Third Shift Amber Lager:
Howdy all and a hearty welcome back to the best little beer website that I can manage.  Today let’s look a newcomer in the beer market: Third Shift Amber Lager.  This beer, brewed by the creatively named Band of Brewers...more

Sixpoint Resin:
Howdy friends and a hearty and happy greetings to you all.  Today let us look at not only a canned IPA, but one that brings a smile to a seasoned hop-head’s mug.  I’ve made it no real secret here that I have mixed feelings...more

Wasatch Ghostrider:

Hello friends and neighbors and welcome back to another beer review from your’s truly.  Today let’s take another hop (ha!) over to Utah and look at Wasatch and their ever expanding line of beers and, in particular, their white IPA: Ghostrider. More

Saint Arnold Bishop Barrel No. 2:
Greetings fellow beer drinkers and welcome back to my little attempt to put some order into the beer universe.  Today lets stay in Texas and look at that fun and creative Houston brewery, Saint Arnold and the second entry into their Bishop Barrel line-up. More

Boulevard Smokestack Reverb:

Howdy one and all and welcome back to the best beer website in my zip code (I think).  Today let’s look at a smokestack.  No, not those big sooty things, the Boulevard Smokestack Series of beers...more 

North Coast Old No. 38 Stout:
Howdy one and all and welcome back to the website for the beer-curious.  Yes friends, today we again further explore the world of beer and, in particular, a beer from North Coast Brewery and their Old No. 38 Stout.  This beer...more

Free State Ironman Imperial Stout:
‘ello loves and welcome back to the greatest little attempt to explain away the world of beer.  Today we revisit that brewery in Kansas and look at their small batch brew: Iron Man Imperial Stout.  This stout, named for a local Lawrence blacksmith...more

Free State Oatmeal Stout:
Hello one and all and welcome back to the continuing saga of beer.  Today let’s jump up to the jayhawk state of Kansas and their craft brewery, Free State. This Lawrence based brewery originated in 1989 and was Kansas’ first legal brewery in over 100 years...more

An Alternate Beer List For St. Patrick's Day:
Hello friends and neighbors and happy Saint Patrick’s Day!  Yes today we celebrate the life of the primary patron saint of Ireland as well as celebrating the fact that he drove all the snakes from Ireland.  Now tradition holds here in the US...more

Stevens Point St. Benedict's Winter Ale:
Greetings friends and neighbors and a hearty welcome back.  Today let’s take another step towards trying to polish off some of those winter warmer beers that are floating around the ole beer cabinet.  More

Real Ale 15th Anniversary Ale:
Howdy friends and neighbors and welcome back to the best little beer website this side of the Pecos.  Today let’s stay within the border of the great state of Texas...more

Squatters Hop Rising:
Hello all and welcome back to another beer, another day.  Today we look at another beer from Squatters and this time, we take a lot and their Double IPA: Hop Rising.  This 9% ABV uses...more

Stone Old Guardian:
Greetings and welcome fellow beer drinkers and welcome back.  Today let’s look to California for our beer of the day and today we look to that cocky brewery, Stone...more

5 Seasons Kilt Lifter:
Hello one and all and welcome back to this daring attempt to put a bit of sense on the world of beer.  Today we look at a beer brewed in house at 5 Seasons Brewing in Atlanta...more

Squatters Hell's Keep:
Greetings fellow beer drinkers and travelers and welcome back to our little journey through the circles of the beer world.  Today let us venture out to Utah and look at Squatters...more

Real Ale Fireman's #4Howdy one and all and welcome back to a Texas sized edition of beer talk.  As you have probably guessed by now we are staying in Texas for today’s beer review and we once again dip down to Blanco and look at Real Ale and their Fireman’s #4 Ale...more

Harpoon Grateful Harvest:
Greetings fellow beer drinkers and today let’s look at that special kind of beer: charity based beers! Yes, I think we all love a beer that we can drink and feel good about ourselves in knowing that as we consume this bottle of alcoholic ingenuity, we are...more

Coney Island Barrel-Aged Human Blockhead:

