Orange Blossom Pilsner "Florida's Honey" Beer

Let me just start out by saying that I am probably the laziest person I know. It's been almost a month and a half since the last blog and I have nothing to blame other than the fact that I am lazy. I am going to my damnedest to try and write at least one of these a week depending on my cash flow it may be every other week since I get paid bi-weekly but I am not going to let it be another 6+ weeks till I write another one, I hope. Now down to business...
I found this beer while browsing the selection at Publix, who actually has a decent selection of craft beers. I don't really know why I chose this beer other than the fact that I enjoy honey and figured why the hell not. I have never tried a beer made with honey so I had no idea what to expect. Here is what it looks like...

Price: 6.99/6pk 12oz bottles

ABV: 5.5%

When you look at the bottle you get this idea that the beer is gonna be pretty flavorful with the taste of Orange Blossom Honey. Everything from the box to the bottle would lead you to believe that. Well that's not the case. I opened the first bottle and poured it into a glass and took a smell expecting to get a whiff of honey fragrance, not so much. It had a slight floral smell but nothing that made me think honey. It had a nice white head and not a lot of carbonation bubbles. Here is what it looks like...

With my first sip I was half expecting my mouth to be overloaded with the taste of honey as if I had just squirted some of my Honey Bear Honey into my mouth. I know the box states it's not sweet but there is absolutely no honey taste to this beer at all. I was hoping for maybe an after taste of honey, still nothing. I have drank the entire six pack and not once did anything I tasted resemble the taste of honey. The beer is very lightly carbonated which gives it a very light taste and it's very easy to drink all six. There isn't much taste at all to this beer, hell, my wife who absolutely HATES beer took a few drinks of it and actually thought she might like it. I don't know why they have pictures of bees and honeycombs on their beer if it don't taste like honey. I probably could have done a little bit of research and got some more info as to why but it goes back to that lazy thing. Over all this beer is sub-par and very misleading. It did win a bronze medal at the 2004 Great American Beer Festival so apparently someone liked it but I did not. 

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Till next time (which shouldn't be as long)... 

Sum'r Ale (By Jason)

A couple weeks ago while out drinking with the wifey and a couple of friends, I, in my drunken state, agreed to do a blog swap with my buddy Jay. What got us to the point where we agreed to do this now alludes me. His blog is about kayaking and camping and is usually 5 longer then mine and my writing ability isn't all that great as I'm sure y'all have noticed. So here in the next couple days I will attempt my hand at writing a blog that is actually gonna take some time and whatever minute bit of writing talent I can conjure up. Well enough of my rambling here is Jay's review of the first organic beer I've ever actually seen...

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Hello to Howie's readers. All 3 of you.

I'd like to start by clarifying a few issues with Howie's introduction:

1)This "blog swap" was posed as a challenge. It wasn't simply a friendly offer, as if we were women trading brownie recipes. This was a request for a duel. A duel that I proudly accepted and am executing as we speak. (well, you're not speaking. Neither am I, I suppose. I'm typing. So my end of the dual is being executed as you do whatever it is you're doing at this moment and I type). The finished blogs will be judged and criticized by a jury of our Facebook friends and acquaintances, at which time a champion will be crowned. I plan to be that champion. And I expect a fucking crown. 

2)He's right. Mine is 5 longer "then" his. But this is no time to bring up the size of our junk. It has no place on a beer blog. 

3)In Howie's most recent beer blog, he labeled me a "grammar nazi". I would like to assure everyone reading this that I am not, nor have I ever been, affiliated with the Third Reich, grammatically or otherwise. I am part German, yes, but I have never had genocidal desires. 

With that out of the way, let's move on to the beer stuff...

I'll attempt to write the blog in the same format that Howie writes his own. Seeing as how his blogs take him 5 drunken minutes to write, I believe I'm up for the task. This should be like giving a calculus professor a basic kindergarten math quiz.  

I'll be reviewing an organic summer ale called Sum'r.   

I don't understand the trend of seasonal beers and I probably never will. Why would I want a beer in the summer and not desire that same beer in the winter? We're not talking about wardrobe here. It's beer. If it's good, it will always be good. I can't imagine someone sipping on a cold, delicious beer in February and saying "well, it's okay, but this would be much better if it were July".

Price: Who gives a shit? I didn't pay for it.
ABV: 4 FUCKING PERCENT. You have got to be fucking shitting me. There is literally more alcohol in my urine.
ABU: I don't know what ABU means. I googled it and found nothing related to beer. I did, however, find numerous other suggestions, such as Airman Battle Uniform, Atlantic Baptist University and Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union. I'll assume it means Allgemein bildender Unterricht. On that, I give it a solid 5 out of 100. Sieg Heil!

