The beers of PAX River: Samule Smith's winter welcome ale 2015-2016

Another Sam Smith. This one seems to have been aged for me, being about four years old (I'm writing in the years since the coming of our Lord two thousand and twenty). According to Sam Smith's website "This seasonal beer is a limited edition brewed for the short days and long nights of winter. The full body resulting from fermentation in ‘stone Yorkshire squares’ and the luxurious malt character, which will appeal to a broad range of drinkers, is balanced against whole-dried Fuggle and Golding hops with nuances and complexities that should be contemplated before an open fire.". We'll see how she held up over the years. Winter ales tend to do okay, but keep in mind there may be some qualities that I list that are from oxidization. So take any criticism with a grain of salt and remember a fresh one may be a bit different. Remember it's a Christmas seasonal so you probably won't be able to just go and grab one from your local bottle shop. I happened to find this one at a ABC liquor store here in Lexington Park Maryland, one of those brewthrough/bar jobs they have up here. I've written on Sam Smith before, check out my blog from September 2016 for info on the brewery.

It's in their typical Sam Smith 1pt 2.7oz (550ml) bottle with gold foil around the neck and crimpcap. Allot of stuff written on the label, I'm going to be lazy and just take a picture of it instead of describing everything. The back label basically says what the website does. 6% ABV. let's pop the top.

from the bottle it has a raisin/plum/dark fruit scent with a touch of spice. It's a little too cold and I think that's muting the aroma. It has a light white head with moderate retention. Color is about a 16 on the SRM, so a light orange/copper color. It has a decent bit of agitation so it shouldn't be flat, though I wasn't worried about that as the cap gave a decent hiss. Fairly clear with a few floaters. From the glass it has a deep dark fruit and spice aroma with regular sweet fruitiness as well that is regrettably plagued by some sherry aroma from oxidization. on first sip, it's sweet fig and plum with Christmas spices a bit like a drink lightly spiked with spiced rum. There is a little bit of raisin in the background but it really comes out in the aftertaste. It's certainly malty on the balance, I detect a slight bittering hop presence but I couldn't really ascribe it a flavor. It's a bit light on the carbonation, but that's probably from being old. Fortunately I don't get too many oxidized flavors, little tinges of sherry but nothing that ruins it, maybe some cardboard in the aftertaste but not a whole lot. It's a medium body, smooth with a sweet finish.

I started off listening to ska but YouTube autoplay has been going for a while and somehow I'm listening to Japanese Rock. I couldn't tell who or exactly what it is as everything is in Japanese and my ability to read Japanese is limited to a few common symbols. The title is あなたのやさしさをオレは何に例えよう and Google Translate says it means "What can I compare your kindness to". It's pretty good, the birds seem to like it. 
I'm waiting for some beer kits to come in, though I can't remember what I ordered outside of being all grain. The mash tun I build should work out just fine, or at least I hope so. Still need to finish drilling ingress holes in the pipe. My cooling tub blew away during that last storm so I'll have to get another one. I'm trying to avoid spending money if I can, had a payment glitch wipe out my savings but thank God I had them. Allot of people seem to be sent through the wringer right now. Seneca got clobbered by a tornado that destroyed most of the BorgWarner plant. Thankfully everyone I know up there is okay but this is still a big disaster. The whole disease thing isn't helping either, with a bunch of people who didn't know if they were going to have enough money to survive now don't have houses to survive in. If you pray, please keep them in your prayers.

Final thoughts. Would have been great fresh, but it's well past it's prime. It's still mostly acceptable, but those oxidized flavors really start to show up as it warms. It's one of those where it's not really a good beer now but I really believe it was at one point. I can't give it my seal of approval because I don't know that, but I would certainly be inclined to. Maybe this Christmas I can get a fresh one and do an update.