Hello one and all and welcome to the site that brings a ray of light to the other wise murky world of beer and beer consumption.  Today let’s venture to Coney Island and look at one of their staples but with a twist...more

Crispin Stagger Lee:
Howdy partner and welcome back to my attempt to wrangle a beer from the herd and review it for y’all.  Since it’s been a while and I don’t want my “alternative” drinkers to get disenfranchised...more

Gordon Biersch Hefeweizen:
Hello beloveds and I bid you all a hearty Brother Dave welcome.  Who is “Brother Dave” you ask? Google him and ye shall find out (he‘s the first name that pops up).  Okay, enough culture, lets talk beer...more

Ayinger Oktober Fest-Marzen:

Greetings friends and fellow beer drinkers.  I know that today’s beer maybe a bit out of season but it came up in the rotation and who am I too deny it a chance in the limelight? more  

Mikkeller Chipotle Porter:
Howdy partners and partnerettes and welcome to another edition of the beer round-up!  Boy howdy, do we have a beer for you today.  Today we look at a Denmark based brewer, Mikkeller and their take on a spicy porter...more

Breckenridge Vanilla Porter:
Hello all and I welcome you back to this little grand adventure down the beer moving walkway (it’s not beer lane/highway/road/street/etc. because we don’t condone drinking and driving here in beer land).  Since it’s been a while and ...more

Heavy Seas Winter Storm:
Greetings and salutations friends and fellow beer drinkers.  As we wind down these dark and cold winter months, let us look at a winter beer from one of our favorite niche brewers in the Northeast: Heavy Seas and their Winter Storm...more

Red Hare Gangway IPA:
‘Ello loves and a hearty welcome back to the beer source.  No, not the place where beer comes from (that’s Heaven, btw) but the place where you can- hopefully - find a beer that suits your tastes.  Today we are going to introduce ourselves to a new brewery...more

He'Brew Jewbulation Sweet 16:

Hello one and all and welcome back to my attempt to bring a bit of clarity to the overwhelmingly foggy world of beer and it’s consumption.  Today let’s venture back to a brewery that, honestly, hasn’t really impressed me...more

Lazy Magnolia Gulf Porter:
Greetings and salutations friends, neighbors and fellow beer drinkers!  It’s been a while since we’ve looked into the beers from the Lazy Magnolia...more

Brooklyn Winter Ale:
What’s up one and all?  Hope this blog finds you all well and, for some of you, probably snowed in (or shoveling out) right about now so in honor of that white stuff that causes so many headaches, let’s do look a winter beer today, shall we?...more 

Real Ale Brewhouse Brown Ale:
Greetings one and all and welcome back to my further adventures in the world of beer.  Today let’s stay within the borders of Texas and once again look at another beer from Real Ale and this time we look at their Brewhouse Brown Ale...more

Harviestoun Old Engine Oil Engineer's Reserve:  
 Hello one and all and welcome back to the best little beer website on the block.  Today let’s hop across the pond to the United Kingdom- Scotland in particular- and look at Harviestoun Brewery’s special edition beer: Old Engine Oil Engineers Reserve...more

Widmer Brothers Raspberry Russian Imperial Stout '12:
Greetings fellow beer drinkers and lovers and welcome back to exploratory look at the world of beer and it’s consumption.  Today let’s look at another entry into the realm of Widmer Brothers and, in particular, their big bottle line; this beer, Raspberry Russian Imperial Stout... more

Sixpoint 3BEANS:
Howdy fellow beer drinkers and welcome back the diary of a beer drinker.  Today let’s hop up back north to the Empire State and look at Sixpoint brewring and their 3BEANS beer.   more

Saint Arnold Amber:
Howdy friends and fellow beer drinkers and I bid you welcome to my continued effort to map the world of beers.  Today let’s round out the final beer in the year round line-up of Texas’ oldest craft brewery, Saint Arnold by looking at their original and flagship: Amber.  This brew, had a rocky start while it was being brewed by SA for initial release but the recipe off and an IPA was brewed instead.  Since most people aren’t IPA lovers it didn’t fly that well with the rest of the crowd (who were obviously not hop-heads).  Well, long story short, the error was quickly caught and they corrected the recipe for the beer to what we know today.  The beer itself was poured from a tap with a clear smoky gold color with not much head to speak of and a subtle nose of roasted malts as well as floral hints.  The beer’s taste profile is pretty uniform with a mainly malt dominated flavor that has variation of lightly roasted to bready with fruity hop undertones that seem to show up predominately mid and back tongue.  The beer is refreshing and clean with a light taste profile that doesn’t offend or polarize but that seems to be it’s biggest hand up as well.  The beer is so “safe” that it tends to lend itself into the world of “drink it and forget it” beers but to some of you, that is what you want in your beer and if that is what you want then at least drink a Texas beer if you can.    

