21st Amendment Brewery – Brew Free! Or Die IPA

21^st has really impressed me with their brews so far. Click here for some info on them from past reviews.

Brew Free! Or Die IPA is 21^st top seller and for good fact. It’s a complex IPA using 6 different types of hops, but has a nice balance with more malt than a typical IPA. Gives you that bitter burn to the tongue, and then calms it down with the finish. Definitely an IPA you can throw back all night, or morning since its college football season.

Once again the can appeal got me. An artist rendition of Mount Rushmore where Lincoln (not shown) looks like Donovan in Indiana Jones when he drinks from the wrong cup of Christ and starts to wither away. Damn Nazi’s!

So all in all, this is a nice IPA, bout 3 bucks a can so it’s an average deal. Great for a tailgate because it’s in a can and with 7% ABV will get you where you wanna be faster than others.

Alcohol Content: 7% ABV

IBUS: 70

Malts: Two-Row Pale, Imported Munich

Bittering Hops: Warrior

Finishing Hops: Columbus, Cascade

Dry Hops: Amarillo, Ahtanum, Simcoe

Drinkability: 7/10

Taste: 7/10

Value: 7/10

Curb Appeal: 8/10

Overall: 7.25/10

Harpoon Brewery's Octoberfest Beer

You might wanna turn this on as you read.

I, like most people (drunks), love the autumn. It is the season of sweaters, scarves and dark beers. You have your pumpkin boozes and Octoberfest hooch; both of which contain the alcohol. Now I've been called a glutton before and I am okay with that; as I took the liberty of having a few scotches the one night washing them down with 11 of these babies. Was it smart? Yes. Would I do it again? Certainly. Should I do it again. Most definitely not.

I talked about the Harpoon Brewery here and talked about their UFO White here. This lager is often referred to as a Marzen (pronounced "marts-in") which is Bangladeshian or something for March. So these Marzen would be stored around that time and left to ferment and be tapped after the summer. If I made a Marzen I'd name it Marzen Slaughter and you'd have to be tough as nails to drink it, because I'd put on nail at the bottom on each bottle.

Now this beer is pretty good. It has a full bodied, malty aroma, with a touch of bitter and nut. The taste is malty and bitter; they use pale and chocolate malts in this and the bitterness is most likely attributed their Willamette hops, which you might remember from Troegs Hopback, and gives it a dry aftertaste. Now dry aftertastes are good if you want to drink a lot of beer because you get thirsty, but bad if you are trying to stay sober.

This pup has 30 IBUs, a 5.5% ABV and can make ya blow a .25 on a breathalyzer bitches! I didn't blow that but I'm sure if you drink enough of them it'd be pretty easy. I respect Harpoon for knocking out more autumn beers in the rotation than their regular beers but this beer isn't like a fantastic beer. It tastes like fall, if you catch what I mean. It makes you wanna drive around with your buddies, turn on some Steve Winwood, and watch 10 year old kids begrudgingly rake up leaves while their dads watch football. God Bless America! Call me sentimental but this is my first beer of the autumn and it chokes me up a little bit.

I picked up a 12-pack for about $14 bucks, not too bad. I got to see some underage kid try to use a fake ID also, that that made the trip that much more enjoyable. Harpoon is a respected brand so if you roll to a tailgate party at some high school all the junior varsity guys will think you are the shit. But as far as getting it again, like I said, there are so many autumn beers out there but this is a great place to start!

Drinkability: 6/10

Taste: 6/10

Value: 4/10
Curb Appeal: 6/10

Overall: 5.5/10

Paper City Brewing's Ireland Parish Golden Ale

First things last, this beer will put you on your tookus! I first had this beer at Big Mamou's in Springfield, MA; you can bring your own beer. I had an empty stomach and had the best Cajun food in the state along with a couple of these brews. After two I was lightheaded. You might remember this beer from the review here where I talked about their brewery.

I can't say enough good thing about this beer, though the brewery is a little bit late about getting back to me with the details of their brews.

It has a nice sharp bitterness to it, not last like an Indian Pale Ale and even shorter than the bite from a regular pale ale. Yet, it has a full bodied taste, a nice hoppy, short blast in your mouth. It leaves your mouth a little dry yearning for another taste, which is why these babies go down so fast.

The aroma is slightly sweet but mostly bitter and the taste is directs itself to your sour glands; those are the ones on the outsides of the main part of your tongue. It has a nice dry finish, so that in conjunction with the bitterness makes you want to drink like Robert Downey Jr.

It's foggier than most beer but, hey, what are you gonna do? This is a fantastic beer and if you're in the western Massachusetts area and don't get this, you are a stooge to the max! I'm not sure that it's available outside the area, but, like I said in my earlier review of Paper City, I think it's available in Bukowski's in Boston.

Drinkability: 9/10

Taste: 9/10

Value: ???/10
Curb Appeal: 7/10

Overall: 8.3/10