Classic British Extra Special Bitter goes down easy. Spelt wheat flouring picks up dry rye toasting, honey nut breading and sweet tea sugaring. Soft earthen hop bittering adds rustic minerality to dry grain finish.
(OLDE HICKORY) PEABODY’S APPALACHIAN ALE
Bland pale ale from muddled ’78 recipe by Carolina Beer Company revived as sessionable summertime light body. Toasted white breading, soft hop spicing and resinous earthiness never fully integrate while lemony dried apricot fruiting evaporates on contact.
SHOCK-TOP HONEYCRISP APPLE WHEAT
Dessicated sour cider acidity contrasts sugary browned apple tartness fairly well but cinnamon spicing falls way short. Apple Jacks cereal, baked apple and apple strudel undertones squeezed out by apparent artificial flavoring.
BISON ORGANIC HONEY BASIL
Ambitious honey-spiced medium body decisively integrates herbaceous basil seasoning with sweet clover-honeyed caramel malting. Soft white peppering dots ancillary heather, honeysuckle and sunflower illusions.
PORT CITY DOWNRIGHT PILSNER
Pungent gold-hazed German pils places grassy dry-hopped herbal tones next to cereal-grained bread crusting, lemon-peeled tartness and honyed malt sweetness. Astringent metallic sheen depletes rustic lemongrass, wheatgrass and straw grass earthiness.
HOF TEN DORMAAL BELGIAN DARK ALE BREW NO. 7 – ARDBEG WHISKY
Unique flavor profile pits rauchbier-like ashen campfire acridity and cured meat singe against sweet smoked whiskey tones. Pine-sapped molasses and burnt cedar sweeten the insistent peated barley graining. Raisin, date and plum illusions stay distant.
HOF TEN DORMAAL BELGIAN BLOND ALE BREW NO. 2 – COGNAC
Expressive nickel-hazed barrel-aged Belgian pale ale (with stinging 12% alcohol burn) brings sweet apple cider entry to creamy cognac warmth and rummy butterscotch-toffee sugaring. Hefeweizen-like banana-clove uprising and buttery almond-chestnut subtlety pick up latent peach, tangerine and mango undertones.
DUPONT LA BIERE DE BELOEIL
On tap at Julian’s Restaurant, strong Belgian pale ale (or reluctant Biere De Garde) brings white-peppered yeast funk to sweet ‘n sour herbal fruiting. Musty cellar-like earthen herbs, dry bark wood tones and pink peppercorn seasoning contrast honey-spiced blood orange, tangerine, nectarine, green apple and melon illusions.
8 WIRED C4 DOUBLE COFFEE BROWN ALE
Phenomenal Ethiopian coffee-beaned full body with bittersweet dark-roasted chocolate milking and sweet vanilla creaming perfect on its own or as a relaxing dessert treat. Oats-charred peat mossing, Baker’s chocolate respite, light espresso niche and mild hazelnut snip create busy backdrop. Compares favorably to coffee-enriched porters and java-based mocha stouts.
FINCH’S THREADLESS IPA
Seamlessly rounded canned India Pale Ale allows resinous hop oiling and piney floral aspect to guard assertive fruited imprint. Orange-peeled grapefruit, pineapple, peach, mango, papaya, melon and cantaloupe tang receives crystal malt sugaring to contrast bark-dried wood lacquering and brisk juniper berry bittering.
FINCH’S FASCIST PIG ALE
Surprisingly tranquil despite harsh-toned moniker, dry-hopped amber ale (in a can) brings subtle amber-grained rye toasting and molasses-like caramel malting to docile brown apple, brown pear, black cherry, tangerine and apricot fruiting. Black peppercorn hints softly embitter the arid backend.
FINCH’S GOLDEN WING BLONDE ALE
Snazzy well-balanced light body in a can spreads smooth-watered citric hop spicing across dry wood-toned earthiness and buttered white bread bottom. Sunny lemony grapefruit bittering and grassy herbal nip pick up variable pungent astringency.