Hurrican Reef Pale Ale

From the Florida Beer Company, we have the Hurricane Reef Pale Ale.  This beer is an American Pale Ale and is brewed with two-row barley and hops from the Pacific Northwest.  This is one of the beers that came in my first Beer of the Month club shipment and it’s taken me this long to blog about it.  That has nothing to do with how good or bad this beer is.  Rather, it goes to show you how lucky and busy I have been with all of the other beer I have come across.

The beer pours a nice golden color and had a pretty decent head for a pale ale.  It has some lacing but not a lot.  You can smell  both the malt and the hops as you pour it.  It has a nice aroma, not too strong but still nice.

The beer has a nice mouthfeel, it’s not thick but not thin either.  However, I think it is a bit too carbonated.  The taste is pretty clean and the flavor and bitterness of the hops is what comes across mostly.  It has a dry finish and the flavor lingers for quite awhile.  It lingers a bit longer than I would like.

It’s certainly an easy drinking beer but it didn’t blow me away either.  It’s better than some I have had but it isn’t spectacular.

• GMC$10 – Get $10 off any pre-paid 12 month membership
• GMC5 – Save $5 off any pre-paid membership of 6 months or more
• GMCWW5 – Save $5 off any whatever – whenever program

To use these coupons, go to the Microbrew Beer of the Month club web site and enter them when you place your order.

With the Beer of the Month club, you get 12 beers each month, it’s 4 different beers from 2 different breweries so you get 3 of each beer.    They have several different clubs, the one I am a member of currently is the domestic microbrew beer of the month club.  As the name suggests, all of the beer is from the USA.  They have one that is half  USA and half International, one that is all International and a rare beer of the month club that features very rare and hard to find beer.

The reason I joined the club was because I wanted to try as many styles as I could from as many good breweries as I could.  Microbrews are great but they are microbrews for a reason, they are small and often have very limited distribution.  This club allows me to try a wide selection of beer that I didn’t have access to and I have discovered and tried some really great beers.  What’s really  nice is if you try a beer that you like, you can buy more from them.

The beer club I joined has excellent customer service, I wasn’t thinking when I placed my order and used my home address.  Since they are shipping alcohol, a signature is often required so I called and had it shipped to my work.  I called and had it switched within 5 minutes of placing my order and they were very nice.

The club memberships are very flexible, you can sign someone up for 2 – 12 months and if they like it they can re-subscribe.  I want to try all the different beer of the month clubs that they offer so I signed up for 3 months.  When my 3rd shipment arrives I plan on joining their domestic + international club for 3 months.

If you read this early enough in the shopping season, keep in mind that it’s very easy to call and change the delivery address.  If you want the gift recipient to have something to open for Christmas, have the first shipment shipped to your house and wrap it up.  After you receive your first shipment, give them a call and switch it to the gift recipients address.  That way, they have a case of beer to open at Christmas and they know they have more on the way.  A very cool gift for anyone that loves beer.

To join or order this as a gift for someone, go to Gourmet Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club.

Update:  We were sent some coupons that you may find useful if you decide to get this as a gift for someone.  Check them out at Beer of the Month Coupons.

Please Note: This article is part of our Holiday series highlighting the top 12 gift ideas for beer enthusiasts and homebrewers. Read the original post to get the full list of beer gift ideas.

Second Beer of the Month Club Shipment

When I started my Year of Beer, one of the first things I did was research and find what I thought was the best Beer of the Month club.  I wanted to join one that would expose me to beer that I might not be able to get around here.   You can read the original post at joining a beer of the month club if you are interested.

I really enjoyed my first shipment and was really excited to get my second shipment.  It actually arrived about 2 weeks ago but with vacation and this being my busy season at work, I haven’t had the time to post anything about it.  I started getting low on beer in the fridge and didn’t want to crack into this shipment until I took some pics and wrote this article.  As it turns out, being low on beer was the perfect incentive to find the time to write this post.