the beers of Pax River: Alaskan brewing co 2019 smoked porter

I picked this bottle up from the Beer Wars competition I judged this year. It is the 2019 limited edition Smoked Porter by Alaskan Brewing Co.. They're a cherished name in the beer circles I run in and I can't say I've ever had a bad beer from them. Started in 1986 (which is one hell of a long time in the American craft beer world) by Marcy and Geoff Larson, it was only the 67th craft brewer in the country and the first in Alaska's capital since prohibition. They originally recreated Gold Rush era beers, one of those being their flagship Alaskan Amber, but later moved onto other styles. They've gone on to great success, being one of the most award winning breweries in the country (hence the notoriety in the judging community). Their website seems to imply that this smoked porter is styled after a German Rauchbier, and when it was introduced in 1988 was one of the first commercial examples brewed in the United States. It's won something at Beer Wars since 2017, last year it took gold, I don't know how it did at the recent 2020 event but I can't imagine it not taking home a medal.

I got this in a 1pt 6oz bomber. The label features a Caribou against the horizon with a setting sun. As with many "age-able" beers nowadays it has the year it was brewed on it, this one being a 2019. It even says "enjoy it now or age it for several years. Standard crimpcap, says "made in Alaska". 6.5% ABV. let's pop the top.

Nose from the bottle is a sort of peat smoke with chocolate. It is a very dark beer, almost black, but it's perfectly clear. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a good picture to illustrate that. The head is light brown to an almost beige color, it doesn't stick around very long though. Nose from the glass is even more peat smoke than it was from the bottle. You have to take a couple of pulls to get any of the chocolate and roasted malts out of it, but they clearly are there. On first sip, It's smokey and rich and creamy. It has a woody, earthy quality to it with a slightly medicinal flavor at the end. It's pretty astringent, but that's not uncommon in beers meant for aging. If given a few years that would probably go away. I don't know if that medicinal quality would go away though. I actually don't get too many other flavors outside of the smoke. The mouthfeel is pretty great, real smooth and creamy, basically no acidity. It's got a quality in the aftertaste I don't know how to describe, it's that flavor you get when you have hard water or something else that has allot of calcium in it. Actually, that might be it, probably just has allot of calcium.

Listening to a mix called "best ska music from the Balkans", it sounds exactly like you think it would and I love it.
Been stuck inside all weekend because of this Covid-19 business. It's given me the opportunity to finish some chores, which I proceeded not to do. I suppose that's not entirely true, I managed to fix my reel to reel player and listen to a few radio master tapes I acquired. two were marked "charlie tuna" and turned out to just be "simucast" reels with station calls on them. You know, those little jingles where the station would say what station you are listening to. They would time them with other tapes to play after commercials but before the next song. From a technical perspective they are fascinating, but they completely suck when you were expecting a radio show. At least my Wolfman Jack tape turned out to be that. Had a handful of awesome classic 70's songs that thousands of people would have listened to over the airways directly from this very tape, there were also a bunch of songs that frankly needed to stay in the 70's. Hopefully once this RCA to 3.5mm jack adapter shows up I'll be able to convert some of the older tapes into digital files.
In other news I have two blue budgies now. It's been a few weeks and they have finally gotten used to having me around. I can get them to eat out of my hand if I don't look at them, as soon as I look they get skiddish. I let them roam around the house when I'm here, but they can be hard as hell to get back into their cage, but once they're in they don't want to leave. They absolutely love being underneath chairs or my pool table. I suppose it's because they don't have to pay attention to what's above them and chairs have little structural bars to sit on. As I was writing this one of them finally got the courage to climb on me for the first time.

final thought's. It's a well brewed beer, but it's not for me. The smoke flavor is a bit overpowering and I wasn't exactly a fan of smoked beer in the first place. If smoked beers are your thing, you will probably like this. As for me, not wild about it. I'm not going to call it a bad beer, it clearly is not and if I had to judge it I probably would have given it pretty high rankings. But this blog is my personal opinion and It's just not for me.
Post Script: It is far better warm than it is cold, but it hasn't changed my opinion.

