Keg Tapping

I am skipping the continuation of my most recent trip to Colorado to cover another beer tasting event at the Wine Merchant in Cary, NC. I previously discussed a beer event at the shop back in March when I won a bag full of beer. Sara and I have since enjoyed another event which focused on various types of IPA brews. This "Tap Takeover" event focused exclusively on beers from Olde Hickory Brewery which, not surprisingly, is located in Hickory, NC. This tasting featured five brews from Olde Hickory, and while I have currently have two of their brews on the Beer List (the Imperial Stout and Table Rock Pale Ale), all five of these offerings were new to me. Unfortunately, this tasting occurred over two weeks ago, so as with my previous post, I will be depending heavily on the tasting sheet so graciously made available for the tasting.

The first brew that we sampled from Olde Hickory was the Single Hop Comet Pale Ale. As stated in the name, this brew features a single hop which is the rare Comet hop. Wikipedia tells me the Comet hop is American-grown and was "originally bred for its bittering characteristics". The group with whom Sara and I enjoyed the tasting mostly thought this beer had an herbal smell and first taste that led into a bitter finish and aftertaste. The tasting sheet tells me that this is the first in a serial of single-hop ales from the brewery. It also tells me this brew is 7.0% ABV.

Our second sampling was Olde Hickory's fall seasonal offering, Oktoberfest. This brew is a Märzen which is a pale lager. The tasting sheet notes that seven different malts were used in this brew while Olde Hickory's website tells me Noble hops were used to balance the malts. This drinkable brew is only 6.0% ABV.

The third beer to be sampled was their Death by Hops which I have previously managed to avoid. As expected, this Double IPA is a super-hoppy brew. The tasting sheets informs me that five different hops originating from the West Coast are used in this beer. Those five are Chinook, Columbus, Simcoe, Centennial, and the popular Cascade. Did I mention this one was hoppy? Their webpage does mention that two types of barley, Carapils and Crisp Crystal, were also used in the brewing process. This one is another that is at 7.0% ABV.

Next was even more hops with the Redeemer which is one of the brewery's limited releases. This brew is an Imperial IPA and weighs in at a hefty 10.0% ABV. It also counts five West Coast hops (Columbus, Centennial, Amarillo, Cascade, and Zythos) among its ingredients list. Not only did I have to work my way through my portion, I had to drink most of Sara's since she decided to go ahead and move on to the next and final offering.

Rounding out the five taps was David The Bat which is a Scotch ale. The tasting sheet tells me this brew was the winner of a homebrewing competition hosted by Olde Hickory. This one is 8.0% ABV.

This was another fun and interesting beer tasting, and I am ready for the next beer event at the shop later this month.