Getting back to our roots as a regional beer-reviewing duo, this week the HCBR takes on an offering from French Broad Brewery out of Asheville, NC. We picked this one up on a recent field trip up to Beer City, USA. Specifically we found this beer at Brusin’ Ales, a craft beer store that should be on any beer geek’s bucket list.
Bringing you the craft and culture of beer in North Carolina --> Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte, Asheville, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Wilmington, NC and beyond
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My favorite regional beer review guys, Hub City Review, have branched out and is leaving their host at Spartanburgspark.com and will launch their own page over at Hubcitybrewreview.com.
Mike and I haven’t decided to pack it in or anything like that. In fact, we’ve decided to expand and we need the sort of leeway to do that that just doesn’t fit with the rest of the Spark’s mission. So we’ve created our own site: Hubcitybrewreview.com. It’s still in the early stages at this point, so be gentle in your assessment of my website building skills (soon those blank spaces will be filled with Google Adsense ads). With any luck, in the coming weeks and months you’ll find a full-featured beer site with the normal reviews we have now, as well as some videos from regional breweries and a page for beer news. You can also join our Facebook group, follow us on Twitter, and of course subscribe to our YouTube page to keep up with the latest goings on with our little beer-reviewing vlog.
Also, soon we plan on launching our Hub City Home Brew project. You’ll get to watch the two of us flounder our way around the world of home brewing as we put our money where our mouths are and brew our own, hopefully tasty, ales.
They Go out with a drink of KIND Amber:
Granted that this is well-hopped amber, which would set it apart from some other ambers out there, but we’re not here to judge an amber; we’re here to judge a pale. As a pale, the hop profile is pretty nice, but that sticky, caramelly malt just ruins things.
Bringing you the craft and culture of beer in North Carolina --> Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte, Asheville, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Wilmington, NC and beyond
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Duck Rabbit Brown Ale
Happy Fourth of July everyone! I have recovered from the Bike & Beer tour of Raleigh yesterday and it’s back to work. Found this Duck Rabbit Brown Ale review from the Augusta, GA Craft Beer Examiner at examiner.com:
“North Carolina is rapidly gaining prominence as one of the South’s greatest beer-producing states, and for good reason. With a handful of excellent breweries located within Asheville, recently voted by its citizens as “Beertown USA,” and several other great breweries spread across the state, North Carolina is poised on the leading edge of Southern beer culture”
The review goes on to say this about the beer:
“Medium-bodied with a moderate carbonation, the palate starts off nutty and a touch sweet before moving into a mostly hop-accented middle wherein the hops manifest themselves as in the nose, a bit citrusy and herbal. A sort of acidic or smoky note appears toward the rear, its cause unknown — hops, perhaps, though the malts employed seem more likely the candidate. Whatever the source, the acidity fails to detract but rather adds a bit to the character of the beer before finishing nutty and dry enough to bring on another quaff.”
Bottle Tree Blonde
I also went back to find this review of the recently released Bottle Tree Blond, a new contract brew from South Carolina:
It’s a rare thing when a beer lives up to a two month long build up, but Bottle Tree Blonde has managed to do just that. This is a great Belgian blonde, with that fruity sweetness the style is known for in the finish. What’s unexpected–though definitely welcome–is this beer’s great German hop profile. Add to that a good, almost champagne-like carbonation and you’ve got a refreshing, lageresque ale that’s perfect for summer. In fact, this is the best regionally-produced summer drinking beer out there in our estimation. This is one regional brew you definitely don’t want to overlook. You can find six-packs of Bottle Tree Blonde at Oasis on Southport Road and at Carriage House Wines downtown. As always, be sure to check out our full review for all the beer-geeky details.
Bringing you the craft and culture of beer in North Carolina --> Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte, Asheville, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Wilmington, NC and beyond
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Kind ales. Based in North Carolina but made in South Carolina and here, reviewed by South Carolina’s Hub City Review guys:
“Coming to us from North Carolina by way of Thomas Creek Brewery in Greenville, is this offering from Kind Beers. The folks over at Thomas Creek brew this tasty beer for the small startup, and it just recently showed up here in Spartanburg at Oasis. It’s malty ale, with that classic fruity flavor, and all those fermented syrup notes you’d expect from a darker belgian ale. Also, there’s a nice herbal, earthy quality to the subdued hop presence in this one that helps round out the nose quite nicely. The taste though, while pretty good overall, is a bit on the weak side. It could be that we’re looking at a new company trying to bring in some people with something a bit mellow at first (Kind only has two beers on the market at the moment), or it could be a bad transfer from small batch to larger production run, but whatever the case, those nice malty belgian tastes just weren’t substantial enough for us. Still, overall this is one definitely worth trying, especially for those who are–to put it gently–less geeky about this stuff than we are. Check out the video for the full review.”
Bringing you the craft and culture of beer in North Carolina --> Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte, Asheville, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Wilmington, NC and beyond
Contact us at dave (at) away (dash) team (dot) com
Bringing you the craft and culture of beer in North Carolina --> Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte, Asheville, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Wilmington, NC and beyond
Contact us at dave (at) away (dash) team (dot) com
This week the Hub City Brew Review guys take on another North Carolina beer: Pisgah Vortex I Triple. They mention that the beer was procured from Buisin’ Ales an Asheville and I think they make up some new words along the way!
Bringing you the craft and culture of beer in North Carolina --> Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte, Asheville, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Wilmington, NC and beyond
Contact us at dave (at) away (dash) team (dot) com