The beers of Pax River: National Bohemian

This beer caught my eye at a local package store up here in southern Maryland. It was $9.99 for a twelve pack at the brew-threw up the street (the drive through ABC stores that are also bars are one of Maryland's few redeeming qualities freedom wise), and I had never heard of it. It is National Bohemian, a regional beer from Baltimore Maryland (although now brewed in NC,GA,and OH) that is now owned by Pabst and contract brewed by Miller.
First brewed in 1885, it was the flagship beer of the National Brewing Company of Baltimore. This smaller brewer was forced to shut down after the passing of the Volstead act (Alcohol Prohibition) as they could not compete with larger brewers in the very limited "near beer" market. The Hoffberger family purchased the business (it is unclear if shortly before the repeal of Prohibition or just after) and modernized it's building and equipment. A few years later they created their marketing icon "Mr. Boh", which has graced "natty boh" containers ever since.

National Bohemian was the first beer offered canned in the now common six pack sometime in the late 1940's, although it is unclear as to when. Also in the 1940's they started adding rebus puzzles to the underside of their caps as a marketing gimmick, but this became a permanent feature after US spies used them to assist the allies in 1944. In 1954 they partnered with the newly created Baltimore Oriels to offer Natty Boh at Memorial Stadium, a partnership that would cement it in the local culture and turn it into "The Official Beer of Baltimore", the brand is heavily involved in local sports to this day. Sometime in the 60's the company created it's slogans "land of pleasant living" (which occasionally morphs into "live pleasantly) and "Oh boy, what a beer!". In 1967 they tried out "every man should have a beer to call his own" but that didn't stick.
I'm not going to get into the gritty details of what happened to the National Brewing Company, so I'll try to make a short synopsis. The 1970's-80's was a dark time for small breweries, and National Brewing Co. got caught in the 2nd Great Die off (you could also call it the great reshuffling, same thing previous regional brand Narragansett was caught in). So in '75 they merged with Carling Brewing Co. in an attempt to save both companies, becoming Carling-National and the ninth largest brewer in North America. But sales did not pick up, and an attempt was made to merge with Pabst. This was denied on anti-trust grounds, which seems ridiculous today as not only would they not be the largest brewer, but the companies are failing. So in '78 the company was sold to the G. Heileman Brewing Company. In the late 80's that company had a hostile takeover by an Australian brewer Alan Bond, it was a complete disaster, they tried to push more into the Malt Liquor market (they already owned the brand Colt 45 from National), it was a complete disaster, they were bought by an equity firm and then sold to Stroh Brewery Co., it was a complete disaster, Everything was bought by either Miller or Pabst.

I got this in 12oz. twist cap glass bottles. The bottle has a sort of mid-century Miller Highlife feel to it in that it has a white, black, red, and gold color scheme. The front prominently features Mr. Boh looking at the National Bohemian logo. On the neck banner you have "Live Pleasantly" and on the main label the other catch phrase "Oh boy, what a beer!". The red cap features Mr. Boh on top and the aforementioned rebus puzzle. It doesn't have the ABV on the bottle but it's about 4.3% according to the internet. Lets twist off the cap and give it a whiff.

listen to your elders

It has a grainy, light pilsner malt nose from the bottle. No hops to speak of, but that's common for the style. It smells pretty clean. Now lets see the head.

It has a soft, white head with poor retention. Color is golden straw with perfect clarity and good agitation. Nose from the glass is similar to the bottle, but with a light malt sweetness.

on first sip, It is lightly sweet and somewhat malty leading into a grainy huskiness in the finish. The sweetness has a red delicious apple quality that lingers after the finish. I can't really detect any hop flavor.  It has a lighter medium body, moderate carbonation, and is fairly creamy. It is a very "clean" beer and quite similar to Miller highlife (which is not surprising considering it was contract brewed by Miller). That apple flavor evolves into honey as you drink it.

So It's been a while since I've posted. I got a job doing what I did in the Marine Corps but for significantly more money. The job required me to move to southern Maryland (I'm outside of PAX River). Hopefully this job will lead to others in the Machine Gun world. I've missed working with automatic weapons so much I can't believe this is real. I'm keeping my house back in South Carolina as my official residence, but I maintain a townhouse up here as it is inconvenient and logistically impossible to move back and forth from my home to work (it's a 9 hour drive). I don't think I could see this place as my home, it's like New River was, just a place I have to be for work. Maryland is better than I anticipated, but it's not fantastic. It's a good enough place to be while the money is coming in, but I wouldn't want to put roots down here. I definitely want to bring my 180 up, the Sequoia isn't long for this world and I don't really need it for anything but going to and from work. At least the crabbing is good around here, I'm pretty excited for that.

