Hoplanta - Red Brick Brewing Company

    Hoplanta is an American India Pale Ale created by Red Brick Brewing Company in Atlanta, Georgia. I have to mention the quote on the label because it makes me laugh, it says: "Hoppier than a bullfrog with a stubbed toe!" I imagine that would be quite hoppy indeed!

    The IPA pours a slightly hazy, orange-amber color with a thin, half-finger, white head. The foam leaves some thin lacing on the sides of the glass.

    The beer's aroma is that of citrus fruits mingling with earthy, piney hops. There is a small bit of caramel sweetness behind the hops scents, as well as a light, bready smell.

    Hoplanta is medium to full bodied with a medium level of carbonation. I'm quite surprised how full the body is for an IPA. The combination of body and carbonation work together to create a very creamy mouthfeel. The ale finishes dry, with most of the flavors quickly dissipating after swallowing. The beer has an alcohol content of 6.7% ABV.

A good cure for a stubbed toe.

    Hoplanta features hops prominently, as most IPAs do. Bitter grapefruit and orange flavors mingle with the more earthy, piney, resinous flavors that hops are known for. There is a mild sweetness to the beer which keeps the more astringent bitter flavors at bay, while still letting some hop character come through. The only bitterness left in the mouth after swallowing is reminiscent of citrus rind.

    As I said before, I'm highly amused by the bullfrog with the stubbed toe line. It seems to me that frogs, especially ones with painful feet, are one of the animal types that most need a beer. I mean think about it, a huge number of their species is being found mysteriously dead, or creepily mutated with more than one head. Our current world hates frogs, and it's likely our fault as humans. If that wouldn't drive a frog to drink, I don't know what would. I don't know if Red Brick had frogs in mind when they made this beer, but I think that they might have unknowingly made a few amphibious friends with its creation.

    Hoplanta is a much fuller-bodied IPA than most I have had. This could be seen as risky if the fullness stuck around as a hugely bitter aftertaste, but Hoplanta avoids that problem and showcases some of the more common hops flavors wonderfully. My one real complaint with the beer is that the flavor seems to dissipate quickly, leaving a watery taste in my mouth. Not a bad IPA though. If you're ever in, or around Atlanta, this would be one to try.

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Silverback Pale Ale - Wynkoop Brewing Company

    Silverback is an American Pale Ale brewed by Wynkoop Brewing Company in Denver, Colorado. It's important to mention that this release actually benefits the Mountain Gorilla Conservation Fund. 
With each purchase of this beer, money is donated to help save mountain gorillas.

    Silverback pours a hazy, light orange. The ale has a massive head with great retention that would make even gorillas proud. Thick lacing stays on the glass as the beer goes down.

    The Pale Ale smells of piney hops with a slight bit of floral hops scent as well. There is a slight spiciness to the ale's scent as well, likely from the grains of paradise used in brewing and mentioned by the label. A light, yeasty scent is also present.

    Silverback is medium bodied with a high level of carbonation. A very high level of carbonation. In fact, it feels like the beer turns to foam as soon as it enters my mouth, making swallowing difficult-- not pleasant. The Pale Ale has an alcohol content of 5.5% ABV. 

"Helping" Mountain Gorillas

    Silverback's flavor is very hops forward. Resinous, piney hops flavors attack the palette at first, followed by the interesting spiciness and mild, sweet malts. The ale finishes quite dry, but leaves a bitter aftertaste in your mouth. The ale's bitterness is too high for my liking, with such a small amount of malt sweetness to balance it out.

    On one hand, I think it's pretty cool that money is donated to a wildlife charity with every purchase of this beer. On the other hand, I'm almost insulted on the gorillas' behalf that Wynkoop didn't make a better tasting beer that would sell better than this one. If I were a gorilla, I would drink something else first, then drink a bunch of Silverback Pale Ales and throw the cans at the brewery windows. Sure they're not heavy enough to break the window, but they'll make a lot of noise, oh yeah, AND THERE ARE FREAKING GORILLAS OUTSIDE THEIR WINDOW! That should be more than enough of a protest.

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Dead Island - Xbox 360

    Dead Island is an Action/Survival Horror game developed by Techland and published by Deep Silver. The game was released in 2011 on the PC, Playstation 3, and Xbox 360. Somewhat unique to this genre, Dead Island makes use of a first-person view, putting you right in the middle of a zombie outbreak as though you are seeing it first hand.

