Friday Craft Brew Series

Welcome back everyone to Week 7 of the Friday Craft Brew Series. This has been a hectic week for me so I was only able to review two beers in this post. However, one of the beers is on my list of all time favorites! Both of these beers are from breweries near me, so if you are ever in the Chicago area I highly recommend checking out both!

I will also be introducing the MK Beer Scale this week. This is going to be the rating that I would give this beer out of 100. Just another way for you to gauge how good this beer is in my opinion.

Now, Onto the Beers...

First up this week, Apex Predator by Off Color Brewing. This is a Farmhouse Ale, or as they like to call it a, Third Trophic Level Farmhouse Ale, coming in at 6.5%. I love everything about Off Color Brewing, they make some of the most delicious beers around.

Upon pouring, the beer has a gorgeous golden yellow color. It's opaque, filled with all sorts of delicious yeast! The head is foamy and medium in size.

The beer has a wheat and yeast smell to it, not overpowering, but perfectly advertising what is to come when you finally taste it. You can smell hints of honey and sweetness in the beer as well.

The first sip gives you a sweet wheat flavor. You can definitely taste the honey and yeast in the beer. It's fantastic. As you sip the beer you get the tiniest hint of hops, not a bitter flavor at all, just the fragrant flavor of hops instead. The hop flavor does go away quickly and you are left with that delicious yeast, wheat, and honey flavor again. The honey is light and just sits on top of the other flavors almost mimicking the sweetness of citrus.

The flavor of the beer doesn't last very long which is fine because it leaves you wanting more. This is a beer I would recommend to everyone, especially during the summer when a nice refreshing beer is what you want.

MK Beer Scale: 97/100

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Next up, Margarita Gose by Maplewood Brewing. This is a Gose style beer (duh, it's in the name) coming in at 4.4%. This is a lower alcohol content beer than I have been interested in lately, but I just couldn't pass up a beer that supposedly mimics a Margarita.

Upon pouring, the beer is a rich amber color, almost orange like, in fact. The beer is semi-transparent and has absolutely zero head, literally none at all, even when I tried to create some.

The beer smells sour which is completely unexpected for a Gose style beer. After getting past the shock of the sour smell I do detect some sort of citrus, most likely lime.

The first taste tells me exactly why they call this a Margarita Gose. Man you can taste the salt and citrus. You can't get any closer to the flavor of a Margarita while still maintaining a beer flavor, than Maplewood did with this beer. The salt flavor lasts with you, and it is surprisingly pleasant. I'm not usually the biggest fan of a saltiness in my beer, but it works amazingly well here with the lime. The more I drink the beer the more I get hints of that sour that I smelled earlier. The sour doesn't hang around for long though and it is replaced by the salty flavor. The flavor doesn't last very long.

I like this beer. It's very different, and sometimes different doesn't work out, but in this case it all comes together to form a great beer. This is another great summer beer that I will highly recommend.

MK Beer Scale: 90/100

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Bonus pic of me enjoying the Apex Predator!

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Thanks so much for reading everyone. Stay tuned for more craft brews each week, and the occasional random beer review throughout the week! If you have any questions about any of the beers feel free to drop me a comment, I am always happy to talk beer!

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Part 1 - Sidelot Brewery

Part 2 - Third Space Brewing

Part 3 - Italian Beers

Part 4 - Consume

Part 5 - Randoms

Part 6 - Bubbler, Hoptronix, La Seul X

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