Real Ale Rio Blanco Pale Ale:
Greetings fellow beer drinkers and travelers and welcome back to another day, another beer.  Today we stay here in the Lone Star state and once again look at Real Ale out of Blanco, TX and their Rio Blanco Pale Ale (or white river pale ale for those of you who have an undying sense of curiosity).  This beer, a 2010 GABF gold medal winner, is one of the more inviting pale ales on the market.  The beer pours a  nice hazy golden color that has a nice thin head of white foam and nose of mild citrus and some bready malts.  The beer’s initial taste is a combo of tart orange and some roasted malts that work surprisingly well together as they bring out good herbal notes in the mid tongue and settle to a nice sour back-end and a mellow but still skunky aftertaste.  So as we slog our way through the world of beer and the pale ales that dot it’s landscape, we need to recognize this is as one beer that not only is good but different enough to set itself apart from the others.  Not as good as Real Ale’s Full Moon Pale Rye Ale, this beer is definitely worth checking out.  

Clown Shoes Supa Hero:
Howdy partners and partnettes? Hell, I don’t know, that’s a stretch for an opening but, really, who cares?  We’re here to talk about beer, not colloquial greetings.  Today let’s jump back to a brewery that is quickly growing in my positive column in the big ole book o’ breweries and that brewery is *drum roll* Clown Shoes.  Yes, the same people that make Tramp Stamp, Muffin Top, and Let My People Go now bring us Supa Hero, a Imperial IPA.  The beer poured out of a tap arrives a nice cloudy orange amber with a thin white head of foam that leaves decent lacing and a nose of pine resin and mellow sour citrus notes.  The beer’s initial taste is akin to the tartness of a white grapefruit taste that is very tart, sour, and full of memorable citrus notes that roll and builds through the mid tongue and back-end and finishes in the aftertaste as a dry sour skunk that ranks among the best (and yes, I know that a lot of you have a difficult time wrapping your head around something being both “skunky” and ‘good”).  A good imperial IPA, but really doesn’t seem to far off from the regular good IPAs out there and not the double/imperial IPAs that are available.  Probably best severed as an introduction to the world of double/imperial IPAs for those who want something more out of their hoppy beer consumption.  Cheers!

Saint Arnold Elissa IPA:
Greetings and salutations good friends and neighbors and welcome back to the little beer website that could, still can, and did…twice.  For today’s review, let’s stay inside the great state of Texas for this beer examination and look at Houston’s Saint Arnold Brewery and their Elissa IPA.  This IPA might be the first beer to be reviewed on this website that uses reverse osmosis water to help cut the bitterness and make this “softer” IPA for the non-hop head beer drinkers.  The beer was poured from a tap with a nice clear golden color, a thin white head of foam that leaves some lacing and a nose of mellow pine resin.  The beer’s initial taste is a nice mellow mix of hops and a touch of malts but quickly builds to a noticeable sour citrus flavor that maintains its level throughout the aftertaste and finishes with a mellow skunk that gently reminds you that just took a sip of an IPA.  A nice clean IPA, it breaks no new ground as far as IPAs go but it does pair well with meals and won’t washout the flavor of your food like some stronger IPAs tend to do.

