Mike Loves Beer -

Fat Tire Amber Ale

July 27, 2009

Name – Fat Tire Amber Ale
Country – United States
Type – American Red Ale

Appearance – Poured a clear amber color with a small white head that was gone rather quickly.

Smell – Slight toasted malt smell to it with some hops in the back.

Taste – Sweet caramel and toasted malts are the prominent flavors with some hop presence in the back.

When I was out in Arizona I went in knowing that Yuengling does not distribute out there so when I go to a normal restaurant that I would need to find something else to be my go to beer. Luckily Fat Tire from New Belgium was quite accessible. There is nothing fancy to this ale but it is quite drinkable. It served it’s exact purpose for my trip as being the reliable easy to find beer. It also is perfect for session drinking if that is what you are planning on doing. Also I was recently told by an employee at my local beer store that New Belgium will be coming down to South Florida very soon. Be on the look out for 1554. I had a chance to sample that over there and can’t wait to have it again.

Overall Grade – B

Stone Cali-Belgique

July 24, 2009

/ Beer Review /

3 Comments

Name – Stone Cali-Belgique
Country – United States
Type – Belgian IPA

Appearance – Pours a slight hazy orangish gold color with nice white head.

Smell – Citrus hops hit the nose first with some yeast notes in there.

Taste – I’m going to say that this is quite similar to the regular Stone IPA. Big grapefruit hops with some other floral hop notes to it. The only difference is the yeasty quality to it with the Belgian yeast used on this one.

Like I said this is pretty much just like the normal IPA of Stone’s with a slightly different yeast taste in there. And if you read my review on the normal IPA you know that I liked it. I will down grade this just slightly since I kind of like the normal one a little more.

Overall Grade – B+

Pin Stripe Red Ale

July 23, 2009

/ Beer Review /

2 Comments

Name – Pin Stripe Red Ale
Country – United States
Type – American Red Ale

Appearance – Poured a clear amber color with a nice sized head but it did not stick around all that long.

Smell – Caramel malts with some pine like hop smells in there as well.

Taste – There were caramel and some roasted malt flavors that were backed with a slight hop taste that was like pine or grass.

With my first try at a Ska Brewing beer I tried this one just to get something simple. While it is a simple style they actually do it pretty well. There is nothing fancy about this but they seemingly did nothing wrong with it as well. Straight forward in the approach of the style and I would have to say ‘success’ on it.

Overall Grade – B