Question for you. What do you do with your empty beer bottles and cans when you’re done with them? The Oskar Blues brewing company of Longmont, Colorado and I want to know. If you’re not recycling them, you’re trashing the planet, literally and figuratively folks.

I think of this because the label for the specialty beer Oskar Blues Icelantic Icey Pale Ale (Icey P.A.) reminds drinkers, at the very bottom of the label, that this beer is “One pint for your responsible enjoyment on or off the mountain. Don’t forget to recycle. #returntonature.”    

Recycling has been something I’ve been passionate about for as long as I can remember. It’s something that’s very hard for me not to do, and I cringe whenever I can’t get recycle something, for whatever reason. Oskar Blues has been a staunch advocate of canned beer for a long time, and it’s good to know that aluminum is one of the most recyclable materials we humans use. It makes sense for the environment, too, since it takes lot less energy to recycle existing cans than it does to mine and process bauxite into new ones.

OK, I’ll get off my soapbox now and tell you a little about Oskar Blues Icey Pale Ale. Oskar Blues recently opened a new facility near Asheville, North Carolina, but they don’t make this beer there, at least as far as I know. My can was obtained in a trade from the great Dale Roberts and came straight from Colorado. It’s a limited edition beer and sports the “Icelantic” skis logo (Oskar Blues is giving away a set of

Oskar Blues Icelantic Icey Pale Ale has an alcohol content of 7% by volume, firmly in the IPA range, and my sample was canned on November 19^th 2014. I drank it on May 3^rd. The bottom of the can says “icey icey baby” on it.  

Oskar Blues Icelantic Icey Pale Ale pours to the customary orange amber color with a thick rocky head formation and a heady nose of tropical passion fruit. As it warms I get more grapefruit really. Taking a sip, the beer has a full caramel maltiness up front followed by more of the passion fruit the nose promised along with some citrusy orange notes as well and some bitter Grapefruit peel. The beer finishes with a balancing earthy hop aroma and light to moderate bitterness.

All in all a very tasty IPA that I was indeed lucky to try. Oh, and be sure to recycle the can. Who knows? It might end up as part of that pair of Icelantic skis you win…..

Home