Shiner 102 Double Wheat

Today's review is the first "Double" Wheat to be featured on GULP! Spoetzel Brewery, based in Shiner, Texas, has been in operation since the very early 1900's. Their specialty beer is the Shiner Bock, a brew that's been around since 1913. The unique thing about today's review, the 102 Double, is that it's a filtered wheat. Typically wheat beers are left un-filtered, which is historically the "way to do it", and is known as a Hefeweizen. Those that are filtered are known as kristallweizen. Obviously both "ways" are quite German.

Pour! A very light gold color, actually almost like a lager. The carbonation levels are pretty obvious after the pouring. Not sure how I feel about this one.

Drink! Typically with the wheat beers, you can expect a more fruity flavor than other styles. Well, being a "hybrid" wheat, in between a "bright wheat beer and wheat wine ale", the flavors are a bit different than a non-hybrid. There's quite a tangy taste all the way through, with a very incredibly light scent. I'm not sure if the tang is from hops or what, but it's not what I was expecting... not really in a good way.

Thoughts! The Shiner 102, for celebrating 102 years of Shiner-ness, is just alright. I'm not too excited about it. If you zip over to Beer Advocate, you'll see that most folks there feel the same way. The tang back-end really doesn't do it for me. Like I said, you expect a certain thing with wheat's, I'm not sure the 102 delivered. Sorry Texas, not this time...

The Fort Collins Brewery - Rocky Mountain IPA

Hello readers! I hope everyone survived the first day back to work after the first day of Spring. If you live in Florida like I do, the weather has been awesome lately. I'm sure those of you up north, if anyone from up north even reads this, are happy to see the temperatures get outta the 50's and into the 60's. Oh wait a minute, I take that back, looks like the temperatures are still in the 30's and 40's in New England. Well... too bad! Time to move.

Anyway, welcome to the first beer review of GULP! "2.0!". I have survived the most difficult portion of my last semester of grad school, so I'm happy to get back to a somewhat normal schedule. Which now includes the blog! I'm going to continue tinkering with the layouts and designs - as you can see the top logo has changed a bit. Sadly no one responded to the chance of helping me design an actual logo, so I had to do my best. I'm also going to keep working on the format of the blog, the "GULP It Up", etc.

So the journey continues. The first beer review of the new session is a west coast offering. Coming from the heavy hitting beer state of Colorado, we have The Fort Collins Brewery, Rocky Mountain IPA. This isn't the first review of an FCB product. If you recall, during GULP! "1.0!", Retro Red was reviewed. It was a pretty good amber ale, so I was inclined to try another FCB offering. For some reason, there's a three-legged Elephant on the label. I wouldn't have noticed, however they went out of their way to point it out with the write-up on the side of the bottle: "Massive floral aroma lures you in while hop bitterness and malty sweetness mingle in symmetry. After all, great balance is key when you are only standing on three legs". Wordplay? Pun? Who knows...

Pour! Like most IPA's, this elephant ale poured a nice deep gold color and a surprisingly dark head. It wasn't dark like what you'd get with a Stout, but it did have very light amber tones. I wasn't expecting that.

Drink! Right off the bat you are hit with floral & hop. No surprise there; not only did the label warn us, but it is quite typical of an IPA. Bitter on the front end and bitter on the back end. Typical spices and hop hits throughout the entire GULP! experience. I sound like a broken record, but it seems that once you have one IPA, you might have had them all. I will say though, this IPA seemed a bit more powerful than the last, which if fine with me. Oh, and it weighs in a just over 6% ABV. Giddy up!

Thoughts! If you're a fan of the IPA style, I would highly suggest the FCB Rocky Mountain. Not to mention the three-legged elephant seems like a cool mascot. If you don't like IPA's, well, stay away... but do the elephant a favor and find him a four legged mate.