Review: Wasatch Pumpkin Ale
Wasatch Pumpkin Ale is one of two pumpkin beers crafted in Park City Utah at the Wasatch Brewery. The brewery is named for the mountains, east of Salt Lake City. After moving from Milwaukee Greg Schirf had two questions. Where’s the beer and where’s the breweries? In 1986 he opened the states first brewery and in 1988 he opened the states first brewpub on Main Street in Park City Utah. Wasatch currently crafts 13 beers including two seasonal pumpkin beers, Pumpkin Ale, and Black O’Lantern Pumpkin Stout. Wasatch is part of the Utah Brewers Cooperative but they continue to brew their own beer. Read more 
Review: CH Vodka
CH Vodka was introduced in August 2013 when Co-Founders Tremaine Atkinson and Mark Lucas opened the CH Distillery in the West Loop of Chicago Illinois. CH takes its name from the fundamental compounds in alcohol, carbon and hydrogen, while also tipping its hat to their Chicago home. Since opening, the distillery now also crafts 2 Gins, 2 Rums, several liqueurs, an aquavit, and a Peppercorn Vodka. This is the second pairing for Tremaine and Mark who also co-founded North Beach Brewing Company in San Francisco in 1989. That brewery closed one year later due to a lack of capital. After a successful second career, Tremaine became a partner at LSV Asset Management and Mark launching a courier company in Austin Texas that became the cities largest, the two decided to give it another go. This time distilling spirits instead of brewing beer. Their vodka is made from grain, winter wheat and rye, sourced from a farm 65 miles west of Chicago. The grain arrives in 2000 pound bags and so far CH has consumed over 260,000 pound crafting their vodka. The vodka is distilled in a two column still made in Germany by Carl Artisan Distilleries and Brewing Systems. Read more
Review: Bold Rock Carolina Apple Hard Cider
Bold Rock Carolina Apple Hard Cider is one of 10 hard cider varieties crafted at their cider barn in Nellysford Virginia and the Mills River Cidery just outside of Asheville North Carolina. Bold Rock produced their first cider in 2012 and today they are the largest independently owned craft cider company in the US. Bold Rock Carolina Apple is crafted from apples grown in orchards in the Blue Ridge mountains. Read more
Review: Coa De Jima Silver Tequila
Coa De Jima Silver Tequila is named for the razor sharp hoe like tool used to chop off the leaves of the agave. A glass embossed coa, adorns both tapered bottle sides. Coa De Jima is made with 100% blue agave grown for seven years in rich red clay in the Los Altos Region. Once harvested some pinas are sliced in half and slow cooked for 24-36 hours and others are steam pressure cooked in autoclaves. The agave juice is fermented for 52 hours before it is distilled in large steel stills. Read more
Review: New Belgium Heavy Melon
New Belgium Heavy Melon Ale was introduced April 2016 along with their Juicy Mandarina IPA. Heavy Melon is one of two seasonal beers brewed by New Belgium. Pumpkick is their other seasonal beer. New Belgium started brewing beer in Ft Collins Colorado in 1991 and in 2015 they opened a second brewery in Asheville North Carolina. Probably best known for their Fat Tire Amber Ale, New Belgium crafts beers of nearly every style including several IPA’s and Sours. Heavy Melon is brewed with juicy watermelon and zesty lime peel. The lime peel is added in the boil to extract the essential oils. The watermelon is added in fermentation to capture the flavor and ferment the sugar. Read more
Review: O’Connery’s Irish Cream Liqueur
O’Connery’s Irish Cream Liqueur was just released by Sazerac. It is produced by First Ireland Spirits in Abbeyleix, County Laois, Ireland. This is the same company that crafts the previously reviewed Feeney’s, O’Mara’s, Delaney’s, and McCormick’s Irish Cream Liqueurs. Sazerac already has several Irish Cream Liqueurs in their product portfolio including Feeney’s. They also have two Irish Style Irish Cream Liqueurs, Ryan’s and Blarney. Irish Style means the cream is not from Ireland. O’Connery’s Irish Cream is a true Irish Cream, but little product information is available at this time. Read more
Review: Shipyard Melonhead Ale
Shipyard Melonhead Ale was introduced March 2013. It is a seasonal beer produced March-July each year. All right I agree I’m a little late on this review but watermelon flavored beers have been growing in popularity so I wanted to review a couple before October. Melonhead is one of 21 varieties of beer they brew each year at the Shipyard Brewery. They also brew a Pumpkinhead and Applehead Beer. Shipyard has been brewing beer in Portland Maine since 1994. Melonhead is brewed as an ale with natural flavors added after brewing. Read more
Review: Burnetts Cucumber Lime Vodka
Burnetts Cucumber Lime Vodka was introduced April 2016. It is one of 37 flavored vodkas currently produced by Heaven Hill Brands under the Burnetts label. This is the third brand of vodka to create a Cucumber Lime Vodka flavor. The other two are Rain, and Svedka. Burnetts Cucumber Lime Vodka is made from 100% grain in Bardstown Kentucky. The vodka is quadruple distilled and triple charcoal filtered. Natural Cucumber Lime flavors are infused before bottling at 70 proof. Read more
Review: Schlafly Pumpkin Ale
Schlafly Pumpkin Ale was introduced in 2006 by the Schlafly Brewing Company. Schlafly has been brewing beer in St Louis since 1991. Their Pumpkin Ale is a beer that has a long history of appearing on Best Tasting Pumpkin Beer lists, including being named the best pumpkin beer by Paste Magazine in 2014. It is brewed with pumpkin and butternut squash with a blend of spices including cinnamon, nutmeg and clove. Schlafly Pumpkin beer is sold in six packs and on draft from August-October. Read more
Review: Wicked Dolphin Coconut Rum
Wicked Dolphin Coconut Rum was released November 2014. It was originally only available at the Wicked Dolphin Distillery in Cape Coral Florida, but after quickly selling all 250 cases they knew they were on to something. It is one of three rums they currently craft with 100% Florida sugar grown 35 minutes from the distillery. While Florida may be best known for their orange groves, over half of the sugar cane produced in the US is grown in Florida. The rum is small batch distilled in an American built Copper Pot Still. Real coconut water and natural ingredients are then blended before bottling at 60 proof. Read more