They seem to have misspelled "summer", which leads me to believe that Howie brewed this beer in his bathtub and printed out the labels himself. The clipart lounge chair logo, strange color choices and general lack of creativity lend credence to my theory. However, the fact that it's billed as "organic" makes me doubt myself. I'm not a damn dirty hippie and Howie knows this. I'm as drawn to organic products as bees are to mayonnaise... which is to say not at all. It could all just be a ploy to throw me off his scent, though. He's very, very sneaky. I once caught him kicking his golf ball out of the woods and claiming that it was on the fairway all along (true story). You have to watch out for this guy. Always be on your toes. 

Now comes the part where I pour the beer and, for some reason, tell you about the color, along with the properties of the foam the beer creates. How these traits are beneficial to beer drinking, I do not know. I've been drinking beer for a long time and I've never once turned away a beer because the head was too small or the color wasn't to my liking. Don't get me wrong, I've disliked many, many beers in my day. But the distaste didn't lie in the color or head of the beer. It lied, well, in the taste of the beer. As my 4-year-old says, here goes for nothin'...

The color is yellow, just like beer.   The head is white and foamy, just like beer. 

Alright, I was seriously expecting this beer to blow. Seeing as how Howie didn't even want to review this one, passing it off to me like a half-smoked cigarette, I didn't expect much.

I'm in no way a beer connoisseur, but the generic labeling on this bottle, along with the "organic" classification, certainly made me expect something much different. I'm not really sure what I expected, but it wasn't this. To be fair, though, I don't know the difference between "ales", "IPAs", "lagers", etc. I just know that I like watery, cheap, American beer, like Busch Light. Although this is not watery, nor cheap, I do still dig it. 

This is an extremely citrus-y beer. It's like a grapefruit just had sexual relations with my mouth and blew its acidic load all down my throat. As unpleasant as that may sound to you, I meant it in a good way. I'm a fan of grapefruit, and citrus in general. The beer is very light. It's not too filling or thick, like some of these citrus beers seem to be. I'm already on beer #2 and I feel like I could drink 10 of these. The problem I've found with these types of beverages, like Shock Top, is that I get through one beer and find my mouth getting kind of blegch (Look it up. That's a scientific term). This one doesn't seem to.... wait.... nevermind. I'm about halfway through beer #2 and the blegch is beginning. It's not that the beer doesn't taste good. That's not the issue. My problem with these damn fancy beers has never been the quality of the initial taste. It's always been the taste after I've had several. I equate it to rich food. You can take a bite of the most delicious cheesecake you've ever had and call it the champion of all cheesecakes, but give it a few more bites and you may change your mind. I have just changed my mind.     

The blegch has has fully enveloped my mouth and badly makes me want to brush my teeth. This is precisely the same feeling I get from all beers like this. Each sip makes it feel thicker and sweeter than it did the last time. These beers are meant to be consumed just one or two at a time. Any more than that, and the blegch sets in. 

Beer snobs love to look down upon our standard, cheap, American beers but I'll tell you this... there's a reason they're the best selling beers in the country. You can drink a dozen of them without your mouth feeling like you've been chewing on dirty underwear. That's the way my mouth feels now. Don't let your friends' mouths taste like underwear. Buy American!

I wanted to throw out some comments on the buzz factor but I was drinking many, many beers before I started this blog, so any influence these beers had on me was negligible. After all, it's only 4%. 

I'm sleepy. I think I'm gonna sleep now. Good ni...

Fordham Brewery "TAVERN ALE"

Earlier last month I joined a Beer of the Month club. They will be sending me 4 different types of beer with 3 of each kind every month. I got my first box in earlier this week so my next three will be on these. Why only the next 3 you ask? Well because apparently while I was out drinking one night I agreed to do a blog swap with my buddy Jason.  He does a camping/kayaking blog which can be found HERE.  Why I agreed to this, I have no idea, it probably had something to do with me being drunk. If you read this regularly you know that my grammar isn't always the greatest and Jay is a damn grammar nazi. But enough about that, let's talk beer.
The first beer I grabbed out of the box was this one...


Price: 7.49 Six Pack 12oz bottles
ABV: 5.5%
ABU: 40



If you would like more info on the brewery you can click HERE. It is an AMERICAN PALE ALE and I know I said I was gonna try and stay away from the Pale Ale's for awhile but I can't help what gets sent to me. With that said, I was even more happy when I realized it was a Pale Ale.
The pour was good and it has a nice one finger off-white head that dissipated pretty quickly. It has a slight smell of citrus which I've come to expect from most Pale Ales.




