You have to love American beer

On my latest trip to Drinkstore I got some American beer which I normally do not buy because it is expensive for a little 330ml bottle. I do however love American beer, which is what got me in to Craft beer in the first place so I decided to give in and buy some of the ones I have not had before. I started off with Goose Island 312 urban wheat. I am not sure what I was expecting here, perhaps to just find myself with a bog standard wheat beer but what I got blew the low expectations out of the water. On the nose there are the usual wheat, yeast and banana tones but perhaps a little floral too. So far I have no reason to believe this will be anything other than a weisse in a little bottle. Then however I took a mouthful and this huge grin just spread across my face. I may have said "wow" to my wife but if not, I was thinking it. Yes there was the usual weisse characteristics I would expect but also there was so much more. It was citrusy and hoppy! This was a combination of an APA and a weisse beer. It was pure heaven and I will certainly be getting some more.


After this I tried some oakwood smoked mature cheddar cheese and decided a good stout would go with it so I luckily had a few to decide from and I decided upon Belfast Black. This is a fantastic stout full of everything you could want from a stout. Roasted coffee, some dark chocolate. It was a little sour and a little thin but very delicious. I would have O'Hara's over this any day but it went very well with the smoked cheese.



Back to the US and to a new brewery for me. Flying dog seems to me to be one of the, if not the brewery that Brewdog modelled themselves on. The advertising is very in your face and funky with fun names for their beer, such as this Flying Dog in heat wheat. I did not think this would hold up to the Goose Island from earlier and it did not, however it was a fantastic wheat beer. It was peppery, packed full of a nice spiciness and an obvious candy undertone. This is a bit of a quaffer.

I finished off the night with a Brooklyn beer. I love their Brooklyn lager and the hopfen weisse collaboration with Schneider not to mention the black chocolate stout so I had high hopes. I was not let down in an way here, well except the little 330ml bottle. The East India Pale Ale was was like a party in my mouth with a lovely bitter hoppy bite but also quite sweet so is a very balanced beer with a long bitter aftertaste. It is not overly complex but as something to just have a case of on hand for downing, this is the perfect beer.