Lagunitas Hop Stoopid:
Hello hop lovers and admirers and a hearty welcome back or, if it’s needed, welcome for the first times.  Today let’s skip back to the Golden State and their great little brewery, Lagunitas.  Today we look at a nice hoppy beer from Lagunitas, Hop Stoopid which seems to be a very fitting for a beer that was “massively -dry hopped for your aromatic please” and describes what hops can do to us hop-heads- in other words, it makes us stupid.  Stupid enough to buy overly hopped beers, drink them out of brandy snifters, and sip on them slowly while others pound down mass produced beers like they are water.  Lagunitas hasn’t made a bad beer yet and the trend continues with this one.  The beer, poured from a tap, is a nice golden color with a thick meringue like head of foam that leaves great lacing and a nose of thick grapefruit hops and pine notes.  The beer’s initial taste starts with a medium strength leveled hop flavor and that level of hops just builds to a strong clean semi-sweet resin and grapefruit blend that bites the back tongue and leaves a memorable skunk on the aftertaste.  A very nice IPA, nothing really that blows me out of the water but it’s a great IPA to have with a meal thanks to it’s light 8.2% ABV.  Not bad, not bad at all and highly recommended. 

Howdy one and all and welcome back to my attempt to shed some light on what is worth while in the beer cooler and what isn’t.  Today let’s look at one of the beers that didn’t win Budweiser’s Project Twelve (in case you forgot the new Black Crown “won” the contest).  Today we look at Batch no. 23185 which was a product of Daniel Westmoreland, the Budweiser brewers in Williamsburg, VA and is the result of a lager beer aged with bourbon staves and vanilla beans.  The beer pours a nice amber color with a thin white head of foam, no lacing, and a nose of roasted malts.  The beer’s taste isn’t really worth going into, it’s mainly a mismatch of roasted malts and an undefined sour flavored undertone that really doesn’t fit the definition of being aged with bourbon staves and vanilla beans.  Normally a beer aged with both of these items would have me grinning ear-to-ear and eager to drink the bottle down but, yeah this one ain’t worth the effort to drink this beer.  You’re not missing out with this one, find yourself a good barrel aged IPA instead of drinking this if you come across it. 

Ayinger Brau-Weisse:
‘Ello luvs and welcome back to your one and only website that doesn’t discriminate against beer.  Well, maybe against some, particularly those that say “malt liqour” and “high gravity” on the same tallboy or 40 oz. magnum.  Ugh.  Anyway let’s look at an authentic Brau-weisse from Privatbrauerei Franz Inselkammer KG / Brauerei Ayinger…ummm let’s just call them Ayinger if we need to refer to it again.  This bottle contains one of the most popular beers in the world, an unfiltered wheat beer and I will admit, I do have the occasional weakness for this type of beer, mainly because it carries a great palate pleasing flavor profile.  The beer pours a pale golden color with a finely bubbled white head of foam with some lacing and nose of sweet bananas and subtle wheat notes.  The beer’s taste is very similar to the nose though there is bit more creaminess and lemon notes to the beer’s mid tongue than I’m used in a beer like this and the amount of carbonation keeps things lively, effervescent, and champagne like in it‘s feel.  It does seem odd to me that while I have been doing these reviews that the Hefeweizen style has fallen from a favorite type of beer to one that I’m kind of burned out on but beer’s like this remind me that there are good hefes out there and it makes me want to more until I‘m burned out on them again.   A vicious cycle indeed.  Cheers!

Clown Shoes Let My People Go:
Greetings cats and kittens and welcome back.  So what is your favorite Charlton Heston movie?  I know a lot of people say “Planet of the Apes” or maybe “Ben-Hur” but for me, it’s “The Ten Commandments” and, in case you were wondering, his short little cameo in “True Lies“ is a distant second for me.  I still look forward to every Easter and the playing of that epic on TV and enjoying the size, scope, and amazement of it’s special effects (for the time) and it‘s portrayal of that time period as well as it‘s treatment of the subject material.  So when one comes across a beer that pulls it’s name from one of the best lines in that movie, I was a sucker to try it (much like the whole dinosaurs on the label issue).   Clown Shoes brewing has made an English pale ale called Let My People Go, which purportedly will allow to you lead your real or imagined people out from the yoke of oppression and into two decades of wandering.  The beer was poured from a tap with a hazy gold color with a nice thick foamy white head and a nose of malts, some floral hops and bread.  The beer’s initial taste is very malt like with a thick bread flavor that rolls to the mid tongue with some growing citrus hop bite that full blooms in the back end and aftertaste to a grassy and floral hop profile.  A good ale, one that is great for those looking to stay in the hop realm but to expand their tastes and horizons.  Easily available and most stores that carry craft brews, this is a great summer beer for those warm evenings in the shade. 