The color of the beer was a nice orange-ish copper color. The initial taste was mildly hoppy with no real after taste. I was unable to taste any of the citrus that I smelled when I poured it. It was relatively light tasting for an APA. The carbonation was pretty light too which I'm not a fan of. I did some research on that thinking it may have been due to the beer traveling in the mail but I've read quite a few reviews that say that as well. My biggest gripe about this beer is that overall it tastes like a watered down Pale Ale. I've had other APA's that were not only stronger but also had a much better taste. The taste isn't bad but for a craft beer I'd expect more. If Budweiser or Miller were to ever start mass producing an APA, this is what it would taste like. It's only 5.5% which is a little low for my liking. If I'm gonna spend money on a craft beer I would like my ABV to be a bit higher then your run-of-the-mill domestic.
Overall this beer is ok. I don't think I would ever buy it if I were to come across it in the store but it is a good beer for someone who wants to get their feet wet with Pale Ales.
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Till next time....

Cigar City "PAPAYA IPA"

Yesterday while at the CIGAR CITY BREWERY Taste Room I saw they had a Papaya IPA on tap as interesting as it sounded I wasn't too sure about it. (I described my experience at the Taste Room in my last blog. If you didn't read it then click HERE.) While there I saw these bottles on the shelve, come to find out they are called Growlers....

32oz 4 dollars

A gallon 7 dollars

They have both a 32oz and a gallon bottle. After asking Mary what they were for, I was informed that they can be purchased and filled with draft beer and brought back to be refilled. (Most of the beers run around 9 dollars for the 32oz and between 18-20 dollars for the gallon.) At this point I heard the most melodic harmony of angels coming from above. I half expected to be wrapped in a warm white light and have some sort of religious experience but as it turns out it was just a new song starting on Mary's iPod and not a sign from the heavens that I had reached beer Mecca. After having my pint and deciding on the bottle of Big Sound to bring home I started looking at the menu to see if there was anything else that caught my fancy. There way quite a few that really wanted to try, and probably will in the future but being the IPA fan I am I decided to stick with the papaya...

Price: 9.00 for a 32oz Growler plus the initial cost of Growler.
ABV: 7.5%
IBU: 64

I got my Growler filled and headed home. Now, I'm usually not a fan of fruit flavored alcohol but I am a HUGE fan of IPA's so I figured I'd give it a shot. There was no big surprise when I poured into my glass. It is a golden color with a nice thick, white head....

Sorry for the crappy picture. I still haven't figured out how to photograph beer in a decent manner.

 It's smelled like an IPA should with the strong scent of hops. The taste was pretty hoppy and relatively light. The one thing that surprised me about the IPA is that the papaya taste was present but not overpowering. There is a mild sweetness to it but you can't really place the fruit till afterwards. Even then it takes a few swigs to figure it out. After finishing the entire Growler I didn't have much of a buzz but then again it was only 2.5 glasses of a 7.5% so I wasn't expecting to have one. I would much rather drink a straight IPA but this wasn't too bad.
Overall this is an enjoyable beer. Nothing to write home about but if you enjoy IPA's then you may wanna give this a try sometime. This isn't a year round brew. I heard them say that was the last keg. I don't know if that means it's done for the season or if they just didn't have anymore kegs available of it at that time but if you enjoy IPA's and you're in the Tampa area it can't hurt to swing by their Taste Room. Hell, even if they are out of this I'm sure they'll have something you will enjoy.
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Till next time...

Cigar City "BIG SOUND SCOTCH ALE"

Today I decided to head over to Tampa and visit CIGAR CITY BREWERY.  After getting in stuck in traffic in Tampa and it taking me 30 minutes longer to get there then it should have. I promptly drove right past the place. I turned around and pulled into the parking lot. It is very easy to miss, it's a very small place. I had visited their website (see link above) and decided to go check out their "Tasting Room" which is basically a bar in the room next to the brewery. I wasn't expecting it to actually look like a bar but to my amazement it did. The bartender Mary was very easy on the eyes and they had a good selection of music playing from what I'm gathering was Mary's iPod docked in a player on the shelve. They have a menu of beers that you can choose from, probably a total of 12-15 different kinds. All Cigar City beers, of course. I had a pint of Jai Alai IPA as I was mulling over the menu trying to decide what to bring home. I bought two but all I'm concerned with right now is this one...

Price: 9.00 for a 750mL bottle

ABV: 8.50%

IBU: 30

I has absolutely no idea what to expect from this beer. I kinda read the description on the menu but it wasn't very helpful. It said something about it being a SCOTCH ALE and something about a 'Malt bomb' with 'cherry and toffee'. Let me tell you right now, if there is any cherries in this beer they are well hidden. Once I poured it into my glass my heart sank...

