22 oz bottle, Arbor Place Beverage, Douglasville, GA, USA. Very typical for the style, a cloudy and turbid brown soup like affair with some big, rocky, pitted, off-white head and lace. Retention is not great. It's a bit of an ugly looking beer for me. Nose and tastes deliver typical big, hoppy alcohol notes, and there is the requisite dry finish. Strangely, the alcohol is fairly well hidden during the drink, but in the aftertaste and at the end the beer packs its' full punch. The combination...
Notes on beers brewed by
Port Brewing Company / Pizza Port
Mongo
22 oz bottle. $7.99 from Ansley Wine Merchants, Atlanta, GA, USA. Heard a lot of buzz about this beer in the last couple of weeks as LA/Port has recently made it to GA. For some reason (not sure why) I was under the impression that this was going to be largely a draught offering, so I was a little surprised to find it in bottles. Pour is an attractive hazy marmalade color with a large, three finger head but doesn't quite give the magnificent and sticky lace that such a good head should bring,...
Wipeout I.P.A.
Review #2600 on BA. On tap at Taco Mac, East West Connector, Austell, Atlanta, GA, USA. 16 oz pour. The beer comes as a hazed, mid-orange pour with the emphasis on the cloudy nature of the beer. Quite 'dense' looking which is OK for the nice, two-finger head that forms, but less appealing in the body of the beer. Typical, west coast, American IPA is the simple analysis here; large, piney, resinous grapefruit in the nose which intensifies on warming. More of the same in the tastes with perhaps...
Midnight Expression
22 oz bottle, $4.99 from Smyrna Beverage World, Smyrna, GA, USA. Black pour with an attractive, pitted, mocha colored head that is light and bubbly. Looks nice. Nice is a somewhat neutral malty sweetness, even when warmed slightly. The initial taste blast is a little unexpected and seems quite bitter and hoppy. I wasn't expecting this a all considering the style and it is really noticeable. I didn't like that jolt very much, but on the plus side as soon as it came, it faded and the middle and...
Hop 15
22 oz bottle from a recent trade. Apparently $5.99 from "Vendome". Very typical (but good) example of the style. Over the years I've become increasingly tired of these beers (meaning this style) with their unrelenting hop bitterness and high alcohol content which has quite literally impeded their drinkability, BUT from time to time, I feel like going back to revisit them. It's REALLY important for me to go back to a solid version, because otherwise I will get frustrated quickly. Luckily this...
Special Pale Ale (SPA)
12 oz, brown stubbie with screened label of a "surfer dude". Thanks go out to Boolshot for the trade. I suppose that you might want to put this in the "West Coast" APA category since it has a pretty high hop intensity for an APA. Don't get me wrong, this is not an IPA, but at the same time there is a much greater hop presence than I would normally associate with the style. Huge carbonation (a little annoying if I'm honest) sits on top of the cloudy orange body. Once the froth has died down it...