Epic Hop Zombie:

Hello one and all and welcome back to another great little beer review and this time, we include zombies!  Yes friends, we here at the beer review institute realize the need to incorporate ALL creatures of horror and since we have touched upon a vampire, a demon or two, gargoyles, and a few animals/human hybrids, why not a zombie?  After all they are huge in popular culture right now so what the hell, let’s hop (HA!) on the bandwagon and join in the lemmings march with zombies in tow to the cliff of overexposure.  Today’s beer is from a nice little New Zealand brewery, Epic, and it is their Hop Zombie, a brew that uses classified hop blends (you ever notice it’s always something classified that leads to zombie breakout).  The beer pours a nice clear golden color with a thin white head of foam that leaves some areas of lacing but nothing serious and a nice nose of medium bodied citrus notes and some pine resin.  The beer’s taste is pretty uniform with the only variation being on the levels of hop notes that you get with most of it building on the mid-tongue after a smooth start and finish with a good solid- though not strong- hop back-end and aftertaste.  Going into this beer I was expecting something that would blow me away hop wise but really it didn’t and while I enjoyed the beer, I wasn’t blown away but then I learned a nice little bit of information.  Here in ‘merica, we are building ourselves into a hop arms race among the craft breweries and while that is good in some respects, it isn’t what the rest of the world does and they seems to keep their hops in more manageable yet still very respectable levels.  Hop Zombie is one of those beers that is a good beer to drink if one is inclined to expand their hop horizon beyond the contiguous borders of ‘merica.  

Yeastie Boys Rex Attitude:
Howdy one and all and welcome to a beer review where we cross an ocean to get a beer and then bring it back and review it.  Okay, I didn’t do all that traveling, someone imported it but I’m glad they did and now I got a chance to drink it and now I bring it to you.  First, full disclosure, I bought this beer because of two reasons: 1) It’s called Yeastie Boys which, I hope, is an awesome homage to The Beastie Boys (and if you don’t love them, you need to get yourself checked) and 2) it’s got a dinosaur on the label which means this is an awesome beer regardless of the contents.  This New Zealand beer from the future (they claim to have been founded in 2015 then traveled back in time with their recipes) is billed as “the world’s first heavily-peated single malt ale” by the boys and that peat flavor comes through in droves but more on that in a minute.  The beer pours a nice clear golden color with a thick bone white foamy head that never really settles in the glass, leaving tons of lacing and a nose of smoky scotch malts.  The beer’s taste is very uniform but make no mistake, it’s delicious.  The taste is a strong silky smooth flavor that, if you don’t know what you’re getting into when drinking it, it’s a shock but quickly grows on you.  Now, if you were not a fan of Shiner’s Smokehouse beer from a few summers ago, this isn’t the beer for you but if you even found it the least bit interesting, this beer is one you should look into.  I’m not too sure what it’s exact distribution area is- I got mine in Louisiana- but if there was ever a beer made for Texas summer barbeque, this is it.  Oh and it’s got a dinosaur on the label. 

Lagunitas Little Sumpin' Wild Ale:
Greetings and salutations friends and welcome back to my attempt to wrangle a beer from the great herd of beers and serve it up to you, my faithful readers.  Today let’s jump back to California and Lagunitas and look at a high-gravity take on their beer A Little Sumpin’ Sumpin’, this one called A Little Sumpin’ Wild.  Now after by experience with high gravity beers in April of 2012 (a month that will live in infamy) I would of shied away from this beer like a cat from water but I didn’t know and thus drank the beer , survived and now I bring it to you.  The beer pours a nice cloudy orange color with a bubbly foamed head that leaves really nice lacing and a nose of sour citrus and bready malts.  The beer’s initial taste is actually very malt heavy with a thick bread flavor that begins to share the palate with a growing sour citrus hop flavor that will eventually push out the malts altogether on the back-end and leave the aftertaste with a nice well rounded skunk taste.  A surprisingly good beer, especially since it has that whole high gravity thing working for it, I think I prefer this over the Sumpin’ Sumpin’ but really they are both good beers so which ever is available will be fine with me. 

