Category Archives: Reviews

Short’s Freedom of ’78

Packaged 4/26/2023, tasted on 5/26/2023.

Fresh aroma of flowery hops and smooth caramel malts. Flavor of hop bitterness is quickly squashed by a full-palate fruit flavor, that finishes slightly thick and sticky with some dry hop flavor lingering in the background. Your mouth recognizes it just had a full flavored beer, but there’s surprisingly little to no heaviness left in the mouth.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

Dark Horse Smells Like a Safety Meeting

It’s been years since I had this.  I haven’t seen much from Dark Horse since they were bought by Roak, so I was excited to see a throwback.  This was canned on 03/25/23, drank on 04/29/23.

Aroma has faint caramel malts with some sticky hop aroma. Taste starts clean with a slightly sharp hop bite, then slowly builds a thick hop bitterness mixed with some caramel malts. Finally finishes clean as all the flavors somehow disappear.

If you’re in the mood for a caramel-y IPA, this hits the spot.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

Rogue Gumberoo

Just bought today, 1/14/2023, they have no marking on cardboard box, but saw after opening this was canned on 2/10/22. Damn I hate buying old beer!

Very sticky sweet aroma of hops and caramel malts. Taste is mostly smooth with a little bit of a hop edge on the back end. Almost mediciny-like taste comes in, a mix of malt and yeast. Finishes with a dry palate and a slight edge of hop bitterness as the malt/yeast sweetness crescendos and then fades.

3 out of 5 stars.

Bell’s Big Hearted IPA

From a mixed holiday pack. Canned 11/29/2022, drank on 1/5/2023.

Strong sweet aroma, almost smell a little alcohol heat. No bitterness bite, but a strong hop sweetness comes in quickly, which is then replaced by a yeast sweetness. Aftertaste is fairly mellow with some sweetness mix of hops, yeast, and malt. In the background you can tell there’s some alcohol waiting to catch up with you (9.5%).

4 out of 5 stars.