Final thoughts, It's a pretty inoffensive beer. It's a bit better than Highlife but not quite as good as Narragansett. It's really a "peripheral beer", not made to be thought about but just used as a social lubricant at events. For this it serves it's purpose quite well. Should you seek it out? probably not. Just get a Miller Highlife and wish it was slightly sweeter and a little more smooth, then you've basically got it. But if you're ever having crabs in Maryland, go ahead and have one or two, they're not bad.

The beers of Fountain Inn: Sweet Water Travel Guide Lager

I haven't posted in a long time. Things are great, but things have also partially gone to shit. I'm in a creative funk, all I do is work, and what's worse I don't make a whole lot doing it. Sounds like a situation I've been in before. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Last time I was in this funk I used the blog as a way to focus myself on accomplishing something and enjoying it. We're going to crank the old girl up and see if I can drive her out of this funk.
The beer I'm reviewing tonight is also about 2nd chances, it's the Travel Guide Lager by Sweet Water brewing company out of Atlanta Georgia (USA, not the country of Georgia. Although I would love to review a beer from there eventually). Sweetwater was started in 1997 by Freddy Bensch and Kevin McNerney, two former roomates at the University of Colorado and mutual beer enthusiasts. Both graduated in 1993, one continuing his studies at the American brewers guild and the other working for the likes of Mammoth Brewing, Averey Brewing, and Rockies Brewing. In 1996 Bensch visited Atlanta for the Summer Olympics and believed the area to be prime for a west coast styled brewery. McNerney later joined him to start their first brewing location off I-20. The brewery is named for Sweetwater creek, the namesake for Sweetwater creek state park which is located a few miles from the brewery. They sold their first keg of beer on Feb 17th 1997 (it was their ESB, not the infamous 420 pale ale which would be first brewed on April 20th, hence the name) and a mere two years later they hosted the 1999 world beer cup and three years from that they won the 2002 Great American beer festival award for best small brewery. A year later they moved from their original location to a 2,500 foot facility nearby and a year after that signed a deal that increased their distribution from 200,000 cases to 700,000 cases a year. McNerney left in 2008 for family reasons, later becoming the brewmaster of 5 seasons brewery. In 2012 They expanded their facility and increased their production capacity from 100,000 to 500,000 barrels a year later they were declared #26 in the top 50 US breweries and #19 among craft breweries.
I've had beer from Sweetwater many times before and had to stop buying their "tackle box" variety pack as I kept getting completely trashed every time I did. They make a fantastic product that makes you want another, but they also tend to be 7.5-8% ABV which will put you over the edge faster than you realize. Tonight's beer is not quite like that, but hopefully still very good. I bought a 12 rack, that's allot of beer if it's not good.

I received this beer in a sea green 16 oz can with a map of Cape Hatteras on it (it's on the coast of North Carolina). It says on the front in big bold red letter reminiscent of the Wes Anderson film Moonlight Kingdom (really, the whole can is reminiscent of the film) "Guide Beer, A Lager" followed by it's 16oz designation and it's claim to be 4% ABV as well as a few map markers on the artwork. On the rear of the can it has the epitaph "The capitans of those Hatteras shipwrecks: Did they do it intentionally? Did they take one look at all that marlin and tuna and decide to park it on the rocks for eternity? We like to think so. We like to think they're still out there, guiding us through these waters." and then it declares it is "Proudly brewed in Atlanta, Ga". Around the rim of the can it says "for those who show us the way 11% of profits support guides- Guidebeer.com". Apparently it's a charity for retired guides. The website seems to indicate there are four other beer can styles, probably with different corresponding epitaphs as well. well, lets crack the top and see the beer.

nose from the can is a light malty sweetness with a touch of corn. It forms a white and frothy but quickly dissapating head. the beer itself is perfectly clear with a light golden color and low agitation. It's about a 4 on the SRM.

