Bear Republic Racer 5 India Pale Ale

Was served this one up as they were out of Bear Republic’s Hop Rod Rye. 7% Alcohol by volume, brewer information is HERE. I’ll admit right out that I’m not a huge IPA fan, but this one was interesting in the fact that it wasn’t nearly as hoppy as I expect IPAs to be and in that I was a bit disappointed.  In fact, this beer seemed to try to straddle the worlds of a wheat beer and an IPA. Ended up pleasing neither side of my spectrum, but it was at least smooth to drink. 6 of 10.

Triangle Belgian Golden Ale

After the IPA, I wanted to move toward my one of my favorites – a Belgian style Ale – lo and behind, Triangle Brewing Company based out of Durham, NC makes a Belgian Golden Ale. Their website is HERE. Sadly, they don’t have any pictures of this brew and I neglected to take a picture with my phone, but the cell phone in a dark bar area wouldn’t do the color justice anyhow.  This beer, however, was delicious! I’m not saying that you can skip beers that are actually from Belgium, but Triangle has done an excellent job here. You would probably compare this to Duvel and it would fall short of that mark, the depth of taste just isn’t there – it’s just not as full bodied, but overall, and for the price, cheers to the N.C. Brewery on making a Belgian Golden Ale effort. 7.5 out of 10, and I look forward to future batches of this beer to see if you can match other Belgian Golden Ales.

Chimay Cinq Cents

Before my review – you note the picture above? Chimay in a Chimay glass. This was the same issue I had with my Duval serving a few nights ago. Certain beers require certain glasses so they pour correctly and when I was looking for an image to use, my google image search also showed up a picture from a site called www.mustlovebeer.com. I CALL SHINANIGANS, since they showed the beer poured into a regular pint glass. Bad form sir, I’m not sure if you do love beer.

At any rate, Emily has this beer, I had a sip. For me, like pretty much everything Chimay makes, it was deliciously complex, a good bite to start and a smooth overall finish. It’s an 8% alcohol content. And now, Emily’s comments!

“It was honey-ed with a, I don’t know what is was, no, it was, I don’t know how to describe it. That’s your job, you’re the writer!”

So, I’ll just say that it was very good, I recommend it and Emily rates it a “Two-Thumbs Up!” on her thumb scale.

I’ll keep up with beer postings, since I do enjoy trying different and delicious beers!