190. Olde Hickory Bee Student Ale

I have more bombers than I have places to put them!  The racks to hold my various wine and beers are overflowing.  That said, I needed to reduce my inventory, starting with some beers I'd have no problem consuming sooner rather than later.  In this case, I was pining for a decent ale, nothing too complex, and thought that this would be the one to do the trick.  It says it is an ale brewed with honey; Beer Advocate has it labeled as a rye beer.  This is a first for me, outside of the Rye IPAs.

I don't know what was up with this one.  It was poured into a snifter glass and I got four fingers of frothy, off-white head that had long retention and left rings and a whole bunch of splotches on the side of the glass.  I don't know what happened with this one, but it reminded me of a shook up soda can.  I just know I didn't shake it up, it just seemed to be active from the get go.  When the head settled, I realized that I had a light copper, orange sunset colored brew that was pretty clear, for the most part.  I could detect light aromas of honey to go with some pine, grapefruit, and rye bread.

The taste was a little more hop forward than I had anticipated.  The grapefruit and pine flavors come to the forefront.  There's a touch of sweetness towards the end from the honey, along with some spicy, peppery notes that come from the rye.  There's a bitter finish that lingers for just a little bit.  Medium bodied with moderate carbonation, there's a certain type of refreshment that it brings.  

Overall, it's a decent beer, but it didn't strike me as anything impressive.  With the hop forward punch, I could almost see this as some sort of rye pale ale.  I probably won't find this around to give it another try, but I look forward to trying other beers to see how other styles stack up.  If you've tried this beer and you don't like what I have to say about it, or if you totally agree with me, just let me know!

Grade: C-

Price Paid: $3.99 (22 oz bomber) 

136. Olde Hickory Death By Hops

Death by Hops was one of the beers that I brought with me on my road trip that I didn't get a chance to drink.  The day after I got back home, however, I made sure to address it sooner rather than later.  I must confess, the bottle had a drink by date of 4/1/13.  We're in mid-May, so I missed my mark.  Still, I was hopeful and expectant that the beer would still be pretty good, even if I missed the best-by date.  

The beer poured a nice caramel color into the glass, with about three fingers of frothy head.  Average retention left about a finger long sheet of lacing at the bottom.  I detected strong aromas of malt, honey, and caramel, followed by floral and piney hops, with a little bit of citrus peel mixed in.  

The taste started off with a strong malt base to start, then the hops quickly come in.  I though the hops were more piney than anything, and that there was a little bit of spice present.  The bitterness lingers considerably, as expected.  The mouthfeel is a little on the oily side, but still medium bodied with medium carbonation.  For a DIPA, this isn't a bad brew by any means.  That said, I am more partial to citrus like hops and the heavy malt backbone didn't play too well with me.  I suspect that maybe it would have been better if I drank this before the expiration date.  Oh well, I'll make plans to try again, but for now, I'll stick with the grade that's provided.

Grade: C

Price Paid: $6.99 (22 oz bomber)

130. Olde Hickory The Bean

My main haul of beers consist of two sizes, 12 oz bottles and 22 oz bombers.  Because I'm the only one that's drinking, I tend to favor the 12 oz selections, opting to save the 22 oz bombers for special occasions.  Unfortunately, I can easily build up a gigantic backlog of 22 oz bottles, which is what happened here, and I knew that I needed to unload some of my wares.  I decided to give the ol' Bean a shot.  I believe this is actually the first time that I've had something from Olde Hickory (http://www.oldehickorybrewery.com), even though I've bought a few of their beers already.  Here's to hoping that this one is pretty good!

Anyway, the beer poured a dark brown color with three fingers of head.  The head was interesting..it looked like soda.  It fizzed, it fizzled out, leaving no trace of lacing on the side of the pilsner glass.  Never had a beer that did that before.  I could detect aromas of roasted malt and coffee, but really couldn't detect the vanilla notes.  Not a good sign so far.

As far as the taste, I could dtect more coffee and malt, still couldn't taste much of the vanilla.  If it was there, it was very subtle.  I thought the beer was incredibly watered down, not full flavored at all.  Maybe it was meant to be a sessionable beer, but I found it to miss its mark.  That part about the soda like head?  This stuff was super carbonated, just like soda.  I found it hard to drink, and with the watered down taste, I was reminded of flavored tonic water.  Not good at all.  Could you imagine a coffee drink that was carbonated like soda?  I can't.  It's what did The Bean in.  I drank the whole thing, but this one really deserved to be poured out.  I hope the rest of Olde Hickory's offerings aren't this bad.  Sorry ol' Bean, you're going to need to try again.

Grade: D-

Price Paid: $5.00 (22 oz bomber)