This Is What I Drink : 32

Another Beer Sampler

Hmm, this blog seems to be getting a little beer heavy lately, but I'll try to change that up with a couple more non-beer posts soon, but for now, a few more beers.

21st Amendment Brewery's Brew Free or Die! IPA

Another canned microbrew joins the fray, this time from San Francisco. One of the great things about this beer is the packaging, which I regret not taking a picture of now that I think about it. Basically it comes in a mini-cardboard six-pack like you'd see a soda 12-pack of. Basically, it's packaging I've never really seen in the beer world. As for the beer itself, it's definitely a solid golden IPA. At 7% it's got a nice kick with the hops and overall it's pretty fruity and sweet like a lot of the recent IPAs I've had. It goes down pretty smoothly and it's nice that it's starting to feel more normal to drink good beer out of a can (more to come later...in this post!)

Four + Brewing's Monkshine Belgian Pale Ale

Why does this company call itself "4 +"? Well, they are located in Salt Lake City, Utah where all beer served in bars must not be beyond 3.2% alcohol. It's an interesting law, but probably not a place where you would think of starting a brewery. I had tried a couple of other styles from them and had not been very impressed. Both of the others had been barely over 4.5% ABV, so I felt like that was my reason. Monkshine, however weighs in at 6.8%, so I was once again intrigued. I'll admit that I don't have much experience in the Belgian Pale Ale category, but this beer was fairly interesting. It had a very clean, yet sour taste to it. I'm still kind of shocked that it was 6.8% as it tasted more like 4%. Sometimes that would be good, but in this case I felt like it contributed to a lack of flavor. Perhaps it's just not my favorite style, but I'm not sure I'd give 4 + another chance after this most recent experience.

Butternut's Heinnieweisse Weissebier

One more canned microbrew, this time from some dudes in Garrattsville, New York. I apologize for the very blurry picture, but there may be a better one here. I believe this may be the first hefeweisen that I've reviewed for the blog and unfortunately I can't say that it's a great one. For some reason I just didn't quite get the flavor I usually expect from a wheat beer. That's not always a bad thing, but in this case it tasted a bit more like a lager which was a tad deceptive. It's probably a beer I'd like to try again, along with some of their other styles.