Brew Dog bashah:

Hello one and all and welcome back to a beer review for the masses, that is if you can find it.  What do I mean by that ominous statement?  Well, sadly friends, today’s beer is no longer in production and honestly I’m not sure why a beer of this caliber was sitting untouched in a local liquor store but it was, and judging by the later of dust on the beer, it’d been a while since someone even looked at it.  So without further ado let me introduce you to Bashah, a Black Belgian style IPA that formed from the collaboration form Brew Dog and Stone Brewing.   The beer pours an inky black with no head to really speak of but there was some outer areas of carbonation while the nose is a nice rounded resin and grapefruit combo with a roasted malt undertone.  Bashah’s initial taste is one a surprisingly smooth combo of cocoa and coffee notes as well as a growing hop note that never really develops to much on the mid tongue but does make it known that this is an IPA.  Probably my biggest issue with this beer is how far into the drink you go before the hops to come out but when they do they do with a strong but restrained sour bite.  A really enjoyable beer and since it has the European influence of Brew Dog (they’re Scottish) the hops aren’t bombastic on the palate like most Double/Imperial IPAs made here in the states.  If you can track one down, grab it and enjoy but don’t fret if you don’t, there are several other good Black IPAs out there for your enjoyment and consumption.  

Magic Hat #9:
Hello one and all and welcome back to my little attempt to show the wider world a little more of the small- but growing- world of craft beer.  Today let’s take a look at Magic Hat…no not sorting hat (damn Potter fanatics) but Magic Hat, a great little brewery out of Vermont that makes today’s brew of record: #9.  Why #9?  No one really knows but 1 - 8 were poor sellers and #9 sold the best so it sticks around and never got named officially.  The beer pours a nice slightly hazy gold color with a bone white head of foam and a nose of fruity and sour hops and some bready malts.  The beer’s initial taste is a similar to a nice clean pale ale but without too much hop bite but moves to a mysterious tropical fruit flavor on the mid tongue though never becoming overly sweet and finishes very dry and clean on the aftertaste.  The beer is classified as a “not quite pale ale” by Magic Hat and as a fruit/vegetable beer (who say’s you can’t drink your veggies?) by all others out there in the beer world and as any good interviewer or investigator knows when you have two different stories (or beer types) somewhere in-between lies the truth.  So call this beer a “pale fruit ale” or “vege ale” or something that fits your fancy but in the mean time I hope you enjoy this tasty beer for many summers to come.  Cheers!

Real Ale Lost Gold IPA:
Greetings and salutations my fellow beer drinkers and welcome back to another beer review for the masses!  Today let’s stick kind of close to home with a beer from that cool little brewery nestled in the Texas hill country, Real Ale, and their IPA: Lost Gold.  Not really sure why the beer carries a title that King Midas would love but I’m certain he’d love this beer.  The beer pours  nice hazy orange/yellow color with a thin white head of foam and a nose of mild hops with a bit of undercurrent of malts.  The beer’s taste is similar to most IPAs that are out there on the market with sour citrus and pine notes intertwining together though it’s back -end and aftertaste that are more mild than one would expect from a beer with this much flavor up front.  With the beer coming in at 6.6% ABV the beer isn’t too heavy so it’s enjoyable during our nice long and hot Texas summers (or our all too brief winters for that matter).  A great entry beer for those not familiar with the Real Ale line-up and it has enough flavor to satisfy most, if not all, experienced hop heads out there. 

