144. Bison Organic Honey Basil

After enjoying Sullivan's for restaurant week, I was slated to go another restaurant the following day.  Didn't happen.  Ended up staying home and ordering some Chinese food (Crispy honey chicken).  I had the honey basil in the fridge and I figured it would pair well with my food.  

The beer poured a dark amber color with a finger and a half of white head into a pilsner glass.  Light retention, no lacing.  Not attractive so far.  I detected aromas of malt, biscuit, and basil.  The basil is really faint with this one.  

The taste was comparable to the aroma, but came off a little sweeter, probably because of the honey.  The basil was easier to taste, but I'm not quite sure if I liked it.  I like basil, but in my beer?  I know there are breweries that are being even more experimental with flavors, so I don't want to write it off.  It does provide this refreshing feel to it, similar to mint or cucumber in water.  The beer was light bodied with average carbonation.  I do think that this could be better balanced.  I had it before in the past, and now that I've had it again, I'm not all that interested in having it again.  Too many other beers to drink.  Agree or disagree?  Let me know!

Grade: C-

Price Paid: $2.40 (12 oz bottle)

143. New Belgium Fat Tire Amber Ale

Could you believe that I've never had Fat Tire from New Belgium until now?  Better believe it..!  New Belgium (http://www.newbelgium.com) might be out of Colorado, but they're one of the bigger craft breweries out there.  The Raleigh area was celebrating Triangle Restaurant Week.  It's one of those deals where some of the better restaurants in town offer a 3 course prix fixe menu for $20 or $30.  I went with some buddies to Sullivan's, which was participating in the promotion.  Why not have a beer to go with my meal?  The beer list was actually quite disappointing, and this was the one of the best of the bunch.  For those of you wondering, I had some cheesesteak egg rolls, a caesar salad, filet mignon with horseradish mashed potatoes and zucchini, and a key lime pie (yeah..restaurant week rules).  

I was provided with a bottle and a nifty looking pilsner glass.  I poured most of the contents in there and was pleased to see the amount of retention in the head and the amount of lacing in the glass.  I didn't expect to get such a nice "look".  My friend's Yuengling shared similar characteristics.  With the lighting, it was hard to get the right color, but since it's called an amber ale, I figured the color was amber.  The head color was egg-white, for those of you that were wondering.  Aromas of malt, bread, and light citrus.

The beer is what you expect from an amber, malt, caramel, the light citrus.  It was a little sweeter than I'd like.  As expected, the beer was light bodied with moderate carbonation.  This is a decent brew, but not a standout.  Still, it beats a Miller or Coors or Bud.  With its wide availability, this is a great gateway beer to the craft world.

Grade: C

Price Paid: $6.00 (12 oz bottle) (Yeah, what a ripoff..)

142. Lonerider True Britt ESB

Lonerider's True Britt is one of their seasonal releases that I hadn't seen before.  Looks like Lonerider is ramping up with their different beer offerings and their intention to bottle more than just their year rounders.  Not complaining one bit, I always want to see local NC breweries able to step out and do more.  I ended up enjoying this beer with dinner.

The beer poured a nice amber color into a pilsner glass.  I try to pour aggressively to get a nice head, was able to get two and a half fingers of off white head to show.  Not a lot of retention, not a lot of lacing.  The aromas were simplistic, some caramel, malts, bread, and a little bit of hops..after all it is an ESB, right?

The beer reminded me of an amber to start, then the bitter finish reminded me that this was an ESB.  For what it is, it's pretty simplistic.  The beer is very sessionable, light bodied with moderate carbonation.  It's not going to wow you with complex flavors and some people may be disappointed with that.  If that's how the style is supposed to be, I can't knock it.  Comparing this to Green Man's ESB, which I only had a little while before this one, I liked this one better.  Agree with me?  Disagree?  Let me know.

Grade: B-

Price Paid: $1.89 (12 oz bottle)

141. Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine Ale

Ok, so I had brought this beer with me when I went on my trip to Charlotte.  Finally got around to drinking it a few days ago after it had been sitting in my fridge for the last few weeks.  I thought it would go well with dinner (can't remember what that was though..)

The beer was poured into a stemless brandy glass.  Nice orange caramel color with two fingers of fluffy head.  Solid retention, nice sheets of lacing that sticks to the side of the glass.  I could detect caramel, candy, pine, brandy, and dark cherry in the aroma.  Very complex, it was a little on the intimidating side.

