Dos Perros pours a medium brown bland "Mexican" lager tasting beer. The nose is of nothing yet that's how many Mexican beers hit me, having said that, there's also nothing better some days after hours of southern yardwork. A personal fav of The Enabler, it's gotta be the maize. Hefeweizen has a flat head, nose of light clove and bananas. Cloudy thin mouthfeel with a yeasty finish that's sure to take on any citrus wedge well if you're looking to convert a BMC drinker. Gerst Amber ale is a clear bright beer with bitter twang on the sides of the palate. It's bready, that's all I've got, not sure I would seek this brew out in a 6-pack. Sly Rye Porter. I've had it and the bottles aren't as good as draft. Trying draft again with flashbacks of Junk and I being the only souls in his dorm during the Texas/USC national championship. It's a nice dark brown with subtle hints of light smoke. I had forgotten about the good rye pepperiness with sweet porter spine. Pale Ale is more bitter than I'd expect or remember. There's a good white head to it, color is as expected, but again not the best beer. Hop Project #73 IPA. Holy cow, I remember having the first 10 or so, jeeze take your pick with regards to hop profiles and adjectives to describe the nose and flavor profile. This one's very piney. My bonus beer is the Ten Year White IPA. I liked this brew enough to pick up a bomber or 2 because the uses of Mosaic and Citra hops was a great combo for me. I noticed the grassy dull forward to be the mosaic.
Jackalope Leghorn Rye IPA. Fairly well balanced IPA. Not as much rye pick up on the palate initially and is more of an after thought though they used 3 different types. Light brown orange in color. Haven't had it before and would certainly knock down a few tumblers of it. Light head retention. 6%abv 65 ibus.
TN Brew Works. Opening Act Session pours a good white head. But the overall taste is a bland almost skunky golden ale. Made with Glacier hops you can pick up slight mint. Southern Wit pours darker than Opening Act with relatively the same light froth. Good light balanced orange citrus Belgian wit at 5.14%. Cutaway IPA pours up brown with red highlights with a good hop nose (used Warrior, Summit, Apollo, Calypso & TBW hop #3?). Balanced but nothing to write home about.
Basil Ryeman is a TN farmhouse ale. Bland bacterial medium mouthfeel after swishing. Sweet up front with tart as an after thought. Country Roots was black as southern soil. Nose is great of sweet potatoes balanced with toffee coffee. Light body for such a dark beer. Taste though seems over roasted coffee and bitter. It seems they use a good bit of rye in quite a few of their brews at TNBW, which is fine but I was not overly impressed with the beers at this brewery. The tasting area was huge and nice but beers need to catch up to the atmosphere.
The Black Abbey Brewing Company was the final stop in our crawl.
The Rose is a Belgian style blonde ale. Clear wheat fresh made with 6%wheat malt and no head. 5.8% 22 ibus. The Special was their Belgian style mild. Garnet hues paired with a malty backbone. Burps of banana after pouring up a light clear brown. It's ok. Or mild at best. 5.9% 23 ibus. The Champion oddly enough is an American Stock ale. Uh yeah. It's beer. Other than that I'm not pulling anything. 5.5% 40 ibus. Chapter House Belgian style red ale. Red and clear. Nose of heavier cloves but not impressive. 5.1% 25ibus. Potus 44 is a robust coffee infused brown porter that's a great conundrum. Read the description and initially it was labeled a brown ale. So I'm not sure if this is a dedication or degradation. Either way both my eyes drew up upon first sip. I don't pull the differentiation of the coffees. They're there but that's it. 5.54% 25 ibus. Wicket Gate next up is a London stout. Heavy bitter black beer I downed to get rid of. Fortress is they're American black ale at 5.9% 29ibus, but I don't pull very much citrus hop that it's supposed to belie. Fortress through a pineapple was much better.
Special thanks to Junk, Red and Andy Mc for making homemade pretzels, my liver wouldn't have made it without them. Don't stack glasses...ever. Overall, 3 out of 4 pints.