  

I am NOT a fan of dark beers. Every one I have ever had tasted and felt like I was drink tar. Even as I was pouring it I was almost dreading the first taste. It poured very thick appearing and had a dark color of maple syrup. The head was a caramel color and dissipated relatively quick.
Remember when you were a kid and your parents made you take cough syrup? That feeling in your stomach that you knew you were about to put something into your mouth that you were not going to enjoy? I had that exact feeling as I was about to take my first taste of this beer.
To my amazement I was pleasantly surprised when my taste buds didn't get the overwhelming sensation of cool black tar but a very interesting mixture of some kind of chocolate (probably that toffee I spoke of earlier) and maybe brown sugar. There is for sure a beer taste there, it's not hoppy like an IPA, but you can definitely taste the beer. The other stuff is there but it's taken me almost an entire bottle to try and place it.
Overall I enjoyed this one. I'm not sure if it'll end up on my personal favorites list but if I was out somewhere and they had this on tap I might have a glass.
After doing some research on this beer I found out that it took the gold at the US OPEN BEER CHAMPIONSHIPS  so congrats to them.
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Till next time... (which will be Thursday)

Brouwerij Van Steenberge "Piraat"

HEY! Let me start this off by saying that I am writing this while feeling the effects of this beer (I'm a bit drunk) so if the grammar isn't all that great that's why.


Tonight I decided to go with a beer that I have been looking at and wanting to try for some time now. It's from the Belgium brewery Brouwerij Van Steenberge, which has been around since some time before 1784. (I couldn't find an exact date. That is the closest I could find.) They have had over 227 years to fine tune their craft and I think they have it down to a science. Here is what it looks like...


The six pack...


The bottle...

Price: 17.99 4 pack of 11.2 fl oz
ABV: 10.5%
IBU: 30.35

This beer is much different the other beers I have reviewed so far. For starters it's a Belgian Strong Ale so, unlike all the other beers I have reviewed so far, it's not an American beer and the IBU's are relatively low when compared to the other three.
After my last experience with a 10+% beer I really wasn't expecting this beer to be that good. I anticipated the strong alcohol taste to over power the entire taste but I was really surprised when I took my first drink of this beer and it tasted amazing. It is very light tasting, which I wasn't expecting from such a high content beer. I can for sure taste the alcohol but it is has a sweet almost fruity under tone that compliments the alcohol taste very well. I can't quite place what fruit but I'm sure it's something tropical. I wouldn't be mentioning it if it wasn't extremely noticeable.
I can now see why pirates enjoyed doing what they did. If I could drink this all day then go and pillage a town or have a crazy open sea battle with another ship I don't think I would mind it as much.
Overall this beer is very enjoyable. It is light enough to not realize you are drinking a beer with such high alcohol content but has enough of that "beer" taste to know you are having a well very well crafted beer. I really wish this beer wasn't so damn expensive, it could easily replace my regular beer if it wasn't. I will for sure be getting this beer again at some point just for personal drinking.

At this point I have finished the entire 4 pack and have a really nice buzz. I'm not to the point where I am stumbling over stuff or unable to think but it's a nice buzz. I have to highly recommend this beer if you don't mind spending almost 20$ on four beers.
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If you are into camping or kayaking, my good friend Jaysun has a blog all about that. Hell even if you don't do either, you should go check it out, his last one is pretty damn funny. It's all about some Ape-man that he hangs out with. Click  HERE to check that out.
Till next time...

Lagunitas "WILCO TANGO FOXTROT"

Good afternoon! So how was everyone's weekend? Did you try any new beers?
I have another Lagunitas beer for today. I need to make a serious conscience effort to try and avoid them for a little while. They have 3/4 of my reviews right now. I already have my next few beers picked out in my head though. I picked this one up when I got the Gnarly Wine last week. I really just liked the look of the label so I figured I would try it...

Price: 6.00 per 22oz bottle
ABV: 7.83%
IBU:  64.20

This beer is an American Strong Ale (I won't bore you with the details. Click the link if you wanna know more) and was surprisingly good. After my last two experiences with this brewery my hopes weren't that high. The pour was really good with a nice thick, off-white colored head. The beer is a brownish red color. I tried getting a picture but I am a horrible photographer. I need to get with my buddy Jay and have him show me the best way to photograph beer but I digress. The initial taste was very good it has the malty "beer taste" that I enjoy. I expected it to be heavy tasting but it surprisingly wasn't. There is also a taste of what might be caramel but it is very slight and buried under the rich malty flavor.  It leaves that nice "beer", or as my wife puts it "ass", taste in your mouth. (She's a wine drinker so you'll have to forgive her) I think if I were to drink a couple bottles of this it would result in a very nice buzz. I could see myself sitting around on the weekend having a few of these while playing online poker or watching football. Overall I'm really impressed with this beer. I look forward to reviewing more of Lagunitas beers in the future as they always have interesting stuff to try, it'll just be a while. So many beers so little time.
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Till next time...