Taco Mac Challenge Update

Taco Mac time!!

A trip to Atlanta means seeing friends, playing golf and visiting my old stomping grounds, but more important than all that, it means a trip to Taco Mac for some beer.

According to my Taco Mac Brewniversity app, which Spin will deny he’s ever heard of, my last beer at Taco Mac was Dec. 6, 2012. After this weekend, I am up to 88 different beers, still 37 short of reaching 125 beers, thereby earning bachelor’s degree level, a T-shirt, mug and my name on the Taco Mac Bachelor’s Plaque.

So without further ago, here are the five newest members of Brian’s Brewniverity list.

Full Sail Amber

My former co-worker and Taco Mac dining partner Kristen will be happy to know that Full Sail comes from Oregon, home of her beloved ducks.

I love amber beers, with Abita Amber still ranking as my personal No. 1, and Full Sail was really enjoyable. It had a good taste without being too overpowering. In fact, I thought its taste could have been a bit stronger, but it’s still worth a try.

For a first beer of the night, I enjoyed it.

Heavy Seas Cutlass Amber

Another amber. Another delicious beer.

Heavy Seas originates from Baltimore, and the Cutlass Amber is its most award-winning beer, according to its website. The lager took gold, silver, and bronze medals at the Great American Beer Festival from 2006 to 2010. In 2012, Cutlass Amber won a silver medal at the World Beer Cup in the Vienna Lager category.

This is Heavy Seas second best-selling beer, and it’s easy to see why. Nice taste, slight sweetness and smooth finish make it a nice amber that’s easy to drink. And considering this was my second beer before my wings arrived, it’s also nice to not get full before I eat actual food.

Shiner Ruby Redbird

I love Shiner beers. Shiner Bock is in my top 5, and I’ve had Ruby Redbird before in a bottle and liked it. I don’t know f the tap was bad or what, but this beer was not good at all.

Ruby Redbird is Shiner’s summer beer, featuring a taste of red grapefruit and ginger. It’s meant to be sweet, tart and crisp, and it was in the bottle, but the draft was anything but. Instead it left a nasty aftertaste that I could not get rid of without buffalo wings and water — not something you want out of your beer.

Still, I’m not going to give up on it. I enjoy summer beers a lot, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this was just a case of a bad apple (or in this case, grapefruit).

Highland Little Hump

At this point in the evening, I’m feeling the beer, so I wanted something that wouldn’t kill me the next day. I also really enjoyed the name Little Hump.

At 4.5% ABV, this is a light pale ale that is supposed to have a lot of flavor and hop. To be honest, I didn’t taste much. Maybe it was because it was the fourth beer in 2 hours, but I don’t really remember much of it.

Sure, some of that is my fault, but a beer should also leave an impression, no matter how many you’ve previously had to drink. I’m sure it’s better than I’m remembering, but I was unimpressed.

Fox Barrel Pacific Pear Cider

If it’s a cider on my Brewniversity card, it belongs to my wife, Katie. Still, it’s on my card so I’m counting it.

Pacific Pear is a gluten-free, naturally fermented cider using 100 percent pear juice and not just pear concentrate or pear-flavored apple cider. Fox Barrel’s website also boasts that it adds no extra sugar, preservatives, malt or other alcohols to it.

It’s a dessert cider that Katie got before she ate, but she enjoyed it. Plus the logo is pretty damn cool.

88 down, 37 to go … Until next time, Taco Mac.

Another Taco Mac Challenge Update

This is a week old, as it was LAST Sunday that I went to Taco Mac to continue the Passport (Now known as the lame Brewniversity) challenge, but I still needed to log it.

Two more beers means that the count is up to 73. That also means I am two beers away from reaching 75, which will earn me a $10 gift certificate to Taco Mac.

Now, a recap…

Red Hare Long Day Lager

I started with a Red Hare Long Day Lager. I had never had it before — hell, I had never heard of it before — but I figured, what the hell?

