All Beer Blog

Upland Brewing Company: Wheat Ale

Upland Brewing Company is a local brewery located in Indiana. It is my second post of an Upland Brewing Company beer. If you are looking for a short history of Upland Brewery refer to the Upland Dragonfly post. Upland Brewing Company has become my favorite American craft brewery and it’s nice because it is located right in Indiana, but for some reason I can’t find any in Chicago. Midwest beer seems to be the best!

This beer, as you can see, pours a great clear, golden color with a small head. It smells of lemon and wheat. Smell is more fruity and sweet than anything. The taste is the same, some wheat but more lemon than anything. It is quite refreshing. It sits well in your stomach and makes you want to drink more. The carbonation is great, very fizzy. Wheat Ale is 4.5% alc/vol.

The head is minimal. It only appears for a few moments after the beer is poured into a glass, then dissipates. There is minimal lacing on the side of the glass. Like I mentioned earlier, the carbonation is great; it fizzes in your mouth. You can see that there are more larger bubbles than small, more carbonation.

All in all, I give this beer a 7/10! It was very refreshing, a wheat beer you’d want to drink on a hot summer day if it was ice cold. I had this beer over dinner, went great with a steak! If you are ever in Indiana I would definitely suggest finding some of Upland’s beers. If not the Wheat Ale, try another one, I can almost guarantee you will like it and will most likely have more than one!

Regards!

Bell’s Brewery: Two Hearted Ale

This  beer was exceptionally good. It is my second post of Bell’s Brewery beer. Another great Midwest beer! If you are interested in a short history about the brewery you can refer to the Bell’s Pale Ale post. As you can see, the beer poured a nice clear golden color with a thick head. The smell was a mixture or citrus and pine, I smelt more citrus than pine; I assume this is the hops. The taste was floral, like how it smells, the hops must be citrusy. It is 7% alc/vol but you don’t taste any alcohol. Tastes great!

As you can see and as I mentioned earlier there is a thick, white head. It died down but a thin coat remains the entire time you drink it. You can see an about even mixture of small and large bubbles. It left great residue, or lacing, around the glass when I was finished; I regret not taking a picture of it.

All in all I give this beer an 8/10! It was a really good, refreshing beer. I got it in Indiana but you can buy it anywhere in Chicago as they are allowed to sell it again in Illinois. They have a list of states that import this beer on their website. I would definitely suggest picking this up or any of the other Bell’s beers, they are all good!

Regards!

Tatra Beer

Tatra is a Polish beer, and a great one at that!  I don’t know that much about this beer other than the fact that it is made by Żywiec Brewery. I had never heard or seen it before so I had to buy it. They pride themselves upon being a mountain beer. It is named after the mountains in Southern Poland. They have a website, which has a really cool embedded flash, with little information about the beer and it is all in Polish.

The other bottles I have seen were all in Polish, they must be marketing to Americans because this bottle was all written in English. The beer itself was great. I was surprised with how much flavor it actually had. I was expecting it to taste like Żywiec Lager but it didn’t. The label on the beer is right, it’s beer with character. It poured a great golden color that was a bit darker than most Polish beers. The smell was of hops and malt, pretty strong. The taste was the same and again it was pretty strong. It is 6% alc/vol but you don’t notice any alcohol until you are finished with the beer. I think it tasted great, not like other Polish beers; was more distinct, definitely can taste the hops but it wasn’t bitter because of the malt.

Tatra had some thick and full head. I read some other reviews and they said that the head dissipated quickly. I had a 500ml bottle and this head stayed as it looks in the above picture the whole time I drank it. As you can see, it is a mixture of large and small bubbles. It left great lacing along the side of the glass as well.

All in all, I give this beer an 8/10! It is one of the better beer ratings; I really liked it and I am definitely going to get some more of it this upcoming weekend. I had it on Polish Constitution Day (May 3rd) in celebration! We also had a barbecue, it went great with ribs! Like I mentioned earlier, I had never heard of or seen it before here in Chicago so I don’t know where else you could find it, besides Poland that is. I would suggest that if you see it pick it up, probably sold in places with a lot of imported beer.

Na zdrowie!

Regards!

Upland Brewery’s Dragonfly IPA

These were taken with my phone again.

Dragonfly IPA is another American beer. Upland Brewery has become one of my favorite somewhat local breweries. Founded in 1997, Upland Brewing Company is the largest microbrewery in Indiana. I’ve had their Wheat Ale as well, both are great.

The beer pours a foggy amber, almost caramel color. You can see material floating in the beer, I assume this is hops or grains. Whatever it is you don’t notice it in your mouth and it tastes great. Taste was a bit bitter, very hoppy. The smell was the same.

I took this with my phone again, quality is bad.

The head of the beer was a thick white/yellowish color that lasted until I started to drink it. If you could see the bubbles you would see that they are a mixture of large and small. After I was finished drinking the beer, a lot of residue was left on the glass. I was told this is a sign of good beer. It was!

All in all, I give this beer a 9/10! As I said at the beginning of this post, Upland Brewing Company has become one of my favorite breweries. I can’t find any Upland beers here in Chicago. I was in Valparaiso over the weekend, which is where I had it. If anyone knows of a liquor store or a restaurant where you can find any Upland beers in Chicago please let me know. I would definitely suggest trying any of their beers, they are on point!

Regards!

Paulaner Salvator Doppelbock

I apologize for the poor quality of the photo, I was in a bar and had to use the camera on my phone.

Paulaner Salvator is a German beer. Their brewery, Paulaner, is located in Munich. It has been around since the 1600s and was originally maintained by Minim friars, an order of Catholic Monks. Apparently this is a pretty popular beer over in Germany, I can see why it’s very good!

The beer is a dark caramel color, almost brown. It smells a bit fruity and tastes the same, plus a toffee or caramel flavor. By fruit I do not mean citrusy like other beers, and you get a taste of toffee/caramel (maybe?). I couldn’t put my finger on it but whatever it was it was very good! The beer is 7.9% alc/vol and you can taste it, it tasted great to me; it didn’t bother me that you could taste the alcohol because of the accompanying flavors.

Again, I apologize for the poor quality of the image.

As you can see the head was thin and pure white. It dissipated in a couple of minutes and left a bit of residue on the side of the glass. If you could make out the bubbles, you would see they are all very small.

All in all I give this beer a 9/10! This is the highest rated beer thus far at All Beer Blog. It deserves it, this beer tasted great, had a lot of alcohol in it and sat well in my stomach. I would definitely recommend you try this imported beer the next time you want something good to drink with your meal.

Regards!