Nose from the glass is the same as the can, but diminished. On first sip, it has an intense cereal flavor. It starts with a heavy cheri-o like cereal malt flavor, then you get sweetness, then the two carry on into a slight sweet corn flavor (I would usually say that's DMS, but on their website they specifically say they used flaked corn in the grain bill, which only has pilsner malt otherwise). I get a slight hop flavor, but not enough to distinguish it from the malt. It finishes dry, just a little astringent, that full lager character really makes it's self known at the very end. Has a generally malty sweet aftertaste, I feel as though it's influenced by the Mt. Hood hops they use. It has a very clean profile, it's not a terribly complicated beer, but sometimes that's ok. In any case, it's a damn refreshing beer.

Listening to a playlist of Psychobilly. So, updates from the last post. I can't believe my last review was March of last year. I own a house now, it's 11 doors down and on the same street as my parents place in Fountain Inn. My 180SX was stolen by some dickless bumpkins out from behind Dave's shop. I sank into a pretty bad funk after that, but by the grace of God about 9 months later a guy contacts me over Facebook and says he's got my old car. Well he bought it about six months before and was getting it ready to register when he kept running into problems because everything was in my name. So he found me in hopes that I could help him out with this and I told him right off the bat it was stolen. Well we got everything straightened out and he brought the car back to me. I can't tell you the rest right now as there is an ongoing investigation on the people who stole it (let's just say we were able to confirm who these assholes were). So I got my car back and I made a great friend out of it. I also bought my great grandfather's 1964 Volkswagen Beetle from my uncle. My family bought it new in 1964 and I have the original window sticker framed on my wall. I'm quite proud of it and have been doing a renovation for the past couple of months. It was in Maine and then Florida, so it's got a few rust problems in notorious problem areas for Beetle's. I'll get it straightened out soon enough, then hopefully I can take it to car shows in town. There is a whole lot more, but I'll save it for future blog posts.

Final thought's. It's a nice and clean sessionable beer. It's tasty and sweet, although sweet beer is not my thing as my readers may remember. I have 11 more and at 4% ABV I think I'll have another. I give this beer my blurry seal of approval!

The beers of Iwakuni: Duvel by Duvel Moortgat

I started writing this review in Japan. Unfortunately while the bottle had survived the trip across the world, the contents did not. I purchased a replacement bottle from Crafted In Simpsonville SC.
I got this in a poarchbomb from Hilgar. It is Duvel by the Duvel Moortgat brewery out of Breendonk Belgium. We will start out with the history of the brewer of this famous Belgian strong golden pale ale. In 1871 Jan-Leonard Moortgat and his wife started a farm brewery in the Flemish countryside which was eventually taken over by their sons Albert and Victor. During the Great War there was a surge in popularity of British beers in Belgium and the Moortgat brothers sought to create their own. In 1918 Albert went to England to learn about Ale and collect yeast samples, one of these samples (attained from a brewery in Scotland) became the strain they use to this day. They finally had a fantastic English styled beer just in time for the Armistice, so they named it Victory Ale! In 1923 they renamed the beer Duvel after a customer exclaimed "this beer is the real Devil" (Duvel is Flemish for Devil). In the 1960's they came out with a lighter version called "Green Duvel" and around the same time they created the "Duvel glass", which is a Belgen tulip glass with a longer than usual neck, akin to the Scottish thistle glass. At this same time Bert, Marcel, Leon, and Emile Moortgat took over the business. The Moortgat family still owns and operates the brewery, but have certainly expanded the business. One interesting note is that Duvel Moortgat bought out Boulevard brewing in July 2015, a brewery I have reviewed in the past.

I received this beer in a 330ml stubby bottle with crimpcap and an interesting bulged neck that tiers into the shoulder. The front label art is a very European white background and classical lettering featuring the brewery seal over the name "DUVEL" "Belgian Golden Ale" "Bottle Conditioned". The reverse is a little more fun. It features two wayfarer sunglasses wearing cherubs shooting arrows at a heart in the famous Duvel glass, above it reads "A Heavenly pour for a Devil of a beer". The epitaph along the sides read "Did divine inspiration lead Jan-Leonard Moortgat to invent his brewery in 1871? Or was it the little devil on his shoulder? It's impossible to know. But we do know what a beer with this heritage deserves a righteous pour. Remember that frothiness is next to Godliness. Celebrating inspiration since 1871!". It is 8.5% alc by volume. I will be using my tall tulip glass, which is the closest thing I have to the Duvel glass. Let's see that head!