Cornstalker Dark Wheat - Thunderhead Brewing Company

    Cornstalker Dark Wheat has the honor of being the first Dark Wheat beer I have ever seen. This style is completely new to me, so I'm interested in seeing what it has to offer. Cornstalker is brewed by Thunderhead Brewing Company which is located in Kearney, Nebraska.

    The Dark Wheat pours a very dark brown, a color I'm much more familiar with in a Porter or Stout. Upon pouring, a two-finger, light brown head crowns the beer, though it doesn't stick around for long.

    Cornstalker's aroma is that of sweet chocolate malts with the tiniest bit of mildly roasted malt character as well.

    The Dark Wheat is light bodied with a light to medium level of carbonation. The overall mouthfeel of the beer is light and crisp. Cornstalker has an alcohol content of 5.2% ABV.

Freshly grown!

    Cornstalker has a much lighter flavor than one would expect after smelling the beer. Sweet cocoa malts are the beer's main flavor with a tiny bit of a corn flavor as an after taste. Unlike most beers which I have tried that use corn as a grain during brewing, I feel that Thunderhead actually wanted to use the corn flavor and balanced it with the other flavors in the beer. Instead of the usual, almost sour, corn flavor in some adjunt brews, Cornstalker presents the grain as a nicely toasted flavor, reminicent of Corn Nuts, or some other corn snack.

    To be completely honest, this beer's label almost scares me. I can't help but imagine being lost in a cornfield. If you've never been in a cornfield, trust me, it can be scary. You can be four rows of corn from the edge of the field and think you're lost in the middle, never to be found again. Before long, the man from the label shows up, seemingly out of nowhere, clutching a corncob-handled knife. Is he going to cut you an ear of delicious sweetcorn to enjoy together? Is he going to ask you nicely to leave his property? Is he going to slice open your stomach, tear our your bowels, and leave your innards in the field to fertilize his demon crop? Who knows!

    For being called a Dark Wheat beer, I really didn't taste any of the wheat flavors that I am familiar with. I assume that the wheat is roasted in order to make its character sweeter and "roastier". I'm somewhat dissapointed in the lighter-than-expected flavor offered by the beer. After the rich aromas presented upon pouring, the mild flavors were less than exciting. The beer's body also reminds me of drinking nearly-flat cola, so that's a minus as well. Overall though, I find my first Dark Wheat beer to be an interesting experience.

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Florida Lager - Florida Beer Company

    Florida Lager is, unsurprisingly, a Lager created by Florida Beer Company which is located in Melbourne, Florida. Unfortunately, I used the majority of this beer in a beef roast recipe, so I only had a small taster left of the beer to review.

    The Lager pours a very clear, pale brown-amber color with lots of bubbles. There is a light head to the beer (though the picture was taken after it subsided). Really I'm impressed with the beer's color as Lagers tend to be a gross, pale straw color.

    The beer has a slight grainy malt scent with no perceptible hops presence. There really isn't much to say about the beer's aroma, it really comes off as mediocre.

    Florida Lager is light-bodied with a carbonation level that comes in at the high end of medium. The beer has a very weak mouthfeel overall. The Lager has an alcohol content of 5.1% ABV.

    Florida Beer Company's beer is lightly sweet. The light flavor of grainy malts is the only real noticable taste to the beer. There is a slight flavor of corn in the beer's aftertaste, suggesting some adjunct grains were used in brewing the beer. Overall a pretty boring beer as far as flavor goes.

    I find it interesting that this brewery is called the Florida Beer Company. It's as though they are the official beer makers of Florida. I wonder how other breweries in Florida feel about this title. Of course my imagination runs wild and I start thinking that maybe Florida Beer Company is some sort of evil empire that attempts to opress other breweries. If you ask me, it's time for these smaller breweries to combine their brew forces and stage a beer rebellion! I can see it now, one hundred smaller brewers, armed with bottlecap throwing stars, taking on the evil armies of the FBC.

    Florida Lager ends up being a pretty bland, mediocre Lager. This sort of beer is good for cooking, as hops tend to lend strange flavors to food when the grainy, maltyness of a beer is what you want out of cooking with beer. I wouldn't choose to drink Florida Lager for flavor, but it would be fine as a session beer.

