Upstate Common Sense

Whenever I’m at Half Time in New York, I try to pick up some relatively local beers. This beer is one that I’ve seen there and went to pick up a few times, but never brought home. I can’t say that I’m familiar with the “Kentucky Common Ale” style, but I find it interesting that a brewery in New York is making the style.

ABV: 5.3%

Style: American Amber/Red Ale

Trivia: According to the brewery website, “This beer is a revival of a beer style that was one of the most popular beers in America prior to prohibition: Kentucky Common Ale. It has a dark color with a rich flavorful taste and a decent hint of hops (22 IBU), but it is light and easy drinking…Common Sense pairs well with BBQ.”

Random: The simplicity of the can art for this beer is really attractive to me.

This beer poured with a half a finger of white head. It dissipated instantly and left no lacing on the glass. The body was a clear mahogany with some visible carbonation. The nose had significant caramel sweetness. It also had toasted brown bread. The taste had a metallic note, which I wasn’t a huge fan of, but then the caramel and toffee sweetness came through. It was relatively sweet. There was also a maple syrup quality to it. Brown bread was in the taste as well. The body was thick with high carbonation. It had a quick finish, but unfortunately had the same metallic note that I picked up. A pounder can of this was $2.99, which came to $.19 per ounce. I had no problem drinking this beer, but the metallic flavor was off-putting.

Untappd Rating: 3.5/5.0

Upstate I.P.W. (India-style Pale Wheat Ale)

The other half and I have plans to get a Christmas tree with my sister today. We were supposed to go last week but I was exhausted. Hopefully the rain holds off long enough for us to get a tree, because there is nothing worse than getting soaked while trying to find a tree. It’s also our first Christmas having the cat with us full time, so it should be interesting to see what he does with it. Anyways, here’s a beer that is a left over from the Half Time stash. Let’s see how it went.

ABV: 6.5%

Style: American IPA

Trivia: This is one of two beers from the Elmira, New York brewery that is available in cans. All of their other selections are draft as of now.

Random: One year, the meow climbed a Christmas tree and I came home and he was staring at me while at eye level. That was a fun Christmas!

This beer poured with a generous, three finger, white head that dissipated slowly and left lots of lacing on the glass. The body was a cloudy, bright orange color with high carbonation visible. The nose had some notes of citrus and sweetness along with wheat. Hops were present as well. The taste was more towards a hybrid of the two styles. The flavor started with grassy hops and gentle bitterness and quickly went into honey sweetness with orange and citrus notes. The body was on the thicker side with generous carbonation. It had a long and bright finish with citrus. For $2.69 for a pint can, you really can’t go wrong with this one. It was bright and had enough hop character to hold up to almost anything. I would definitely have this one again.

Untappd Rating: 4.0/5.0