Abita Turbodog

My boss is from the south. As such he felt that the lack of Abita beers to my beer rotation was a glaring oversight on my part, bordering on criminal. I had seen the Abita line-up at my beer store and read about them, but hadn't have a chance to try one. Then I happened to see Abita Turbodog on the menu at Ruby Tuesday's (A restaurant I highly recommend for tiny burgers, but not their beer selection). So I ordered it and here is my review.

Poured from a 12 oz bottle into a glass. Poured a cloudy almost muddy brown. Many people have problems with haze in their beer, I am of the opinion, that as long as it doesn't negatively impact taste I don't mind some haze, especially in a dark beer. Thin brown head which reduced to practically nothing.

Smelled of chocolate and dark dried fruits.

Taste was a lot like the smell. A little sweetness upfront with some roasty grains followed by chocolate. Aftertase is the slight bitterness that comes from dark grains and is very nice in balancing out the sweetness from the chocolate. Lingers just long enough to make it's presence known but not long enough to impact the next sip.

I've ordered this beer twice now, which is the same number of times I have been to Ruby Tuesday's in the past month and really enjoyed it. It makes me want to try other offerings from this brewery like their raspberry hefeweizen, purple haze, which may just help me get over my fear of fruit flavored beers.

On another note I will be brewing a hefeweizen this weekend and posting pictures as long as my wife doesn't go into labor first, she's due on the 22nd of April so it will be cutting it close. If she gives birth while I'm brewing ...... well you can't just leave 5 gallons to boil on the stove unattended, everyone knows that.

I had a thought...

I just realized I mentioned Yuengling in passing in my last post as a frame of reference. Then I remembered that Yuengling used to have a limited distribution area, in fact I had family members that would request people bring cases of it when we gathered for family events. I don't recall if it was Georgia family or Ohio family but that's not actually relevant to this post. The post is about Yuengling, my favorite lawnmower beer. Please note I don't actually have a lawn and therefore don't require a lawnmower so that's really just an expression.

It's my favorite every day beer, and at 16 dollars a case you're not going to find anything with more flavor. Hell, I can't even buy empty bottles for that cheap, sadly they use green twist offs so I can't use them when I bottle my homebrew. Yuengling is brewed in Pottsville, PA and markets itself as America's oldest brewery. They make a couple beers but my favorite is the lager. It pours a amber-light brown with the usual lager aromas of grass or hay but also some nutty maltiness. It tastes like, well first I should say it has taste. When I think American lagers I think flavorless pee-water. This tastes like beer. I would say it has a slight nuttiness and slight hop bitterness and a little malt sweetness. I've never thought to take tasting notes because it's "just Yuengling", it'd be like taking notes on coke zero (which I can put away several cans a day) but I should probably do that next time I have one. The one issue I have with Yuengling is they have consistency problems. Whether it's from green glass or poor quality control I can't say. But if you see it go ahead and try it, it's not going to knock your socks off and it's not going to win you any beer snob points but I give it my seal of approval and I hate everything.