Watching Soccer at the Kite & Key

Okay so I've been spending a lot of time at the Kite & Key. So sue me. It's close to our house, the atmosphere is nice, the beer list is pretty great, and they have tvs really well placed around the room. So, yeah, you are probably going to be seeing more posts about it. You'll have to deal with the disappointment.

For this time, Jo and I went because we wanted to watch the Germany vs. Japan Women's World Cup game while having a few beers. We settled down, Evan, the bartender, did us the favor of putting on the game, and I ordered a Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye, an IPA made with rye.

Pine hop nose with a hint of malt in the back. Surprisingly thick mouth feel. You can see it was a decent amount darker than normal IPAs. Began with a little spiciness from the rye, reminding me slightly of a saison. Some hints of rye bread as well. It finished with some slight bitterness and a little malt sweetness. Really enjoyed this. I'm starting to like rye beers quite a bit. The rye adds some great flavors.

Up next was the Heavy Seas Plank I on cask, an old ale.

Smelled of caramel and smoke with the smoke probably coming from poplar wood on which it was aged. Major flavors were caramel, plum, apple and a little dried fruit. Tasted much more like a weizenbock than an old ale to me, but without wheat the style wouldn't fit. Pretty tasty and a nice break from the bitterness.

I finished up with Weyerbacher North, the third in their series of experimental IPAs. I had the first which was a straight up IPA but missed the second. This was more of an India Brown Ale according to the description than IPA, though.

A hint of hoppiness in the nose, but surprisingly mild. It's been out for a while though so the aroma may have faded a little by now. On my first sip, my first thought was hops, hops, and more hops. Luckily no bitterness followed the massive hop attack. A little malty sweetness and slight spiciness followed. I wasn't hugely impressed with this one. It wasn't bad, but totally not special. Looking forward to trying Steel, attempt number four in the series.

Really enjoyed my beer choices on Saturday and the Germany / Japan game was quite good (poor Germany). I'm definitely going to be on the lookout for more rye based beers after the Bear Republic and am glad I got some Sixpoint Righteous Rye last weekend. The only unfortunate thing about this visit to the Kite & Key was that my choices on Tuesday were kind of limited since I'd tried a lot of their draft list already. Ah, the problems in my life.