Homestead Beer Co. –  Claim Jumper IPA – This company sure does like to make IPAs. They talked me into trying their BOAT Series IPA last year at the Cbus Microbrew Festival last year. After going to their website, they have it listed as “Out of Rotation.” They have two other IPAs Station Master Session IPA and The Galactic Heroes IPA. They all have varying degrees of IBU and ABV that does separate them. This one was their second good one that I have gotten to taste. They use a blend of Columbus, Nugget and Galena so that is always a good start for me. It didn’t have anything to cut the hops like roasted malt or a heavy dose of citrusy hops but stopped right near my edge of IBU pleasure. This one is at 81 IBU. I would expect a higher ABV than 5.8% because of the high hops count but that’s what it is. Though they boxed it into a pleasure area for me, it’s closer to a straight IPA so I liked the BOAT Series better which did have the citrus notes. This one is worth drinking if you’re an IPA fan.

Elevator Brewing Co. – Big Vic Imperial IPA – One of the standard bearers for Columbus craft beers makes this one. It is a wheat IPA so that cuts some of the bitterness out of the drink. They don’t divulge much on their website for what particular styles of hops they use but they do note that they dry hop the beer to make it go from regular to Imperial IPA. The dry hopping gave it something that Claim Jumper didn’t have, the citrus note to cut out some of the bitterness. They are easy to compare because of their similar IBUs. Big Vic stands at 80 IBU so there’s a single difference. My hunch may have been wrong about Claim Jumper’s ABV, but it was correct with this one sitting at 8.6% ABV. I liked this one more than the first. Good beer to have around in the summer since the wheat does provide a lightness that other IPAs don’t have.

Zauber Brewing Co. – Vertigo – I have taken a look at this beer previously but much like the Nitro Milk Stout from Left Hand Brewing, I didn’t take a full look at this one. Unfortunately, their full capacity brewery isn’t quite ready yet. I am very much looking forward to that day since this fine beverage was consumed back in March. It is a hefeweizen so it was a little early in the year to be digging into the lighter side of beers but we had a Bluejackets game this particular Thursday when they did have their own beer. I was very happy they had this one on tap though. It is very light, crisp, a hint of spice and just a little hazy in it’s golden tone. It only has a 5.4% ABV and 12 IBU so this beer can be session-able. It went down really well with a wrap from the Paddy Wagon Food Truck. When I was doing my Year In Review list for Cbus beers, this one wasn’t in my top 10. It’s still a fantastic beer whether it’s there or not.

Rivertown Brewery – Blueberry Lager – I have had much luck with this fine company out of Cincinnati. Unfortunately, this beer is not among them. It is a light lager so it has a similar body to a light beer which isn’t a good start. They use artificial flavor for the blueberry taste. I’m assuming that even though it’s not completely clear in the description. The blueberry flavor isn’t overwhelming so it does match better with the light lager. It all adds up to a very weak tasting beer. Even good companies make bad beer. – Kevin