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Dragon Age II - Xbox 360

    Dragon Age 2 is an Action Role Playing Game developed by Bioware and published by Electronic Arts. The 2011 game is the much anticipated second game in the series after Dragon Age: Origins. Dragon Age: Origins has become known for its tough, strategic combat and inter-character relationships. Dragon Age 2 improves on one of these aspects, and takes two steps backwards in the other.

Helios Pale Ale - Upland Brewing Company

    Helios Pale Ale is an American Pale Ale brewed by Bloomington, Indiana's own Upland Brewing Company.

    Helios pours a hazy straw color with a small, off-white head with decent retention. The beer appears quite active with hundreds of bubbles that stay around for a good, long time.

    The ale has a nice, floral hops aroma with a little bit of the sweet, bready malts coming through.

    The Pale Ale has a medium-to-light mouthfeel with a moderate level of carbonation. It goes down very easily and would be quite refreshing on a hot day. Helios has a light alcohol content at 4.9% ABV.

    Helios's flavor is nice and summery with floral hops flavors and a slight bitterness. The malts keep this bitterness from becoming unpleasant with their toasted-bread like flavor and sweetness. When compared with the ale's scent, the flavors seem to be lighter than you would have expected. This almost watered-down character of the flavor really makes me wish the beer tasted as strongly as it smells, especially since the aroma has such nice floral notes.

Forward! We must bring light beer to the darkness!

    Helios was the personification of the sun in ancient Greek mythology. He would ride his fiery chariot across the sky, pushing back darkness as he went. The tagline Deus Sol Invictus (basically, "Sun God Undefeated") seems to suggest that Helios was quite strong. If the sun god was as weak as this beer's flavor however, I'm glad that he only had to fight darkness. I mean, how hard is it to chase away darkness if you're made of pure light? Basically you would just walk up to the darkness and it would go away. A child with a flashlight could do just as good of a job. Maybe Helios was undefeated because he never fought anything that actually posed a challenge?

    Even though I'm disappointed in Helios's lighter-than-it-should-be flavor, I still think that it would be a refreshing drink if you were sitting outside on a hot day. I could see the ale being a great "lawnmower beer", but it's not something I would choose to drink otherwise. Maybe Upland should have chosen a less wimpy figure from mythology (like Hercules perhaps?) for their beer...

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Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - Xbox 360

    Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is an Action game created by LucasArts. The game was released in 2008 on, well, pretty much every gaming system on the market at the time (yes, even the N-Gage). The game takes place between the Star Wars movie episodes III and IV, and features locations and characters from both trilogies.

Campside - Upland Brewing Company

    Campside is an American Blonde Ale brewed by Upland Brewing Company which is located in Bloomington, Indiana. While the beer is described as a Blonde Ale, it definitely has the hops profile and aroma of an American Pale Ale, making it an interesting choice for a summer session beer.

    Campside pours a pale golden color with a small bit of head. The beer has a slight haze to it. Though the head fades quickly, the beer's bubbles leave a slight ring on the glass which sticks around much longer.

    The American Blonde Ale features great floral hop scents. Citrus and tropical fruit aromas accompany slightly milder pine-like smells. The hops aromas are more subtle than those found in IPAs or Pale Ales, but still very nice. Light biscuit or cracker malt scents back up the florals with sweetness.

    Campside is medium bodied with a light-moderate level of carbonation. The beer ends quite crisply, but leaves an oily, bitter film in the mouth. The beer's alcohol content of 4.5% ABV is somewhat surprising as I get a slight bit of warmth as it sits in my mouth.

    The ale's flavor is hop forward with a citrusy bitterness. The bitterness level is actually somewhat surprising for a Blonde Ale. The floral hops flavors are present, though less pronounced than in the beer's aroma. The slight sweetness of pale malts just barely come through. I feel as though the beer's bitterness is out of balance with the malt flavors. I still really like the floral character of the hops, but there definitely needs to be a bit more of a malt backbone to mellow things out.

    Normally when I think of a session (especially a summer session) beer, I think of something with a low alcohol content, low bitterness, and high "drinkability". I'm really glad to see Upland trying to use more of the floral properties of hops, but Campside comes off as too bitter for the regular "session" drinker. I like Campside a lot when compared to other Upland beers, but I can definitely see how others may not feel the same way about the American Blonde Ale.

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Comic Jumper - Xbox 360 Arcade

    Comic Jumper: The Adventures of Captain Smiley is an Action game developed by Twisted Pixel Games and produced by Microsoft Game Studios. The game was released in 2010 on the Xbox Live Marketplace.