I was extra excited when I found out that this shipment was going to include beer from Otter Creek Brewery up in Vermont.  I have heard a lot of really positive things about their beer but haven’t been able to find any locally. Otter Creek shipped their first keg of beer back in March of 1991.  The second brewery that is represented in this shipment is Shipyard Brewing Company, another excellent brewery that I have had the pleasure of sampling in the past.  In this case, it’s Shipyard’s Tremont brand that is actually in the shipment.    Tremont Brewery was founded in 1992 but for a variety of reasons went out of business in 2001.  In 2005, Shipyard purchased the rights to the brand and has been lovingly producing Tremont beer ever since.

Here are the beers that I received in October’s Beer of the Month club shipment:

• Otter Creek Stovepipe Porter
• Otter Creek Pale Ale
• Shipyard’s Tremont Mr. Oktoberfest
• Shipyard’s Tremont Freedom Trail India Pale Ale

I will be writing future reviews about all of these beers.  If you would like to follow along with me and receive the same beers each month, sign up for the Gourmet Beer of the Month Club.

First Shipment from Beer of the Month Club

A few weeks back I wrote a post about the Microbrew Beer of the Month club that I had joined.  I have been waiting patiently (or at least I have been trying to wait patiently) for my first shipment to arrive and it came today.  I had it shipped to my work since it required an adult signature and was pleasantly surprised to see that the packaging was very discreet.  It showed no signs of what might be inside.  For me, it’s not a problem either way, I am an owner of the business, but it’s still nice to see that they got the little things right with this beer of the month club.

For my first 3 months, I signed up to receive all domestic microbrews.  However, they must have run out of two of the selections as I got two domestic beers and two beers from the Czech Republic.  They did include a note letting me know that they had to make these substitutions.   I am not complaining, they have a club that sends 2 domestic beers and 2 International beers and it’s more expensive than the one I signed up for so I was glad that if they couldn’t fill my order, they upgraded me.

The shipment came with a newsletter that gives you background on the breweries as well as the beers that were chosen.  The newsletter was well written but I found the formatting to be a bit confusing.

I am going to do a review of all 4 beers that I received but until that time, here is what I got:

• Diamond Beer Brewing Company – Presidential IPA
• Florida Beer Company – Hurricane Reef Pale Ale
• Pivovar Herold – Bohemian Granat Lager
• Pivovar Herold – Bohemian Black Lager

I will update this post with links to each review as I do them.  you can follow along with me if you like and join the same Beer of the Month club that I belong to by going to the Gourmet Beer of the Month Club.

I was surprised to find how many Beer of the Month clubs there were to choose from.  I researched it for the last week before deciding on which one to go with and found at least 8 different Beer of the Month clubs.  Some are just reselling other clubs memberships as far as I can tell and some didn’t have as impressive of a selection of beer that they send out.

When you get right down to it, after you add in the shipping costs, a beer of the month club is not the cheapest way to get your hands on a good beer but it’s not all that expensive either.  At $35 for a 12-pack comes out to almost $3 a bottle.  The big advantage I see in a Beer of the Month club is most of the beer I expect to receive will be from microbreweries I wouldn’t have normally had access to.  The club I choose will give me access to a wide variety of regional microbrews that I wouldn’t have otherwise been exposed to.  For that reason alone, I think the club is more than worth it.

The club I joined today is called the Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club.  It’s put out by the Gourmet Clubs of America and from my research, it is the best reviewed club I could find.  They have several different clubs you can join:

• Original Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club – This is the one I joined.  It is all American microbrews, you get 3 bottles of 4 different American beers from microbreweries all over the country.  They advertise this club as $20.95 a month but with shipping the price is actually $34.95 a month.
• International and Domestic Variety Beer Club – The second club is a mix of American and International beers.  With the second club you get 3 bottles of 2 different American beers and 3 bottles of 2 different International beers.  They advertise this club as $28.95 a month but with shipping the price is actually $42.95 a month
• International Beer Club – The third option is 3 bottles of 4 different International beers.  They advertise this club at $32.95 a month but with shipping it’s actually $46.95 a month

I opted for a 3 month membership of the Original Microbrewed Beer of the Month club.  I opted for 3 months simply because I want to try more than one club.  I intend to do 3 months of the original club, 3 months of the variety club, 3 months of the International club.  I will finish out my year with another 3 month membership to the club I enjoyed the most.

I will be reviewing every beer I get from the club.  Want to follow along with me and drink the same beers I am drinking?  You can join by going to Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club

Updates:

• First Month