Nebraska Little Betty

Another beer I ordered while at Fat Head’s in Pittsburgh was Nebraska Little Betty. The beer pours a black color with a thin filmy tan head. The aroma consists of chocolate, caramel, roasted malts, coffee, leather, and molasses. The taste is smooth before a dry coffee flavor settles in with dark chocolate, roasted malts, and molasses. The finish is a bit dry, mostly due to the coffee, with a hint of vanilla sweetness. The alcohol content is 9.5% ABV. The Little Better had a really good flavor, especially with coffee accents, and had a nice earthy hop flavor. The after taste that linger combined coffee, chocolate, and earthy hops, an excellent combination to hang on to for a while.

Nebraska Apricot Poivre Saison

I ordered a bottle of Nebraska Apricot Poivre Saison for our table at the Pliny the Younger Event at Monk’s Cafe in Philadelphia. The beer pours an orange color with a frothy white head. The aroma consists of apricot, Belgian yeast, and a sharp pepper bite (not enough to make you sneeze though). The taste is bubbly but smooth with grassy hops the focus early on in the tasting. As the beer warmed, a lot more of the apricot came out to play on the tongue. The beer has a dry earthy finish and a peppery after taste. The Chardonnay flavor from the barrels lingers after finishing the beer and is sweet and quite pleasant. The alcohol content is 6.5% ABV. While I was slightly disappointed in the Apricot Poivre Saison at first due to the lack of apricot flavor, letting the beer warm up revealed its true self and showed me that it was the beer I was expecting it to be.

Nebraska Hop God

I picked up a bottle of Nebraska Hop God from Al's of Hampden. The beer pours a golden color with a very lofty and frothy white head. The aroma consists of fresh earthy hops, banana, candisugar, grass, and Belgian yeast. The taste is sweet and bubbly with earhty tones, grass, banana, candisugar, Belgian yeast, orange, and tangerine. The finish dries the tongue slightly and stings it, while leaving an earthy fresh hop flavor in the mouth. The alcohol content is 10.0% ABV. The Hop God provides a wonderful balance of Belgian sweetness and earthy hops, all while maintaining a lightly carbonated mouth feel. This is a must-have Belgian IPA.

Nebraska Brewing Company Melange a Trois

When I was at Brass Rail in Campbelltown, they placed a few bottles of Nebraska Brewing Company Melange a Trois on the shelf, their first shipment into the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It took some deliberation on my part to fork over $34 for a 25.4 ounce bottle, but I caved in a bought it. The Melange a Trois is a Belgian-style ale aged in Chardonnay bottles. This was my first beer from Nebraska Brewing Company, and I was excited to try it, given the reviews I have seen. The beer pours a brilliant golden color. From the pour, my first thought was “Holy head!” The pour takes off with an extremely lofty and foamy white head that hangs around for a while, sticking to the glass as it subsides. The aroma consists of banana, pepper, candisugar, white grapes, and Belgian yeast. Once the head subsided in about three minutes, I moved on to tasting the beer. The taste is full and powerful from the start. The carbonation attacks the tongue quickly, followed by flavors of candisugar, banana, and sweet yeast. The finish to the beer has a bit of a pepper and alcohol bite, drying the mouth as it goes down. The Chardonnay aging is present in the finish, as remnants of white grapes and Chardonnay linger in the mouth. The alcohol content is 10.0% ABV. I must say that I was very impressed with the Melange a Trois. My first experience with Nebraska Brewing Company was a positive one, and I look forward to trying more of their beers. However, the $34 price point was pushing my limits a bit, but I'll blame some of that on the Pennsylvania taxes on beer.