Brewery: Southern Tier Brewing Company
Beer: IPA
Style: American IPA
ABV: 7.3%
Character: Ale yeast, four varieties of hops, four varieties of malts
Metal Connection: MALAMOR – Fuckers like you
Well isn’t this special. This is the first Southern Tier beer to be reviewed on the site. Southern Tier is a brewery out of Lakewood, NY, born in 2002. These beers have not been available in San Antonio very long, but they have sent down here some pretty good beers. Of course being the hop head that I am, I went right for the IPA first.
Poured into my 5 Stones Brewing Company pint glass, this IPA was a clear copper color with a nice bubbly crown on top. The head did dwindle down a bit to just a thin layer, but it did leave nice spotty lacing down the glass. You could see the rising bubbles the entire time, as this beer was so clear. It was a beautiful sight for sure!
The aroma of this beer was lots of hops, full of a tangy grapefruit smell, and even some pine and light floral aroma. This is really all I pick up on with this beer, but this is a good thing, as I love the smell of hops!
The taste of this beer is a nice balance of hops and malts. The malty taste is in the background and makes an appearance in the aftertaste a bit, but again this is fully driven by the hops. Lots of citrus/grapefruit flavors, with a subtle amount of pine, and floral hops as well. As I said there is a malt and hops mix that appears at the end of the drink, and it has a bit of a dry finish to it. This flavor seems to linger a bit afterwards. Very pleasing taste.
The body is a medium thickness. There is good carbonation. The mouthfeel is bright and crisp, with a dry finish. For me it wasn’t too overly bitter, so I found this IPA to be an easy drinkable beer.
Overall, I will say that this beer had everything to make a great IPA. In my opinion, it was damn near perfect! This been will definitely be making frequent appearances in my beer fridge for sure!
Metal Connection: I went with a band who is local to the same state as this brewery. Let me introduce you to Malamor, an old school New York Slam style Death Metal band. This is real Slam! Not that garbage that is out today. Yes, I am a grumpy old man on this subject. This song, “Fuckers like you” is from their Amputated Vein Records debut, Dead to the World which was released in 2004. I’m not sure whatever happened to these guys, as they have not released anything since this album. This still holds up today against the over saturated Slam Death scene.
Slamming good beer, while listening to good Slam Death Metal, BeerMetalDude!
Beer Metal Media 