Change of Pace

I've decided to change things up slightly for the blog, in regards to when I post my updates. In an attempt to find my social life again I'm going to continue my normal posts on Monday through Thursday. Then on Sunday night I will recap the weekend that just past. I pretty much exclusively post in the evening, or later, and on Fridays and Saturdays it can be difficult to find a time to dedicate to the page. Plus, on most weekends I try more than one new brew so it will give me the chance to do multiple features in one post.

This weekend I had three different brews that could be categorized as 'every day beers'. They were good beers, but didn't go overboard in any way. It actually was a pleasant change of pace from the higher gravity, flavor intensive brews that I frequently have. Also to note -- I had each of these straight from the bottle so I don't really know what color they were, or how they looked in the glass.

The first brew was one out of Colorado, known as the Great Divide Denver Pale Ale. Very much enjoyed this one. Easy to drink, nice caramel malty flavor with a little bit of hops to balance. I could drink a 6er of these no problem, and enjoy every bit of it. It is labeled as an 'English Style' and you can definitely get that from the flavor profile. More malty than hoppy. This was the first brew I've had from Great Divide but it definitely won't be the last. Something that I admire about them is that they were established in 1997. 14 years ago may seem like a lot, but in reality I know that Colorado has a ton of craft breweries popping up and the fact that I see Great Divide all over the place in Atlanta, GA says something about the presence they have in the craft beer world. I even saw their brews at the large chain grocery store today.

Great Divide
Denver Pale Ale
English Pale Ale
5.4% abv

Next up was one I've seen a bunch of times and always wanted to try -- the Boulder Beer Hazed and Infused. The first smell I got from this reminded me a lot of the IPA's that we've been brewing up at home. Definitely could tell they dry-hopped the brew... besides the fact that they say so on the bottle. Dry-hopping is when you add hops to the beer, after the boil, as it ferments. What you get is all of the amazing aromas from the hops and almost none of the bitterness. If you smell a beer [like Hazed and Infused for example] and you smell citrus and flowers, that is the hops. And it's glorious. Overall I enjoyed this brew. Very crisp and clean with great aromatics.

Boulder Beer
Hazed and Infused
American Pale Ale
4.85% abv

Lastly I got to kind of go back in the day to right after I turned 21. I would every now and then get random 6ers from the grocery store, and one beer that I got was from Harpoon Brewery. I picked it up purely because I thought the name and label and were cool. It was the UFO Hefeweizen. From what I remember I really enjoyed this one back then. In a time when all I ever knew in the world of beer was whatever the keg was pouring that night, this beer that actually had 'flavor' would have been pretty amazing. This time around I was actually kind of disappointed. In a way this one kind of tasted a little more sour than I would have liked, instead of getting the yeasty and citrus taste I expected. However this could definitely be a good beer to try if you are looking to expand your horizon because it doesn't taste bad. If you see it, give 'er a go. But know that things can only get better from there.

Harpoon
UFO Hefeweizen
Hefeweizen
5% abv