White Hops by Three Taverns Craft Brewery
First I must say I really don’t care for the majority of Belgian styles ales especially with their heavy flavors usually created from the Belgian style yeasts but recently I was lucky enough to take a chance on White Hops by Three Taverns Craft Brewery highly recommended by Hops & Barley in Savannah, Georgia and I must say it was one of the best recommendations I’ve been given in a long while. White Hops by Three Taverns Craft Brewery is an amazing hop forward white Belgian ale that pours a very pale gold with a large white frothy head with excellent head retention. This light golden brew can be deceptive with the light color but don’t let that fool you as this is one beautiful Belgian White Hops by Three Taverns Craft Brewery is very complex and still very smooth. The citra hops, spices, and grapefruit peel gives it nice citrus notes and smooth flavor with the complexity coming from the Belgian yeast makes this a very aromatically intense beer but very smooth to drink. White Hops by Three Taverns Craft Brewery comes in at 6.5% ABV with a surprising 55 IBUs in a 750 ml (giant bomber) and worth every sip. Warning, you may want to swirl the bottle lightly before pouring to spread the yeast throughout the pour as it easily settles towards the bottom. Another suggestion is to allow some of the yeast to settle so when you get to the last glass you can simply start your own Belgian yeast starter to trying in your next Belgian IPA home brew.
White Hops by Three Taverns Craft Brewery
Upheaval IPA by Widmer Brothers Brewing Company
This is a very complex IPA with 6 very different hops in the mix Upheaval IPA by Widmer Brothers Brewing Company is one of the more complex IPAs I’ve ever tasted and at 7% ABV and 85 IBUs it would not be recommended as a starter but could easily help finish the night. This hazy light copper colored brew with nice head retention is very smooth even with such a high IBU and moderately high ABV. This is lovely Northwest IPA contains Alchemy, Simcoe, Chinook, Willamette, Brewer’s Gold and Nelson Sauvin hops with a much simpler malt recipe containing only 2-row pale, wheat and caramel malts. With so many hop additions you can easily expect strong hints of grapefruit and other citrus like orange and lemon but you will still have hints of tropical fruits and some very mild floral aromas with a nice subtly bite.
Widmer Brothers UpHeaval IPA
A Night On Ponce IPA by Three Taverns Craft Brewery
“Belgian Inspiration. American Creativity” really does say it all for A Night On Ponce IPA by Three Taverns Craft Brewery as this is an amazing craft beer. This American IPA is based on A Night In Brussels IPA but Thee Taverns Brewery swapped out the Belgian yeast for an American ale yeast and the results is amazing! The amazing Belgian inspired IPA pours a wonderful golden color with a large white foaming head and has smells erupting from it of the most classic IPAs with aromas of citrus, tropical fruits and pine. It tastes even better than it smells with a light hint of caramel mixed with citrus and tropical fruits with hints of floral aromas with each sip. It’s beer like A Night On Ponce IPA by Three Taverns Craft Brewery that make you want to try more great craft beers from Three Taverns Brewery. At 7.5% ABV with 69 IBUs this is on the stronger side compared to most craft beers but it is worth every sip and I plan on grabbing a 6 pack of A Night On Ponce IPA by Three Taverns Craft Brewery to share next time I am in Georgia. Plus I am dying to try Three Taverns’ White Hops Belgian-Style White IPA which is currently chilling for the weekend.
A Night on Ponce IPA
Hops & Barley, Craft Beer Shop in Savannah Georgia
Recently we went on a road trip to meet up with family in Savannah Georgia so I decided to maximize the trip by making it a craft beer trip in hopes of scoring beers currently not distributed anywhere in Florida. After doing some research on Google to see what craft beer shops were in Savannah Georgia only one appeared to really stand out, Hops & Barley, Craft Beer Shop of Savannah Georgia run by David Barker at 412 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd. After a long drive I exited the highway to discover Hops & Barley was right off the highway only a few blocks from the busy downtown hot spots. Parking is a little limited but not bad, just bring a few quarters for the meter right in front of Hops & Barley only feet away from the store front.
After getting inside my first impression was just how clean and nicely laid out the entire store looked while David welcomed me into his store. The store looks very open and spacious but don’t let that fool you as the store was well stocked with tons of great Georgia Breweries being represented throughout the entire front half of the store and in other areas of the store. The store is well stocked with several coolers of nicely chilled beers of every style you could think of. One of the key features of Hops & Barley is a large wine rack in the back of the store filled with some amazing bombers from around the country including a nice showing of Georgia Breweries of course.
Hops and Barkely, Savannah GA
As you can see from the photos I made out well with lots of help from the owner, David who was very customer service friendly and extremely knowledgable on all the beers available in his shop with information going well beyond the beers them self with great insight into what made each Georgia Brewer special. (I did grab two Ballast Point brews that I hadn’t been able to grab in Florida). After seeing how beautiful downtown Savannah was we’ll be coming back in the near future to spend an entire day or two and I can guarantee Hops & Barley will be a must for one of the places we’ll be visiting. If your going to Savannah or live there and haven’t been to Hops & Barley here is a link to the best assortment of craft beers in Savannah Georgia with friendly, knowledgeable customer service.
hopsandbarley
Rye Pale Ale from Terrapin Beer Co
Rye Pale Ale from Terrapin Beer Company out of Athen’s GA is one of my personal favorites for a nice sessionable craft brew that has a ton of great flavor and complexity. This amazing brew pours an amazing deep red almost amber in color with a nice off-white head that seems to stand on its own for a good bit before you go to take your first sip. With that first sip of this amazing rye pale ale you notice hints or citrus on your nose and you can almost smell the rye and caramel but once you do take a nice swig you will immediately notice it seems like this craft beer taste the caramel, rye and honey malts which blend together perfectly to give you a smooth bit complex rye pale ale. At only 5.5 ABV and 35 IBU (taste more like a 45) this can easily become your goto session beer without question. Terrapin is known for their use of rye in their beers and I believe they have become the masters of adding rye to any beer and making it work perfectly adding just the right amount for character and that pepper bite rye is known for. If you haven’t tried a Rye Pale Ale from Terrapin Beer Company you must put this on your short list of beer to try.
Rye Pale Ale from Terrapin Beer Co