Big and bold tastes will smack you from the get go.  Caramel and toffee from the malt, along with the dark cherry and some more piney hops.  Quite boozy, you can taste the alcohol in there.  The hops will leave a slightly bitter finish to go with the sweetness in your mouth.  This is a full bodied brew with average carbonation.    Overall, I thought the beer was quite good.  I haven't had a lot of beers of the American Barleywine style and I must say that I'm still getting used to it, much like I had to get used to IPAs.  While it was still good, I have a feeling that I could appreciate it better with a few more samples of American Barleywine on my palate.  After having this, I really wished I could have gotten my hands on the bourbon barrel variant.  Someone out there get a chance to try the BBL variant?  Is it worth ti?  Let me know!

Grade: B-

Price Paid: $2.90 (12 oz bottle)

140. Green Man ESB

I made the mistake of buying two of these when I typically only buy one of anything.  Hopefully this beer is pretty good and I won't be paying the price for crap beer.  That said, I had a good experience with my last Green Man offering, so I'm expecting good things.  Ended up having this beer to go with dinner (steak).  

This is my first ESB (at least according to this blog).  The beer was poured into a pilsner glass.  It had a light copper color with a finger and a half of egg white head.  Not a lot on the nose, some biscuit and sweet malts.  

I found the beer to be bitter without being overly hoppy.  I taste some funk, much like a saison on the front end.  There's also some grassy notes and to go with the caramel malts.  It finishes slightly sweet the but bitterness is still quite there.  The beer was light bodied with average carbonation.  Comparing an ESB to other beers, it's not all that bad.  Compared to other ESBs, I have no idea.  But still, comparing this beer to other beers I've had, it's not bad.  

Grade: C+

Price Paid: $1.90 (12 oz bottle)

Haul for 5/29

I was going through the list of new releases for the week and came across a few beers that caught my fancy. Before I knew it, I was headed off to Tasty Beverage after work and seeing what I could find.  I ended up finding the two beers that I wanted, then grabbed two more before getting home.  Never was that good at keeping my purchases to a minimum.  Anyway, here's the haul:

• Olde Hickory Irish Walker Barleywine - Like the imperial stout I bought a week before, it had the wax seal on the bottle top, so I figured this one might be special.  I know, probably a horrible way to try and judge a beer, but it got my attention enough to give it a shot.  Price paid: $7.99
• Olde Hickory Bee Student - This was one of the beers I was targeting.  Looks to be a new release and it was cheap enough that I felt it worthy to give a shot.  Gotta support my NC breweries!  Price paid: $3.99
• Dogfish Head Positive Contact - I first saw this beer at Bottle Revolution and was enamored with the ingredients that was involved with the creation of this beer.  I had too much already and didn't want to pick it up then.  On my last visit to Bottle Revolution, I couldn't find it and was bummed that I missed out.  Fortunately, I saw this here at Tasty Beverage and didn't hesitate to grab this time.  Price paid: $12.99
• Thirsty Dog Barrel Aged Siberian Night - This was the other beer that I was on the prowl for.  Wandered around the store for a bit, didn't see it.  I was expecting the beer to be a 22oz bomber for all to see.  While checking out, I noticed the beer was up front the whole time, in 12 oz bottles.  Grabbed one to go and paid the steep price as well.  It better be good.  Price paid: $7.00

139. Southern Tier 2XIPA

Alright, so this was the one beer that I happened to have while visiting Winston-Salem.  Ended up going to a restaurant called Milner's (which was very good, by the way) and they had a special to get draught beers for $3.  Not bad, not bad at all.  Most of the selections were pretty standard, didn't see anything that jumped out except for this one and a Fat Tire seasonal.  Decided to go with the IPA to go with my appetizer of scallops and my main of shrimp 'n grits.  

The beer was presented in your standard pint with about half a finger of egg white head.  The retention was solid and sheets of lacing stuck to the side of the glass.  It's a nice dark golden color.  Aromas of malt and piney hops.  I thought I detected some citrus hops as well, but the nose is predominantly woodsy.  

The malt sweetness starts off pretty strong, but mellows out as the hops kick in.  With any Imperial IPA, there's a fine line to get that balance of sweet and bitter without getting your palate wrecked.  The sweetness would come right back towards the end, the bitter taste not as prevalent at the end.  You can't really taste the alcohol.  At 8.2% ABV, I thought I might get some heat, but couldn't really tell.  I thought the beer was medium to full bodied, you don't need to drink this one too fast.  It's a good beer, a little off-balance, but one I would have again.  I heard the regular IPA isn't all that great, but one of these days, I'll give it a try too.

Grade: B-

Price Paid: $3.00 (16 oz draught pint)