Miasmatic Review

Scots and pumpkins.

On Saturday night Ktreva and I went to the Fox River Brewing Company in Appleton, WI for dinner. Actually it was Ktreva’s idea. Since it was our anniversary, and I had pretty planned every place else we had gone, I figured I could at least let her pick where we went to dinner. Surprisingly enough she chose a brewery.

The food was pretty good, but lets just get down to it. How was the beer? I only sampled two beers, mainly because of my stomach, but I made sure to get some descriptions on each of them.

The first Beer I had was Caber Tossing Scottish Ale. It was a dark amber color with a thin, but persistent head. The ale was clear, no cloudiness what so ever. There was a decent amount of lacing on the pint glass. Yea, I know, I shouldn’t have ordered the sample size.

This Scotch Ale had a very hoppy scent to it. It was bitter to the nose with a slight sweetness. Upon first taste there is a good sweet and caramel malt flavor. That was quickly replaced with the bitterness of hops. This had to be the bitterest Scotch Ale I’ve ever had. I was rather disappointed in the flavor. The more you drank, the bitterer it became. It had a bitter aftertaste, which left me not wanting to drink it.

The brewery describes this as full-bodied ale. I thought it was more of a medium body. It was a little heavy on the carbonation that bit the tongue.

I like Scotch Ales, and was really looking forward to trying this one. After tasting it, I wasn’t impressed at all. It rates 3 out of 10.

After dinner and I tried one of their seasonal beers, a pumpkin ale. Normally I’m not fond of fruit beers, but this was good.

It poured a light amber with a hint of orange. There was a slight cloudiness to it that you get with a lot of microbrews. The head was almost non-existent, but there was a ring around the end of the glass. What lacing, if any, was minimal and quickly disappeared.

The scent reminded me of those pumpkin spice scented candles or fresh pumpkin pie. There was a slight alcohol scent that enhanced the malt undertones. The flavor was that of sweet malts and I kid you not, pumpkin pie. It wasn’t too sweet, just sweet enough. I found myself enjoying the uniqueness of this beer immensely. What aftertaste there was, was a pleasant combination of pumpkins and malts.

It was a medium bodied beer that left a pleasant coating in the mouth. It had a pleasant texture on the tongue and was very easy to drink. Sipping or gulping this beer went down easily. I could see myself actually craving this beer.

Since I don’t normally like fruit beers I was surprised at just how much I really enjoyed this creation. The only problem is that it’s seasonal, so the next time I head up to Green Bay, they may not have it. I rate this beer 7 out of 10.

Since I robbed you all of a review last week I thought I would surprise you with two this week.