New Beginnings

Welcome to my blog that will tell you the story of everything I do beer-y. It will include my tasting notes, recently discovered facts, links to beer related articles/videos, and anything else I find pertinent.

My love for beer is not new-found, and it's not the first time I've blogged about it. I did a series of brewery tour reviews back in 2012. At the bottom of the page of that link, click on "newer post" and you'll eventually get around to viewing the 6 breweries I reviewed. They're a bit outdated, and my tastes have certainly changed since then (I now love IPAs and I'm actually drinking one right now), but it's still good stuff.

I'm currently looking for a job in beer that I might make into a career. My current job has helped me tremendously in my knowledge of all things alcohol, including beer. And I plan to stick with them, but also want another job to feed my quest for beer knowledge. In the meantime, I've been studying for the Certified Cicerone Exam. It's a widely recognized certification program for proof of beer expertise. I passed the first level about a month ago, and have started studying for the second level. My current focus is on the Brewers Association Draught Beer Quality Manual. Before this manual, I knew next to nothing about draught beer systems. I'd rate it pretty highly on the list of literature to own if you want to know about beer. Additionally, the #1 book I and the Cicerone website recommend is Randy Mosher's Tasting Beer.

Enough about me. Let's talk about beer!

I am right this very now drinking 3-WAY IPA. It's a collaboration between Fort George, Block 15, and Boneyard Brewing Companies. I have to thank Eric for the gift of this beer and a few other bottles from out of state. For those of you that don't know, Utah doesn't have the best distribution network (and by that I mean the worst), and a West Coast treat like this is to be cherished!

Ah -- and so you're not confused by my abbreviated notation, here's a key in respective order:

BG - Background
A - Appearance
A - Aroma
T - Taste
M - Mouthfeel
A - Aftertaste
C - Conclusion
FP - Food Pairing


Tasting Notes:

Fort George 3-Way IPA - Collaboration between Fort George, Boneyard, and Block 15 Brewing Companies

BG      9/19/14
Poured from a 16 fl oz. can into a stemmed tulip, 7.2% ABV, canned on 7/15/14, unfiltered

A Gold in color with fairly large chunks of maybe (hopefully) yeast floating around. It's pretty hazy in there. The head is white-ish like the teeth of a habitual coffee drinker, and it leaves big fluffs of lacing behind as it recedes.

A Grassy hops, grapefruit, spice, touch of doughy malt, sour patch kids without the sugar

T      Tons of grapefruit and equal parts doughy malt for balance, follows the nose to a T!, sourdough, pine, resinous, metallic, alcohol is well hidden

M Med body, low carbonation, slightly tannic

A All grapefruit - and almost the pucker that goes with it.

C I wish I was more familiar with the 3 breweries that put their heads together to create this beer so that I might better understand where it's coming from. It's definitely an IPA, but the hop bitterness strikes a little later after each sip than most. I feel a typical American IPA punches the pallet immediately with heavy hops. With this one it's like, "I thought this was an-OHH! There it is!". It makes this beer a bit unique for me. It's downright delicious, and the world agrees.

FP Meatlovers Pizza, Chicken Caesar Salad, Lemon Cookies



That's all I've got for now. I'll do my best to keep things up to date.
Grab a beer and enjoy!