Beer Reviews

Guava Grove - Cigar City Brewing, Tampa
Cigar City Guava Grove Saison
Saison Cigar City Brewing Florida Tampa American

In preparation for my rapidly approaching bachelor party I decided to splurge a little and order a few bottles of Cigar City. The Tampa beers arrived a couple days ago and I put this bottle of Guava Grove right in the fridge. I really like fruit infused beers and I've learned to appreciate Saisons much more than I did even a year ago, so I'm hoping this Saison brewed with guava and fermented with a Belgian yeast strain. I've sampled this beer about a year ago and I remember really enjoying it, so I can't wait to sit down and spend some quality time with this bottle of Guava Grove.

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Hop-Ruiter - Scheldebrouwerij, Turnhout
Scheldebrouwerij Hop-Ruiter
Belgian Pale Ale Belgian Scheldebrouwerij Turnhout

Scheldebrouwerij's Hop-Ruiter is a new beer for me. I've never seen this Belgian hoppy Blonde on the shelves and I've not tried this beer before. This particular bottle came to me about two weeks ago and I've been waiting anxiously to try it. This 750ml bottle has a label like a playing card, it has a mirrored shield which looks like a medieval coat of arms. The text dividing the two halves of this label says this is THE blond hoppy beer from Turnhout. I'm guessing Turnhout is a little more well known in Belgium...

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Dirty Helen - Barley Island Brewing Company, Noblesville
Dirty Helen Brown Ale
Brown Ale Barley Island Brewing Company Indiana Noblesville American

I recently received a gift of several six packs from Indiana. One of these sixers was from Barley Island Brewing Company in Noblesville, Indiana. Honestly, I'd never heard of Barley Island before I got this six pack, so I really don't know what to expect from their beer. It turns out Barley Island is a pair of brewpubs in the Indianapolis area that brews about a dozen styles of beer. The sixer I have in front of me is Dirty Helen, a Brown Ale. Dirty Helen has a great label, it's simple with a monochrome drawing of Dirty Helen herself.

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Lilja's Sasquatch Stout - Sand Creek Brewing Company, Black River Falls
Lilja's Sasquatch Stout
Stout Black River Falls Lilja's Sand Creek Brewing Company Wisconsin American

This bottle of Lilja's Sasquatch Stout has been in the basement beer fridge for over a year now. There's no date on this bottle but seeing as how this beer is a Stout, I think it'll be just fine. There's actually quite a lot of stuff on this label, but not much of it is of any use... There's a line about the "Cheddar Curtain" and "Your Darkest Side" but you won't find the alcohol content of this beer or the date on which it was bottled. It may not be useful, but it's still a decent label even if I don't know who or what Lilja is...

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Halcyon - Tallgrass Brewing Co., Manhattan
Halcyon Unfiltered Wheat
Wheat Kansas Manhattan Tallgrass Brewing Co. American

Tallgrass is a small brewery in Manhattan, Kansas that has been setting beer in Kansas City for a few years now. They've got a half dozen beers in cans now and they're starting to do some pretty interesting things. One of their least interesting beers, an unfiltered wheat, was retired a little while back by the brewery after citing "shelf instability." Halcyon is the reincarnation of Tallgrass' original, horrible, unfiltered wheat. After about a year off the market, why did Tallgrass decide to even make another Wheat Beer? Boulevard pretty much has the market cornered with their Wheat, so if you're going to introduce a new unfiltered wheat, you've got to do something different in order to get people to pay attention to you. So, is Halcyon worth picking up instead of Boulevard Wheat or is it just another iteration of the original Tallgrass Wheat?

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