Great Divide Hades Ale

Why I tried this: This beer was recommended to me by one of the bartenders. I don't really remember which, as I was under the influence of Great Divide and several other breweries. I have had a few beers by these guys and the only winner for me so far was their IPA, the Titan IPA.(clicky click for review) Lets hope this will be a repeat of the mighty Titan.

Smell: Earthy, grassy scent, sweet smelling. It becomes apparent this is going to be belgianish, tasty..

Taste: The first flavor on your tongue with this beer will be the strong malts and sweetness. Not too overpowering but very pleasant. The earthy and citrusy flavors that follow are much more mild then the up front strong malt flavor. This beer is a bit more sweet then most other Belgian beers but not unpleasant. You would absolutely not think this beer was 8%.


Overall I would give this beer a rating of a quarter glass left. It was a good beer and I did enjoy it but I don't think I would get it again. There are many other beers of this style I would prefer, there are probably only a few situations that I would be in where I would get this beer. This and the Titan have made me pretty happy with this brewery, though, since the first few I had by Great Divide I did not like at all.




--Jon

North Coast Pranqster

Why I tried this beer: My mother in law got me a six pack of some random beers she came across and this was one of the bottles in it. I noticed it was made by North Coast Brewery who makes Old Rasputin and Old Stock Cellar Reserve 2009 so I figured it'd be great. Well, spoiler alert! It did turn out to be great and I got it again at World of Beer UCF.

Smell: This beer smells like your typical Belgian however it has more spice to the scent.

Taste: This beer has a very balanced and delicious flavor. I would say this is probably the sweetest tasting of the Belgians I have had. Strong malt and sweet flavor with a perfect amount of hops, yeast and spice to make this beer very enjoyable. If you enjoyed the Grimbergen Blonde you will absolutely love this beer. In fact If I recommend one (Grim. Blonde or Pranqster) to a person I always recommend the other for their next beer. The citrus in the flavor of this beer sort of takes a back seat, it's still notable but not much in my opinion.


This beer receives as it deserves a completely empty glass. This is a beer I will continue to come to time and time again and will continue to recommend as I already have. This beer goes down smooth from its perfect balance and tastes great. North Coasts Pranqster takes a spot in my top favorite beers for sure. This is the 5th North Coast Brewery beer I have had and so far I have loved every single one.




--Jon

Blue Point Toasted Lager

Why I tried this: After coming across someone talking about Blue Point Brewery on twitter,(twitter.com/beeruken) I decided to message their twitter account.(http://twitter.com/BluePointBrewer) I went to the World of Beer website and saw they carried it so I decided I had to give it a shot.  Hopefully I can meet more and more brewery's like this that can recommend their delicious beer to me.  I thought this was pretty sweet.

Smell: Sweet malty scent with a slight fruity/citrusy scent

Taste: I thought the taste was very well aligned with the scent.  The beer was very well rounded and the flavors worked together great.  The malt flavor and citrus/fruit hop flavor worked together great and gave this beer a smooth easy finish.  I haven't seen this beer anywhere before but if I saw it while out somewhere I would probably get it again for sure.

I would give this beer an 8 out of 10.  This beer has a smooth clean easy finish and all the flavors work together really well.  I will absolutely be trying their other beer that WoB carries the Rastafa Rye the next time I am there. The Toasted Lager has a pretty original flavor that separates it from many lagers available at your typical bar.

--Jon