Nose from the bottle is like a sour wheat beer, I hope this didn't skunk. It did.

 I've retrieved the replacement bottle from my local bottle shop (Crafted in Simpsonville), now we continue. The glass I was going to use in Japan is still packed up, so I will use one of my other tulip glasses.

Nose from the bottle is a bready wheat with a little sourness and funk. Pours golden straw with an ivory white head, moderate agitation, just hazy enough to not see out the other side of the glass clearly. Nose from the glass is more of a white wine with wheat qualities, a little sweet as well. On first sip, Wow that's hard to describe. It has a white desert wine taste with a wheat quality, it manages to be both sweet and bitter at the same time. It's like a sweet light malt with a good deal of bittering hops that are not overpowering, probably Saaz (Post Script: it is Saaz, and also Golding). Starts sweet malt with honey and white grape, then the bitter hops come in and rides out to the end. Finishes bitter, hopy, and dry with a sweet honey aftertaste. It's a light body due to the high carbonation, a little warming, not particularly acidic. Balance on this beer really swings back and forth between the bitter hops and the sweet malt, it's got an equal balance by aggregate.

Listening to Howlin Wolf. Today's a good day, as I saw a friend I thought had died walking along on the street! He lives and works in town and I am overjoyed to learn this!
In other news, I finally broke down and bought a new drive shaft for the 180SX. Wound up going with a stock one as all of the forums said you're wasting your money on a performance shaft unless you're putting out 600hp. The engine is pretty stock and for the most part I'm leaving it that way, so no need to spend $400 when $100 will do everything you need it to. It gets here Thursday, so tomorrow I'm going to take the plate of my '79 dodge and transfer it over to the 180. Hopefully I can have the American title made up and insurance by Monday.

It's not pretty, but it'll probably work

Switched over a record I bought in Japan. It claims to be the original motion picture soundtrack for Fritz Lang's 1926 lost masterpiece of German expressionist film making: Metropolis. This is a strange proposition but not unheard of, as films of the time were partially stage shows and often came with sheet music to be played. It is immediately apparent that this is not Gottfried Huppertz's Richard Wagner inspired score commissioned for the original film. The First song features Freddy Mercury (of Queen fame) and is one of the most aggressively 80's things I've ever heard. It just becomes more 80's Pop from there. No, this is from Giorgio Moroder's 1984 80 minute restoration, the one that was nominated for two Golden Raspberry's...both for it's musical score. Good lord Japan, the things you people hold on to. This is like staring the ugly reality of that decade right in the face. No need for rose colored glasses here folks.

Final thoughts. Fantastic! this beer not only challenged my descriptive abilities but was also delicious in a way that I don't see in many beers! I give this beer my blurry seal of approval!

http://www.duvel.com/en/history
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duvel_Moortgat_Brewery

The beers of Fountain Inn: Draai Laag Brewing Company's Relic

I purchased this beer at Crafted in Simpsonville SC (my favorite bottle shop). Tonight's beer is Relic, by Draai Laag Brewing Company out of Millvale Pennsylvania. I heard about this one from my friend (and associate of the blog) Hilgar, who informed me of it's rather interesting quality. This beer was made from a yeast strain dug out of the protective wax of a nearly 400 year old cabinet from a French monastery, making it one of the oldest yeast strains in current use. This kind of thing is Draai Laag's prerogative, interesting and atypical French and Belgian styled beers made with a solid understanding of the science of fermentation. Started in 2009 by science geek and fermentation aficionado Dennis after seeing a Jerry rigged brewing system in the basement of an English pub, the brewery thrives on being unconventional and experimental. They currently run a taproom in Pittsburgh called Strange Roots.

