SweetWater Brewing Dank Tank Ghoulash

My buddy Ed brought me back a bottle of SweetWater Brewing Company Dank Tank Ghoulash from Atlanta. This beer is a “double black double dry hopped double India Pale Ale,” or a beer with a lot of doubles. The beer pours a black color with a lofty and frothy beige-colored head that leaves some lacing on the glass. The aroma consists of chocolate, lemon, pine, spruce, pepper, and molasses. The taste is dry and bitter and is very hop-forward, bringing pine, lemon, and spruce flavors right up to the front of the beer. It finishes with a dark chocolate flavor that has hints of caramel, molasses, and toasted malts. The after taste lets pepper and lemon linger on the tongue. The alcohol content is 8.5% ABV. If you are looking for a beer that is dark and chocolaty and hoppy and bitter at the same time, this is the beer for you. It really presents its dryness, and the slight hint of citrus is quite enjoyable.

SweetWater Waterkeeper Hefeweizen Ale

I received a bottle of Sweetwater Waterkeeper Hefeweizen Ale in a trade with Lance Martin (Beers of the Night) and Alfred Hugh Leonard III. The beer pours a golden color with a lofty and frothy white head that leaves specks of lacing on the glass. The aroma consists of wheat, lemon, funk, grass, pepper, and hay. The taste starts off with lemon that is slightly puckering with a bit of funk. There is a wheat and yeast sweetness that then comes in to play with a pepper, hay, and grassy dryness from the hops. The alcohol content is 5.7% ABV. This was a slid hefeweizen that was light on the tongue and refreshing, but has a nice little bit of lemon funk that tickles the tongue.

SweetWater Blue

I picked up a bottle of SweetWater Blue on my trip to South Carolina. The beer pours a pale yellow color with a bubbly white head. The aroma is filled with blueberries, similar to a muffin. The taste is light and sweet with a good blueberry accent. I was surprised that Sweetwater pulled off the blueberry accents without being too fruity, but not overly light either. The alcohol content is 4.9% ABV. I thought that the Sweetwater Blue had a good wheat flavor to compliment the blueberry in the beer, and nothing was lacking or overdone, which is very important in a fruity wheat beer.

SweetWater Dank Tank BSP Quad Ale

Another SweetWater beer I picked up, and read a lot about on BeerNews, was the Dank Tank BSP Quad Ale. The beer pours a dark brown color with a foamy beige head. The aroma is sweet and malty with hints of fig and raisins. The taste is sweet and very smooth with good accents of raisins and fig. I picked up a bit of birch as well, and there is a light hop undertone. On the finish, there is a little bit of chocolate and a slight bit of of burnt toast. The alcohol content 11% ABV. This was an excellent quad and was full of flavors. The raisin and fig was expected, but the chocolate and burnt toast was a nice surprise. I highly recommend trying this beer if you can get your hands on it.

SweetWater India Pale Ale

While in South Carolina, I made sure to pick up some SweetWater beers. The first I tried was the India Pale Ale. The beer has a golden color with a bubbly white head. The aroma consists of lemon and citrus hops with a nice dose of pine. The taste is lemony and orangey with a light grapefruit undertone. It also has a nice dry pine hop finish. I that that there was also a little bit of sweetness, like sugar on grapefruit. The alcohol content is 6.7% ABV. This was a really decent IPA, not overly hoppy and nicely done with a great sweet citrus flavor.