stout. I found the taste to be a little week, I did barely get some chocolate and coffee but it was just flat and bit week, a little disappointing. The mouth feel is slightly full with a thin dry finish of chocolate with some faint coffee. There wasn’t much to any after taste just dryness. Fortnight Brewing Company and Brewpublik Dry Irish Stout get D. It was way to plain tasting and not enough of roasted, coffee or chocolate flavor I was hoping for. That held it back. I was hoping for more out of these two. It was bit of a let down. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!  

Full Sail Pilsner, Cascade Pilsner

Pilsner is one of the oldest beer styles in the world, comes from Plzen or Pilsen in English and German which in the Czech Republic. The Czechs drink more beer than anyone else. Maybe it's is their countries pastime! This is a widely popular style of beer around the world. I have here Full Sail Pilsner, Cascade Pilsner, 6.0% ABV from Hood River Oregon. I have received this beer from Brewpublik (www.brewpublik.com). This brewer has been in the brewing business since 1987. Their Pilsner is brewed with Cascade hops which are grown in that area of Oregon under and around Mt Hood. Now that you had a biology/botany lesson let's see what’s what with this Pilsner. Full Sail Pilsner pours a brilliantly clear and clean golden color with a gleaming white two finger head that slowly fades into white bubbles leaving behind thin but bright lacing. The aroma has a slight subtle hop note to it that is like the faintest of IPAs. I also found a slight basicity flavor on the aroma that was hiding around the hoppy note. The taste on this pilsner is clean and refreshing at first, but as it washes over the middle of your tongue it gets a little hoppy and somehow bitter, but just a little too much. When it the flavor crosses over onto the back of your mouth the bitterness picks up just a little, being more noticeable. The mouthfeel is light and refreshing with a little subtle bitter twinge of a finish. But the after taste lingers around with bitterness and this is where this Full Sail Pilsner falls off. The bitterness is coming from the use of Cascade Hops. That for me is not what I like in pilsner. So that will give this beer a C-. I think that the finish and the lingering after taste took this beer that started out well and made it not so good. I am not sure how much Cascade Hops were used in the brewing of this Pilsner but maybe they should use less and it might make this Full Sail beer even better. This one wasn’t bad it but was not good. So less than average you could say and I know Full Sail can brew great beer, their Session Black is one excellent example. For a good example of a Pilsner try Foothills Brewing Torch Pilsner. This Full Sail Pilsner isn’t one I’d recommend. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Terrapin Beer Co. Single Origin Coffee Stout Sumatra Wahana Natural

I enjoy coffee and I love beer, so that means I love to enjoy coffee beer. Yes I do! This Terrapin Beer Co. Single Origin Coffee Stout Sumatra Wahana Natural. That is a long name for beer. I have received this beer from Brewpublik (www.brewpublik.com). This Terrapin beer is part of a small series off Coffee Stouts where there are four packs or four differ coffee stouts. Each has the same stout base but uses a different verity of coffee in each from a different farm. This verity is Sumatra from Sidikalang, Indonesia in the Sumatra providence. This Single Origin pours a pitch-black color with a thin dark brown one-finger head that fade and fizzes away rather quickly not leaving much lacing behind. The aroma is very roasted with coffee and an almost burnt coffee smell. Now to the taste, well it is a little better than it smells, first up front you get a nice roasted flavor with a subtle sugary taste with a faint cinnamon flavor then in the middle you get a big coffee bitterness that hits your taste buds a little hard and on the end you get some bittersweet notes that fade away fast. The mouth feel is heavy on this one; it coats the mouth a bit with a bitter coffee finish and bitter roasted notes. The after taste is bitter with roasted coffee and is slightly unpleasant. I didn’t hate this beer, it was a little too bitter too soon. So I am give this Terrapin Single Origin Coffee Stout a C. Now the bitterness on this was a big factor for this beer it didn’t help it but it was so terrible that it made it really bad. It was okay at best. It is great idea behind this beer though. I though that part of this beer was cool. But it lost me some on taste. I would say that you should try this, but there are beer coffee beers out there. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Left Hand Brewing Co. Hard Wired nitro Coffee Porter

Coffee for a long while has been a popular ingredient in beer brew, so much so that it has become its own sub-style within some styles of beer, like Porter, Stouts, Browns, and even a few blondes and IPAs have been infused with coffee. Some brewers collaborate with a coffee roaster to brew a beer. Left Hand Brewing Co. in Longmont Colorado brewers this, Hard Wired Nitro Coffee Porter, 6.0% ABV. I have received this beer from Brewpublik (www.brewpublik.com) Now you asking yourself what is the nitro in this Porter? Well, nitro or Nitrogen is a transparent and odorless gas. When applied with beer during the brewing process it allows for a draft like taste and appearance to beer a beer without using a widget in the can or bottle. This can give a creamier and tighter head to beer, similar to a draft beer. Left Hand does brew Hard Wired without said Nitro, and they recommend that you pour hard with this and all their nitro beers. Hard Wired pours a black color with a creamy three-finger tight beige head that looks like coffee ice cream. Lots of thick lacing is left behind. When you pour this beer you can see the Nitrogen at work cascading down like falling snow. The aroma is of freshly ground and brewed coffee with hints of chocolate. The taste is so smooth with a nice roasted smooth chocolate flavor that makes this taste like a Mocha Coffee. I would say this bee is almost an easy drinker. The mouthfeel is medium to almost full but rich with a creamy flavor. Hard Wired nitro has a nice smooth sweeter finish with an after taste of chocolate and Mocha coffee flavor. Man, this Porter is outstanding. I would have this over and over again, and would highly recommend Hard Wired Nitro Coffee Porter. So with that said, I give this beer an A+. This is one heck of a great beer and the nitro is a neat and very delicious addition to a good solid coffee Porter! Go try it! Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!