It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia High School Reunion

I need to start clearing out some of my inventory. I’ve already had 14 different beers to star the New Year. Two were home brews and another came from my home town of Altoona, PA. Time to rewind though. One night in early November, I had to go to my lady’s high school reunion since it’s only in Dayton. To try and make my night better, I drank these three beers.

Rivertown Brewing Company – Hop Barron – When you’re in Dayton, you are not very far from Cincinnati so seeing Rivertown on the beer menu was no surprise. What was a surprise was that the draft menu for a craft beer resulted in me having to drink a beer I had already reviewed or an IPA. This Double India Pale Ale didn’t start me off on the right foot though. I haven’t paid much attention to IBUs, International Bitterness Units, but this one is listed at 103 which is why I didn’t like it. It was a little to bitter for me. They use four types of hops to create this beverage that clocks in at 8.5% ABV. I like Rivertown as a brewing company but this is not a beer for me. If you’d enjoy that bitterness, you can find their beers in these locations.

Clown Shoes Beer – Hoppy Feet – This beverage was different than the other two because it was a black IPA which got cover twice recently with 21st Amendment’s Back In Black. Clown Shoes uses roasted malt and dark chocolate to help bring out a completely different. They use grapefruit and pine to help balance out the double dose of hops that they use. I didn’t taste the grapefruit or pine, which is a good thing on the later count since pine isn’t tasty at all. The grapefruit sourness and touch of sweetness help to lighten this beer up in the bitterness department. Clown Shoes doesn’t list IBUs so it’s hard to compare these beers because of it but I’ll trust my taste buds and assume it’s below 103. These Shoes will help fill your liver with alcohol by giving you a 7.0% ABV. This beer out of Ipswitch, MA (I think. Hard to read the label and it doesn’t clearly say on the site.) has an interesting distribution area. If you fit into this clown car of a distribution area, give it a try to see if it’ll make you hoppy.

Ithaca Beer Company – Flower Power IPA – My first impression of this beer was that it was smoother than the other two IPAs I had. After looking at their website, they tell you to enjoy the clover honey and tropical nose that comes from pineapple and grapefruit. I can’t say I tasted the honey, pineapple or grapefruit directly but I’m quite sure that it helped to balance out the bitterness that comes from hopping the beer five different times in the brewing and fermentation process. They wet hop with five types and dry hop with three other types of hops. All of this hopping ends up leading to a 7.5% ABV, which I thought was low for the pile of hops they toss in there. Ohio is the furthest south Ithaca distributes but if you live in the northeast, give this beer some peace, love and happiness. – Kevin