Hot Night Cold Beer

As the weather heats up I tend to move towards a lighter beer.  I want cool and crisp and refreshing when it's hot.  So tonight I wanna tell you about a few pales and IPAs I've tried.  

First up is the Sweetwater Brewing 420 extra pale ale.  This beer is super popular in the Charlotte, NC area.  If you go to an eating establishment and they only have one or two craft beers odds are pretty good that one fo them will be a Sweetwater 420.  They're based in Atlanta so I guess it makes sense that it's got a strong regional fan base.  I found the 420 light and crisp with a mild hop bite.  It's a simple beer with clean flavor.  If I were buying beer for a group with non-hopheads it might be a good step into the craft beer world.  That's about all the love I can give it.  

Second up is the Full Sail Brewing IPA.  This was my first Full Sail experience and I must say a nice experience over all.  Their IPA has a nice bright body with citrus and pine notes and a strong but not overbearing hoppy bitterness.  After enjoying the beer I checked out the company's story.  My interest had been peaked by the employee owned statement on the bottle.  The company has been independent and employee owned (by their brewing force of 47) since 1999 in an effort to create a greater work and life experience.  Kudos to them for really caring about not just great beer, but great people making great beer.  I look forward to trying more.

The third and final review for today is the Widmer Brothers Drifter pale ale.  This is the second Widmer Brothers beer I have tried and likewise the second one I have really thoroughly enjoyed.  The Drifter has a lovely hoppy bite with bright grapefruit notes.  It was clean and smooth and super refreshing.  Your average pale ale will not move me to promote it to my beer friends, but this one was well worth mentioning.  After checking out their website I have set the goal of getting my hands on their spring seasonal raspberry Russian imperial stout.  What could possibly be wrong with that?? 

I haven't been posting as often as I had been.  Life has been busy.  But that doesn't mean I haven't been drinking and stuffing my smartphone full of notes and check-ins on Untappd.  Coming soon - a plethora of porters, a dip into dunkels, and i went back for the bock. . . .and cake. Cheers!