Try?
A few weeks ago, I tasted my first beer from Georgia’s newest brewery, Burnt Hickory in Kennesaw. The beer in question was Ezekiel’s Wheel, a pale of about 6.5% alcohol by volume. I was less than impressed, as you can see by my review, with the beer and with the 11 ounce portion that Taco Mac doled out for my hard-earned seven dollars.
As I am wont to do, I posted up my review to Bruguru.com, and also left some comments on the brewery’s Facebook page. It didn’t take long to get a response from the brewery (which shouldn’t be a surprise; anyone that loves beer enough to open a small brewery obviously cares how beer drinkers feel about the beer.) Anyway, I was quite impressed with the feedback that I received.
Even better, I got a tip from the brewer this past Friday night that Burnt Hickory Cannon Dragger India Pale Ale was on tap at Freight Kitchen & Tap in Woodstock. A prior engagement kept me from meeting him there that night (I had promised my sons we would go see Prometheus). I did make it a point (or should that be pint?) to get there the next day, though, and I quickly bellied up to the bar and ordered one up. I got a full pint for $6, which was much more reasonable than Taco Mac’s pricing.
My pint arrived a burnt orange in color with minimal head formation and a heady passion fruit nose. Taking a sip, I got some candyish-caramel malt up front nicely accented by more of the yeast-inspired passion fruit that the nose promised. Then the hops take over: resiny, citric, with a big grapefruit flavor and aroma. There’s an intense long dry bitter finish to the beer that I very much enjoyed, and some alcohol warmth there too.
The brewery calls this an IPA, though at 8% alcohol by volume and all those hops I think it straddles the line between IPA and an imperial/double IPA. Either way, I very much enjoyed it with a plate of poutine at freight; the hop bitterness and alcohol had no problem cutting through the savory combination of house made chips, gravy and cheese.
Definitely a beer I would buy again.
