REVIEW: Jackie O's Firefly Amber

This post is going up awfully late in the day. If you've been just sitting on your computer hitting refresh all day waiting for my thoughts on beer I apologize. Wait, no I don't. That would be ridiculous. And you deserve the reaming you're bound to receive from your boss tomorrow for skipping that big presentation to stay home and wait on me. What was I talking about? Yes. Beer. That's it. Jackie O's has been around  in Athens, Ohio for years but has only recently begun canning their beers and even more recently have those beers become available in Cincinnati. What better beer of their's to start with than what they refer to as their "gateway ale," Firefly Amber. To the beer!

REVIEW: Maine Beer Co. Zoe

We're taking another short break from the last of the remaining Canadian beers to take a look at another beer from my friend, Trey and his trip to the northeast. Today I'm drinking Zoe from Maine Beer Co. out of Freeport, Maine. The label bills it as a happy, hoppy, amber ale that checks in at 7.2% ABV. Let's not waste any time. To the beer!

REVIEW: De Molen Bed & Breakfast

Another grab from my fridge full of beer. Today, we have a new brewery to the blog, De Molen from the Netherlands, with a very interesting beer. Bed & Breakfast, an amber ale brewed with pale and cara barley malts, sladek and amarillo hops, and coffee. We've seen coffee porters and stouts aplenty, and even a coffee IPA, but never a coffee amber. I'm excited to see how this works out. To the beer!

REVIEW: MadTree Happy Amber

More MadTree! Hooray! I'm continuing my looks at the canned beers from Cincinnati's own MadTree with the beer we have here today. Happy Amber, a 6.0% ABV dry hopped amber ale. Amber's have never really been my favorite style. I realize the appeal and I get why breweries want them to have them in their lineup. Everybody's got to have a simple, approachable beer to appeal to the folks who aren't quite ready for IPAs and big stouts and this and that. But I dig what the guys ad MadTree do, so let's give it a shot. To the beer!

REVIEW: West Sixth Amber

Today's beer comes from a brewer that my Cincinnati readers may now recognize, Lexington, Kentucky's West Sixth. They have recently started to distribute their IPA in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. Unfortunately, the amber that I'm looking at today, for now, is only available in Central KY. I'm sure we'll see it in this neck of the woods pretty soon though. So anyway, the amber joins the IPA in their canned lineup. It's kind of odd that on the can it's just referred to as Amber Ale While at the taproom it's Deliberation Amber. I think I prefer the latter. Also, big time thanks to my girlfriend's parents for the rad monogrammed pint glasses that I finally have the chance to use! Enough of my rambling. To the beer!

REVIEW: Ballast Point Calico

So I find myself having created a bit of an unintentional theme this week. Monday's Ruination and Wednesday's Hop Head Red both hail from one of the greatest craft beer cities in America, (And my brother and sister in law's soon-to-be new home. No I'm not jealous, not at all.) San Diego, California. After I realized this I thought I ought to find a third for today for an impromptu San Diego beer week here on the blog. So while at the Kroger in Hyde Park (What an amazing craft beer selection for a grocery store!! I picked up some other good ones that you'll be seeing in the coming weeks) I looked for a third San Diego beer and found this one. Ballast Point Calico. An amber ale that I honestly know nothing about. But it's from San Diego! Let's hope it's tasty! To the beer!