I purchased this beer in a 1pt 9oz (500ml) long body slender shoulder crimpcap bottle. I can see allot of sediment at the bottom, but some of the best beers do, just be ready for floaters. The label art features a simple, almost midevel design featuring the breweries hop sword symbol. It states on the bottle "Draai Laag brewing co Relic Ale" and their tagline "Wild by design". The epitaph on the bottle states "Long story short - we came into possession of a French Monastery cabinet dated from the 17th century and, naturally, set to work attempting to extract a yeast strain from the initial layers of wax used to preserve it. Hops were added sparingly, allowing the uniquely earthy, musty and citrusy flavors of the ancient strain to shine". 6.3% abv. I'll be using a tulip glass for this one, incidentally also from Crafted (although I've had it for years). Lets pop the top and see that head.

It makes a fantastic hiss, wisps pour out the top as well. Nose from the bottom is both bready and sour, kind of like a Flanders sour scent. Maybe a little lactic, defiantly musty. Pours an opaque yellow-orange color (about a 7 on the SRM) with a quickly dissipating head, although agitation is fantastic. It is very much a "living" beer. Nose from the glass is still an acidic sour but more citrusy and less musty. On first sip, certainly sour and citrusy. I would say those are the two overriding characteristics, it's similar to either a blood orange or a pomelo. It has a bready characteristic that shows up towards the end, disappears, and then reappears in the aftertaste. Finishes dry and tart with a grapefruit rind taste and a lingering citric acid and bread. A bit of a mustiness comes through as you drink it, but it's not as pronounced as I anticipated. Medium body and fairly acidic, although not quite as much as you would expect from the flavor. A little astringent, kind of enzymatic as well.

Listening to an Israeli Jazz-Rock band called Marbin. Got the vinyl in the mail a week or two ago, but I only recently got my turntable set back up so this is my first time hearing it. Great background music for reviewing beer. My brother wanted to try this beer, we'll see what he thinks... He likes it, he thinks it tastes like the "Red 5 standing by" Flanders red had a love child with a Lambic. I disagree with him on the Lambic portion, but I see where he would get that.
So let's talk about one of the most influential event's you may have never heard of, Starfish Prime. So back in '62, four years after James Van Allen confirmed that the Earth had a series of giant radioactive belts that protected us from waves the of particles flying around outer space, the United States wanted to understand what would happen if you set a nuke off in them because of course we did. This was coming on the tail of the Soviet Union ending their moratorium on testing nuclear weapons in space and we thought it was a fantastic opportunity to redo the (poorly executed) high altitude nuclear tests that we had done in '58 (immediately after finding out about the aforementioned radioactive belts), but without the political ramifications. So we started Operation Fishbowl, and with five W49 thermonuclear warheads atop PGM-17 Thor missiles we set out to do some science. Our first launch, Bluegill, we thought was going off it's flight path so we had it self destruct. Latter we determined that it was doing just fine and we had destroyed a 6.25 million ($51,296,978.48 in today's money) missile for absolutely nothing. The second launch, Starfish, flew for 59 seconds before the missile stopped and just started to break apart (there is a reason we had stopped making Thor missiles two years prior) so we had it self destruct as well. The third one however, Starfish Prime, successfully detonated at 250 miles up from it's launch pad on Johnston Island. We launched 27 rockets with instruments to gather data from the test, and boy did they get some data. The EMP that Starfish Prime created was so large we were not capable of measuring it at the time and caused significant damage to Hawaii's electrical infrastructure 900 miles away. You could actually see the flash from Honolulu. The Beta particles released by the detonation created new, temporary radiation belts within the existing ones which crippled 1/3rd of all low Earth orbit satellites at the time. After that, we knew we had a better way to use the bomb and it's characterized how it's been employed ever since.

Although we still haven't done a great deal to shield ourselves from EMP attack.

Final thoughts. Great beer, really tasty, fantastic to sip. I'd like to try some of this brewers other stuff, they've got me interested. I give this beer my blurry seal of approval.

http://www.strangerootsbeer.com/our-story/
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfish_Prime
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Allen_radiation_belt
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Fishbowl