Beers in Review: Two Foothills and a Red Hare

Three beers on tap for this review. Let's get to it!

There are a couple of beers from Foothills Brewing to discuss, leading off with the Hoppyum IPA. This beer is semi-clear and golden in color with maybe a hint of ruby red grapefruit color. The first flavor that was pressed on me was a powerful piney hop presence that eventually led to some citrus notes and a hint of nuttiness. There was also a strong initial hop bite, but this dissipated in the flavor quite quickly. Overall, I find this beer tends to push more into the English- or American-style IPA than the more traditional IPA.

Next from Foothills is their Carolina Blonde. The target idea here is achieving that quintessential summer day beer--a concept we've discussed with other breweries/beers in the past. The execution is pretty spot on. Officially a cream ale, the Blonde pours a somewhat hazy gold color, and is generally low in body. Generally mild but quite noticeable flavors include a light fruity sweetness along with perhaps some bready or crackery notes. I also detected a little bit of grape or more likely grape skin flavor as well. The beer is not super crisp, but a slightly citrusy bite at the very end helps bring the "summer beer" concept together from beginning to end.

The last review for this entry is Red Hare Brewing Company's Watership Brown. It has a deep brown color, a medium-high body, and a lot of nice things going on with it. Malty flavors take the lead, including a delicious malted chocolate milkshake-style taste, along with some caramel sweetness and a slight bitterness. There was also an almost boozy note (or perhaps something chemical?) at the end, which surprised me (the ABV is 7.2%). I feel I should note that I have had some mild taste issues with this establishment's tap system in the past, so I can't conclusively decide (and in fact, highly doubt) that this was a beer flaw. Overall, my impression was 3/4 a really great beer, 1/4 something weird at the end. Regardless of issues, this is a beer I would have again in the future, and I will need to try to find this again and publish a follow-up.

Beers in Review: A couple more hoppy beers, plus one decidedly not

Today, we jump into a couple more hoppy beers, plus a well-regarded beer from Allagash.

We'll start with the hoppy beers, leading with Seminar Brewing's Alpha Crucis IPA. Alpha Crucis pours a dark gold color. The hops take the lead with piney flavors, along with a hint of citrus. The hops generate a mild amount of bitterness, nothing overpowering. As it warms up, the finish becomes more fruity, but overall it has a nice balance of hops and malt.

Next up is the Foothills Brewing Jade IPA, so named for its use of New Zealand's Jade hop, a hop that I don't recall having seen before. Most notable is the complex hop flavor profile generated by the Jade along with Citra and Chinook. The result is citrusy and spicy or peppery notes, along with a hint of resin, perhaps. There is also a bright fruitiness and a decent amount of bitterness. As it warms, it becomes more bitter and citrusy (especially lemony--that sourness might contribute to the increased bitterness). Also some dank flavors as it warms. A really neat, quite unique IPA.

Finally, what I would call Allagash Brewing Company's flagship beer, Allagash White, their traditional Belgian wheat beer. To me, this beer is very straight forward. It pours a pale straw color and is slightly hazy. There were spicy or peppery flavor notes, along with banana, cloves, and orange, and it was a little bit sweet. This beer has won multiple awards over the years, and really takes the wheat beer concept up a notch.