A guy could get used to the temperatures that North Texas is enjoying currently. With lows in the 50s and high in the 80s, it’s pleasurable enough to sit on the patio with a beer and not be tempted to down it without reflection.
Today was a decent day filled with hunting the elusive job, learning a bit of HTML, and getting aquatinted with non-Adobe graphic programs. All of that graphic design can make a guy thirsty, so at the cocktail hour, I found myself with a bottle of Real Ale Brewing Company’s Rio Blanco Pale Ale.
With the sun beginning to set on Grand Prairie, I emptied the bottle of beer into my pint glass. A wonderful light copper beverage with a cumulous like head formed. The two-finger level of froth settled to about half its original size, and stayed a good finger thick through most of the beverage’s consumption. Adding to the beautiful pour, a torrent of active carbonation rushed to the beer’s surface.
An aroma wafted to my nostrils of malt with a touch of hop citrus. To define it in the most universal terms, it was reminiscent of macro lagers, but with a much greater depth.
As the beer washed across my tongue a wonderful medium bodied apricot-like flavor developed with crisp hop bitterness and slight floral notes on the back end of the palate. The beer was a wonderful play between the two extremes of sweet and bitter, making a complex beverage with depth, while retaining drinkability.
Being a beer crafted with not only an aesthetic beauty, but also depth and complexity in flavor, Real Ale’s Rio Blanco is a wonderful example of Texas breweries’ abilities to brew awesome beer.
Prost!
I brew and drink beer, smoke pipes and cigars, eat till I’ve had more than my fill, and escape in pulp rags till my eyes turn buggy. I don’t claim any expertise in any subject other than the chase of my own earthly pleasures. I write to help others find their own pleasures so that together we will decay in spirit with these lesser pursuits.