Photo by The Lady

The Drink Up Columbus Anniversary party has become a nice event to try some beers. This year it was the selection was a little more ordinary. The upside for The Lady was the fact that they did have some nice cocktails in the mix. The upside for me is above, for the first time in 4 years, I won something. In this case a glass, a pair of stickers and a shirt from Actual Brewing. Now on to review those “ordinary” beers.

Taken by yours truly

Columbus Brewing Co. – Bodhi – I tried this one first because it was the only beer with a twist. Bodhi is a double IPA. The twist came in the fact that they added citrus to it. The regular Bodhi is to me one of the more palatable doubles on the market. Doubles have in my opinion a hops funk that is different from either regular IPAs and Triples. I don’t like the funk either. Adding the extra citrus made this good double even better. As usual, CBC doesn’t supply much in the way of information for what they used to make said beverage. I do know that it’s 8.5% ABV.

Strongwater – Stone Sour – Strongwater was the location for the bash. They have some nice drinks when there isn’t an event such as this one. This one was made with OYO Stone Fruit Vodka which is made by Middle West Spirits here in Cbus. They also throw in fresh orange and lemon juice alogn with simple syrup and Angostura bitters. The Lady consumed the vast majority of this beverage but I did get a taste. Her analysis of the drink as it was being handed to her was “That was almost all alcohol.” My response after my taste was “That is trouble” which means it is super tasty and high in alcohol. Liquor does me in because I have no idea how much alcohol I am imbibing within a fruity beverage that may as well be my breakfast orange juice.

Another original photo

Sweetwater Brewing Co. – 420 – Sweetwater is out of Atlanta GA and just started distributing here recently. If you want to figure out if they’re in your area, go to this map. Since I traveled to Atlanta once for Wrestlemania and the following year for the UFC, I was familiar with this beer. But I haven’t had it since starting to review beers on this very site. This beer has more of a fruity hops in it than I remember. Reading that they used both Cascade and Centennial hops, I am not surprised by the taste profile. Even though they cough up that information, an IBU count is nowhere to be found. They do let you know that it clocks in at 5.7% ABV which is a normal number for a pale ale. Now if only they’d come out with a smoked version of this beer…

Four String Brewing Co. – Suncaster Summer Wheat Ale – This beer got saved for last. It goes against my recent directive to go from least bitter to most bitter especially since I went in the exact opposite direction. This beer was a nice light beer to end the night on. It’s as good a summer beer as there is. Suncaster is light and refreshing with a nice citrus tang to it. Not a hoppy citrus either. This beer is the only one to give me an IBU count at 28 which is ironic considering it’s easily the least hop intensive beer. Light beer is a good way to summarize the fact that this beer is 5.0% ABV. It was a good way to end a night that was giving off a summer vibe.