American Craft Beer Week Pt.4

Before we get into business, Friendly Package would like to thank all of the Ball State students that voted for us for “Best Liquor Store On Campus” through Ball State's Daily News. For those of you paying attention, that's two years in a row.

Here at Friendly Package we’re doing our best to get the best beer we can, and beer that you want. Wherever you are in the world come here to FriendlyPackage.com, click on contact us and we’ll do our best to have the beer you’re looking for when you come home. Even if you’re down the block, get ahold of us, or come in and talk to one of our clerks and we’ll do our best to get the beer you’re looking for.

This Week is American Craft Beer Week

It’s Friday, and that means it’s our fourth installment ofthe American Craft Beer Week reviews. Today our featured breweries are Stone Brewing and Indiana’s own Three Floyds. Although Stone has a lot of good beers tochoose from, I don’t care. I’m a Three Floyds fanboy, I’ll admit it. I’ve spentmore than my fair share of money at their establishment, had at least 50 oftheir beers, have a bunch of other merchandise. With this being said, of courseI’m going to review a Three Floyds beer, but which one?

Well, first I thought about reviewing Zombie Dust, BallerStout or Darklord, but you can’t get a bottle of any of those at our store, so what’s the point? Instead I’ve decided to review this month’s bomber, Blackheart.

Three Floyds Blackheart

The old label was pretty rad.

Blackheart is an English style IPA, but what makes it anEnglish style IPA? Does it mean that it’s more true to the style? Not sure, butwhat I do know is that it’s made with all English ingredients, English yeastand aged on oak. Sounds fun, right? Right, and it’s pretty good too.

Once poured Blackheart comes out a red-orange color with abig frothy head. You get thecitrus/floral smells from the hops, a sweet and hoppy smell. You also get a bitof the oak out of it also. Upfront you get the IPA-ness out of it, very similarto the nose, hoppy up front, sweet, citrus, cruises along and the oak comes inat the end piggybacking almost. The aftertaste still has the hoppinesslingering, and you get sweetness, almost vanilla (?) maybe from the oak. A nicemedium body, you get a little booze kick, but not as much as you’d expect from9%.

Give this one a shot, it’s not one of those 3F’s brewseveryone talks about, but it’s solid to say the least.

American Craft Beer Week Pt.3

Before we get into business, Friendly Package would like to thank all of the Ball State students that voted for us for “Best Liquor Store On Campus” through Ball State's Daily News. For those of you paying attention, that's two years in a row. 

This week is American Craft Beer Week

Today, is our third installment of American Craft Beer Week, and once again, time to step out of your box. Today’s featured breweries are (Jacob) Leinenkugel Brewing Company and Founder’s Brewing Company.  Leinenkugel have a handful of good beers, especially for the hot weather. If you’re looking for lemonade in your beer check out Summer Shandy, fruity pebbles check out Sunset Wheat, want some berries? Berry Weiss. You’re a big Honey fan? Honey Weiss.

The aforementioned beers are good and fine, but Founder’s Brewing Company brews serious beers. Their Centennial IPA is the standard for IPAs, their Porter (Like I’ve previously said) is the best in our cooler, their Pale is solid, and that’s not even getting into their seasonal bottles. Enough of how awesome all their beers are, time to tell you about Red’s Rye PA.

The good stuff.

Founders Red’s Rye PA

Quick backstory on this: For the longest time I avoided this beer because of my previous experience with rye beer. I’ve had a few of them and didn’t really dig the taste. I wasn’t sure exactly what I didn’t like, but the fact that rye was in it, I assumed it was the culprit. I’ve never really had an experience with rye before beer, so it was a new experience overall. On top of my bad experience with rye beers, I assumed that it was going to be similar to a red or an amber beer, which is also not up my alley. After talking to a customer, they assured me Red’s Rye PA was the way to go if I’m looking to figure out what a good RIPA tastes like, and boy was he right.

There's Red, hidden outside of their offices

Red’s Rye PA is brewed with four different Belgian malts, and Amarillo hops. It pours red with a grapefruit nose stinking up the room from the Amarillo hops. Other than the floral and grapefruit, some caramel malty-ness comes through. This is what a Rye PA should taste like, hop bitterness, malt and rye come through nicely with a medium body. My words can’t do this beer justice, just go grab one, or a full sixer and get a dollar off.