Blue Moon Grand Cru:
Greetings, greetings people of all tastes, backgrounds, and beer drinking experience.  Today let’s look a special release from Blue Moon: Grand Cru.  This now retired witbier style brew comes in at a strong 8.2% ABV and was crafted to commemorate the blue moon that fell on New Year’s Eve in 2009.  The beer pours a cloudy orange that builds a very fizzy bone white head of foam that leaves not lacing and enhances the nose of strong citrus and wheat notes.  The beer’s flavor profile first starts off with a champagne like fizz that tickles the tongue and allows the flavors of the beer to bloom much more aggressively than a typical Blue Moon beer while the notes of citrus are already there and don’t need to be added with a slice of orange or lemon while the aftertaste is almost a dead ringer for a sparkling dry white wine then a beer.  I think this beer reminds me more of a Siason style beer then anything else though it lacks the spice that I have found in the really good Siasons in the past.  So, as I mentioned before, this beer is retired but I have seen it floating around out there (check your grocery store, that’s where I found mine) so if this interests you keep an eye out and save it for one of those times you are trying to impress the lady friend that isn’t to sure about beer but love champagne; this is the type of beer that can sway those over from the grape side of the isle.

Tallgrass IPA:
Howdy everyone and welcome to the mad cap hour of beer reviews.  Today let‘s once again take a journey to the heartland of this great country and look at Tallgrass and their tallboy of IPA (or Tallgrass IPA if you prefer).  This beer was the third release in the Tallgrass family of brews but was the first home brew batch in the path to become that great little Kansas brewery.  The beer pours a nice cloudy orange color with a so-so layer of foam that leaves good lacing and a nose of thick pine resin and bready malts.  The beer’s taste profile is much like most IPAs, filled with a sour citrus note that carries from front end to back but it is cut by a bready malt taste that seems to tone down the citrus, which isn’t something I really want in my IPA.  Probably my least favorite in the line-up of Tallgrass beers, it does have a place for people who like want to enter in to the IPA world with something lacking the strong hop bite but still want to experience that wonderful pine resin flavor.  Not a bad beer by any means but, in my opinion, the addition of malts dilute what makes us all hop heads in our own little way, but to each their own and more power to each and every single one them 

Clown Shoes Chocolate Sombrero:

Greetings one and all and welcome back to a look at the next beer in line.  And what beer is that you ask?  How about something that you wear on your head…and is chocolate…and sports four arms….wait…What??  Yes friends, today I speak of Clown Shoes novel approach to the world of stout beers: Chocolate Sombrero and it‘s multi-armed Mexican luchador.  This “Mexican-style chocolate stout” comes in a big bottle (or magnum as I learned the other day) and is a nice change of pace from the run of the mill stouts out there that seem to be popping up all over the beer landscape as of late.  The beer uses a mixture of roasted malts, chocolate malts as well as cinnamon, ancho chilies and vanilla extract to give this beer a welcome taste change.  The beer pours the familiar dark brown color with a nice light coffee colored head of foam that leaves good lacing on the inside of the glass as well a nose of roasted malts, cocoa, and spices.  The beer’s initial taste is a light burning spice flavor as well as the smooth creaminess of a smooth stout that moves to the mid tongue allowing the cocoa flavor to fully develop but never sweeten all the while carrying through to the back end and aftertaste where the spice and cocoa flavors stick out greatly.  A nice beer, but to call it a refreshing change would be misleading due to it’s heaviness and richness it isn’t refreshing but a heavy beer.  Best drunk as a dessert and, if possible, combine with some chocolate ice cream in-between sips, it’s a wondrous combination.

Goose Island India Pale Ale:
Howdy all and welcome back to a review that once again shines a spot light at a lone beer on the stage of life.  Today we look at a newcomer to the great state of Texas, Goose Island, and while their beers are not unfamiliar to me, it maybe new to you so let’s look at one of their staples: India Pale Ale.  The beer was poured from a tap with a nice clear golden color and a thin white head of foam that leaves some lacing but nothing spectacular and a nose that intertwines grapefruit and other citrus notes.  The beer’s initial taste is a mild hop bite that grows on the mid tongue to a spice bite but the hops come back to dominate the back end and really dominate skunk takes of the aftertaste.  This is a nice middle of the road IPA, it does not break any new ground nor does it lurk in the shadows with other run of the mill mass produced IPAs.  The beer is probably best suited for those who are seasoned in other beer types but are looking to expand their palate.  This beer can satisfy a hophead’s need to scratch that hop itch (not contagious, promise) but also be mild enough not to scare off any newbie.