Red Hare is a local brewery located in Marietta. I knew it was from Georgia when I ordered it, but I didn’t know it was from Marietta. If I had known, I wouldn’t have gotten it because I hate everything from Cobb County.

Except, maybe, for this. It was a light, refreshing pilsner that I really enjoyed. It was a bit sweet with some hops — not a lot and no bitterness to it.

If you’re looking for a light, golden beer that wouldn’t weigh you down, I’d recommend it. Despite my hatred for Cobb County, I might order another Red Hare again. Just for the awesome logo alone.

Victoria

The second and final beer that I had was a Victoria in a bottle. I already had a Victoria on draft, but since I was without my list and didn’t want to risk getting a beer I already had before, I played it safe and got the bottled version.

When I got Victoria on draft a few months ago, I loved it. I thought it was delicious, refreshing, perfect taste for an amber. Now, meh.

Don’t get me wrong, I thought it was still good, but it did not live up to its hype. It’s a good taste for an amber, but the finish was anything but smooth. In fact, it had a big kick at the end.

And not a good kick.

To be fair, though, Victoria’s website recommends serving it with a lime, and Taco Mac did not serve a lime with it. Maybe that’s what it was missing, but who knows?

73 down, 52 to go… 

Past Taco Mac Challenge Posts

Taco Mac Challenge Update

All right, folks. We’re trying this again. And maybe this time I’ll keep the blog going.

As you may or may not know, I am embattled with Taco Mac and it’s challenge to drink 125 different types of beer. Going into the weekend, I was at 67, but Saturday night I knocked four more off my list, with Katie contributing one herself.

I figured this would be as good a topic as any to post on the blog, so here are the four beers I had with a review of each.

Red Bridge

I have tried to order this beer five times at the Taco Mac in Decatur, each time with the waitress coming back to the table to say they were out of it. Jerks.

But this weekend, we ventured out to the sticks and went to the Taco Mac in Suwanee. Surprise, they actually had this beer. When I ordered it, our (extremely beer knowledgable) waitress told me it was a gluten-free beer and if that was OK with me.

Uhhhhh, sure?

I’ve heard the term before, but I have no idea what gluten-free means. I come to find out it means it wasn’t made with wheat or barley. Crazy!

What’s crazier is that this was actually delicious. The carbonation was weird, but I liked the taste. It’s an amber beer with a hoppier taste than most ambers. I liked it Katie, however, not so much.

Abita Amber in a CAN!

OK, so it wasn’t a “new” beer, but with the Taco Mac challenge, you can get the same beer in a bottle and draft and it counts as two.

I already had Abita Amber in a bottle, but not in a can. So yeah, I went there.

I’m not even going to review it because it’s Abita Amber, my favorite beer. It’s glorious! Putting it in a can, though, makes it that much better. As I always say (or will start to say from now on), a beer in a can makes you feel more like a man.

Magic Hat No. 9

I’ve had this beer WAAYYYY too much, but it must have been during my pre-Taco Mac challenge days because it never ended up on the list. Until now.

Taco Mac listed No. 9 as a malt/flavored beer. Uh, not so much, guys. According to the Magic Hat site, No. 9 is “A beer cloaked in secrecy. An ale whose mysterious and unusual palate will swirl across your tongue and ask more questions than it answers. A sort of dry, crisp, refreshing, not-quite pale ale. #9 is really impossible to describe because there’s never been anything else quite like it.”

Good enough for me. It’s a lighter beer with a lot of taste, a tiny bit of bitterness and some hops to it. I love it, and you will, too.

Leienkugel’s Berry Weiss

This was Katie’s fruit juice beer selection.

It’s a beer that has absolutely no taste of alcohol in it and instead tastes like cranberry juice. I like cranberry juice, so I have no problem with it; I just wouldn’t get it if I wanted to taste beer.

Katie, though, loves it. And our beer encyclopedia waitress recommended she try Asskisser’s line of beers. That should help me get closer to 125.

71 down, 54 to go …