SUPERBOWL!!!! Yeah Yeah I know it is way late sorry

So for SuperBowl I showed up to the party with a Chubby!! That is a Chubby 5L mini Keg full of Wasatch Golden Ale. This little guy went over HUGE! These are available at the beer store and I have seen them at the DABC store up on Highland Drive. 

This is as close to on tap as you can get outside a bar in Utah and the flavor is amazing. I have had Wasatch Golden Ale in the Little Slammers before and liked it then but this is even better. This is the perfect beer to give to all your friends that are used to the fizzy yellow water the major breweries call beer (I am talking directly to the Bud Light Crowd) This went well with all the food we had there but it went especially well with the Tar Pit Hot wings. They were an amazing combo there was a nice bit of smokey heat and then the malt in the beer really came through because of it. Then it is a very refreshing brew so it cooled off the palate so you wanted more wings.
My only regret was that there was about 12 people drinking it and I wish I would have brought 2 instead of just the one.

On a side Note I also have been drinking some Hop Rising from Squatters and I have to say I am very impressed with it. I was not at first, in fact the first one I tried I hated. However I love it now that I know what it goes with, or more importantly what not to drink it with. I will post more on that later this week because it is amazing as well. For now all I will say is that if you see it at your local DABC get a 6 pack or two and try it. NOT WITH anything creamy like cheese it will taste like someone slapped you in the mouth with a hop vine. EAT IT WITH SPICY FOOD it was absolutely delicious with the Thai Potstickers and hot sauce I had on Friday so so good. It is good on its own as well if you are used to full flavored beers.

Great Utah Beer Info

Check out this blog-Utah Beer

Mike there does a great job of keeping up to date info about new releases from the Utah breweries. Take a look you won't regret it.

EPIC................. Well the Jury is still out

  So this post is biased, there it is right out there and I may eat my words later. In all honesty I hope I do eat my words or maybe a better analogy drink them later, but here it goes anyway. The reason I started this project is because I love beer and I like Utah and we have some great breweries across the state. The newest one is EPIC Brewery. Strike One--The Name. Not bad in itself but if you are going to call your brewery EPIC it had better put out awesome beer, nothing but awesome beer. I intentionally waited to try the beers from here because I was worried my expectations are high and I didn't want to be let down. All of that because of a name. Strike Two--Only available in bottles. Now this may work out for them and really I hope it does. I like big beers so I like the fact that is what they are making. However there are quite a few lower gravity beers that I enjoy as well, beer does not have to have a high alcohol content to have great flavors. So here comes Strike Three-- The beer, well maybe it is not a true strike because the beer I had was not bad, and I did only have one so I am not writing them off yet. This is still a beer I would take over almost any mass production beer but I just don't feel it was epic.
  So there I said it, here is what I had- 825 State Stout

  Now I love Stouts and Porters, I am Irish Guinness is still my favorite beer, and I hope a craft brewery, maybe one in Utah can come up with a beer that dethrones Guinness to me but it has not happened yet. So I know this style of beer and saw it at one of our new DABC stores, (The one in Holliday just off Highland Drive AWESOME BEER SELECTION!) so I grabbed it and the Galloway Porter that they offer as well (haven't tried this one yet, I am waiting for my disappointment to wear off.) and opened the Stout last night. The first thing I noticed was an alcohol smell off the head which surprised me since it is less than 6% ABV. Then after tasting it I realized that the flavors just didn't last and that the mouth feel of it was very thin almost watery. The flavors were not bad, and there were some very nice chocolate, and coffee noted in it but they just did not last. Those issues alone would not make me completely write this beer off but then came the kicker. The aftertaste....The alcohol notes carried over into the finish of the beer and killed the good flavors it has at the start. The other issue is that the competition in this style is stiff -Captain Bastards Oatmeal Stout from Squatters- and -Madame X Stout from Hoppers- are both amazing and a few seasonals we have available are very nice as well.
  I intentionally waited to write this so I could think it over before I put it all into words but there it is. I am going to try EPIC's other beers in the future I will probably wait a little while to cleanse my mental palate so to speak and look at them on their own merit and leave the name out of it, it really isn't fail to hold them to a higher standard just because of their name.........but then again you guys named it EPIC not me so not my fault. I am going to try the Porter and probably get their IPA as well and give that a shot and I will definitely do a review of those and hopefully it will even out my opinion of this brewery.
  If anyone has experience with EPICS other brews especially those that you liked please let me know with a reply on this post so I know what to try next or maybe what to try them with, I really want to do this new brewery justice and not discourage anyone from trying their brews for themselves.