Beer Review: Flying Dog Garde Dog Biere De Garde

Flying Dog sent me this brew a while ago. I tried it but lost my tasting notes. Well, tonight I decided to get some beer to do a new review and saw this beer. Thought I’d finally review this for my blog. So here goes…

The Pour
This poured with a two-finger head that dissipated quickly with a decent amount of lacing. It pours, in a pilsner glass, to a burnt yellow-orange color. It’s quite clear and looks to be a crisp brew.

The Nose
The first thing you notice is the nice citrusy hops. Since it’s summer, the hops are quite appealing. Then some toasty malty notes come through, with hints of caramel sweetness. Kind of like a nice toasty biscuit but with caramel on the side.

The Taste
This is a medium bodied brew with light to medium carbonation. The first thing you notice is the citrusy grassy hops, but this fades and the malty sweetness takes over at the back of the tongue. The finish coats the mouth with nice caramel and citrus flavors.

Overall
I think this is a good transition beer. It is best in the spring, where it transitions you from the malty stouts and porters of fall and winter to the hoppy IPAs and pale ales of summer.

Recommended: Sure….this is a good beer to prepare for the mouth-puckering summer brews.

Price: $8.49 a six-pack

ABV: 5.5%

IBU: 27

The Beer Snob is not dead!

I have not died….I’ve been swamped studying engineering and basically failing my Dynamics course (though I am doing well in Thermodynamics) and have been too busy to post. I have a couple reviews I’ve been sitting on though, so maybe I can get one posted tonight. Hopefully I can get back into the swing of things and keep this updated more frequently. Look for at least one new review tonight.

TrueBlue Blueberry Juice

Well, I mentioned I would be reviewing a non-beer product for a change of pace, and here it is. In May I was contacted by someone at TrueBlue who wondered if I would review their blueberry juice cocktail products. I rarely turn down anything free, so I agreed.

(NOTE: This was a free product but I did tell the company I would be doing an HONEST review. My review was not at all influenced by the fact that the juice was free.)

Well, I was in Europe for almost two weeks, as you know, and when I returned, I found a box sitting on my front steps from TrueBlue. Having no idea how long it had been there, I worried the constant changes in temperature outdoors would have affected the taste of the product.

Fortunately this was not the case. I put a bottle of the Blueberry cocktail in the fridge (they also sell Blueberry Blackberry, Blueberry Raspberry, Blueberry Green Tea, Blueberry Pomegranate, and Blueberry Cranberry) and once sufficiently chilled, I took a big swig right out of the bottle. Before the juice even hit my taste buds I detected a good aroma of fresh blueberries. I was a little concerned that this flavor would be too intense. I had no reason to fear. The juice cocktail has just the right blend of blueberry and grape juices.

The consistency of the juice feels like Welch’s grape juice but with a distinct blueberry flavor. It really does taste like you’re enjoying a handful of sweetened blueberries rather than a glass of juice. This is a very refreshing and tasty juice!

Once I realized I really liked the juice I started looking at the bottle it came in. I was a little disappointed, at first, to see that it was only 25% juice. I rarely buy any type of juice unless it’s 100% juice. Usually juices that are not 100% juice contain a lot of high fructose corn syrup (which I blame for the American obesity epidemic). Looking at the ingredients, however, I saw that there is no HFCS….just water, blueberry and grape juices, cane sugar and other natural flavors.

I then looked at the caloric content of the juice and compared it to the juice I happened to have in the fridge: Mott’s apple juice (100% juice) and my 3-year-old’s White Grape Juicy Juice (100% juice). At 110 calories per 8 fl. oz serving, the blueberry juice had both beat by a nose.

All in all, I would highly recommend this juice. This may become my new juice of choice! I would rush right out and buy it if they hadn’t sent me 8 64oz bottles of it! I’ll be drinking on it forever before I have to buy any.

For more information on their juices and where to purchase them, as well as a coupon, please visit their web site at http://www.trueblueberry.com.