My daughter’s birthday party with our family is in full swing, and I decided to have another beer. It’s been a long day, after a party at Chuck E Cheese with her friends at lunch, and now a family party in the evening. My dad and sister are here, along with my wife’s parents and sister’s family. I don’t remember for sure, but I think I picked up this beer as part of a mixed six pack I bought on vacation in Florida in September. It says it was bottled on Aug 5 2013.

Location: Poured into a curved pint glass at my home in Bloomington, IL.

Numbers: 5.8% ABV, 28 IBUs, 13.75 degrees plato OG, ~140 Calories

Appearance & Aroma: It’s light amber-copper in color and extremely clear. There’s a very thin head on it, barely covering the top. The aroma is mostly light caramel with a light earthy hop smell.

Taste & Feel: The body is light and the mouthfeel is crisp. The flavor up front is slightly sweet with a light caramel maltiness. In the middle, a little bit of earthy hop bitterness comes in and balances the finish. The finish is clean with a mix of earthy hoppiness and light caramel maltiness. The caramel maltiness edges out the hops and lasts for a minute or so in the aftertaste.

Food Pairing: This beer had mostly a lightly sweet, light caramel maltiness, making it an easy pairing for a lot of different foods. I think it would go great with anything big, like BBQ or a burger, helping to wash it down, but the flavors were light enough that it could go with a lighter dish like fish and chips.

Overall Impression: This is a very clean, crisp, and drinkable beer. I enjoyed the light caramel flavor, balanced by a bit of earthy hop bitterness. Because it was so light and went down so easily, I could have easily had several of these. Overall, it was a good, clean beer, and even though I would have liked a little bit stronger flavors, it was still a good beer.

My Rating:

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