Enjoy.

American Craft Beer Week Pt 2

Before we get into business, Friendly Package would like to thank all of the Ball State students that voted for us for “Best Liquor Store On Campus” through Ball State's Daily News. For those of you paying attention, that's two years in a row. 

This week is American Craft Beer Week

American Craft Beer Week continues, so time to try something new. Today’s two featured breweries are Boulevard Brewery and North Coast Brewery. Both companies have a lot of great beer to offer so this was a hard choice to pick what to review. Boulevard has some killers like Tank 7, Double Wide, Two Jokers and Rye on Rye (located on our warm shelf), but North Coast is one of my favorite breweries so I gotsta show them some love.

The grandaddy of them all

With the amount of North Coast brews we have at our disposal, it was a little taxing to figure out which to review. Old Stock Ale, Old Rasputin, Brother Thelonious, PranQster all being good choices, but these are the more popular of the beers. I’ve thought about reviewing Old Stock Ostuchi, Grand Cru or the lovely Old Stock Cellar Reserve, but I decided we’re going to look at Le Merle.

North Coast Brewing Company’s Le Merle

Le Merle is a saison/farmhouse ale made with a Belgian yeast strain. It pours a pale, “straw” color, yellowish orange with a big head that hangs around only for a second. Right away you can smell fresh, tangy fruits, some citrus and flowery smells. Le Merle has a light lemon taste, very crisp and fresh. The Belgian yeast gives some extra fruity characteristics, and carbonation is good. Overall I love this beer, one of my favorite saisons in our cooler right now, just make sure to drink this first. 

Michael Jackson says about Le Merle “More than a serious beer – it is outstanding….Dizzying, appetizing, refreshing.” This is not a quote from the “King of Pop” but “The Beer Hunter”.

American Craft Beer Week Pt. 1

Before we get into business, Friendly Package would like to thank all of the Ball State students that voted for us for “Best Liquor Store On Campus” through Ball State's Daily News. For those of you paying attention, that's two years in a row. 

This week is American Craft Beer Week, cue the beer-angels!

So Magical.

We’re going to celebrate this glorious week by giving a dollar off a six-pack or 22oz from selected breweries each day. Also, everyday this week I’ll review one of the beers from the featured breweries and I’ll do my best to get them up early in the day, so you (The drinker) has a recommendation for a beer you may not have tried otherwise.

Monday’s two breweries were Bell’s Brewery and Goose Island Brewery, but since I didn’t think about this until Monday night, I’m not going to write about them. Truthfully, anything you get from either brewery is solid and if you’re lucky enough to have held back a Bell’s Hopslam, or Goose Island Bourbon County Stout or the mouthwatering Ramble Rye (thank god she hasn't figure out how to use the bottle opener yet) what better time to pop it open than American Craft Beer Week?

Tuesday’s two breweries are Colorado’s own Boulder Beer Company and New Belgium Brewery. Although, Boulder Beer Company has many great beers in our door right now, I’ve been looking for an excuse to write about the following beer:

New Belgium’s Cocoa Mole

Made with 3 types of peppers, cinnamon and cocoa, this ale was a pleasure to drink. Cocoa Mole pours a dark brown color with the smell of cinnamon, cocoa and a little heat wafting from the glass. Right when you pour this you know you’ll be in for a wild ride. As it hits your lips you get a taste of chocolate (or cocoa I guess) and then a little cinnamon. The peppers kick in subtly, but more chocolate and cinnamon mask the heat. At the end, the heat lingers in the back of your throat as a bead of sweat rolls down your brow (at least for me). I’m not a big heat/pepper fan, I’m actually the opposite, I don’t do hot foods, but even I want, maybe  need more. Too good. To top everything off, at 9%, you get no booze on the after-taste.

Another great brew from New Belgium’s Lips of Faith Series, if I was smart I’d delete this whole post and let Cocoa Mole be one of those hidden gems in our cooler, but it’s just too good not to share.

Damn my humanitarianism. Come back tomorrow as we continue the American Craft Beer Week reviews.