Life is hard as a beer blogger. Oh ya.. boh fricken hoo. Any excuse to try awesome beers.. spout off your mouth and get the occasional brewery freebie.. ya right life is rough. But it is!  Let's try this scenario: a room full of people are tasting a beer. The stealthy beer geek defers judgement by stating, "It's complex and I'm not sure of the flavours." This is equivalent to a "pass" in poker. Now all eyes fall on the beer blogging geek; you are not allowed to say it is OK. All eyes are pointed at you with daggers on their tongues, waiting to cut about your opinion. You must think quick: what BJCP style is it, grab a few normal flavours and one oddball one. Everyone nods..crisis averted.

Union Jack IPA (Firestone) = 8/10
Ratebeer 3.86 99th percentile
Beer Advocate 94%

Blah..Blah..Blah. Super awesome and sweet IPA. Tons of C-Hops and ace in the hole Amarillo tickling the nose. Each sip is cooling with alcohol followed by the hop payload of cotton candy, multiplier citrus and resins. What you say? Malts.. forget about them. It is all about the long lingering sweet grapefruit hops. If you see it, try it; world class.


Taste +4
Aftertaste +2
Alcohol Content +1 7.5%
Value +1
Appearance 0

Sigh. A robust porter for my sampling pleasure. The things I do for my loyal followers. Please note the sarcasm

Firestone Robust Porter = 5/10

Ratebeer 3.66 97th percentile
Beer Advocate B+

Robust is a relative term; this one barely meets the mark. Sure, the nose is sweet and roasted with dark chocolate and pine. The medium-full body is creamy but oddly not that flavourful. It's all there: sweet, roasted chocolate, not-too-bitter-cocoa and slightly cooling hops. It was all just too drinkable. Even the ending was glycerin-like with roasted chocolate. Robust should be gripping, not easy drinking.

Taste +3
Aftertaste +1
Alcohol Content 0 5.9%
Value 0
Appearance +1 (nice label though)

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