Why we picked it: It's a beer made in Virginia and Katy is a huge wrestling fan. Katy's favorite move is the full nelson. If you don't blog each day, she may put you in a full nelson.
About Full Nelson: Bursting with local hop flavor, our flagship Virginia Pale Ale features our own farm-grown Cascade variety hops as one of the key ingredients. A strong malt backbone gives this ale a rich taste and vibrant copper color, while the generous addition of hops contribute a pronounced bitterness and floral, citrus aroma.
IBUs: 60
Plato: 15°
ABV: 5.9%
*The International Bitterness Unit (IBU) is a system indicating the hop bitterness in finished beer. An IBU is one part per million of isohumulone, an acid derived from hops. A typical light American lager may have around 10-15 IBU's, an English brown ale around 20, an India Pale Ale 40-60, and some barley wines reaching up towards the 100 mark.
*The Plato (P°) scale as referred to in our beer statistics listings is a measure of the sugar levels in the wort (the sweet liquid that comes from mashing grains) prior to fermentation. Due to the process of fermentation the sugars are then converted to alcohol.
*Alcohol By Volume (ABV). Most massed produced American beers weigh in between 4-5% alcohol by volume. Our beers contain an alcohol content appropriate to the style, heritage and history of each particular beer. We have beers as low as 4% ABV and as high as 12% ABV.
*From the Blue Mountain Brewery Website (http://www.bluemountainbrewery.com/)
Who knew there was a city called Afton in Virgina? It's near that town that starts with C and has a great recruiting class (never gets old). Recent events in Afton include a fire that destroyed a barn and a horse riding ring. This can has a "Check My Butt" slogan. From my vantage point, it looks flat and unattractive. I can't wait to get back to work in a few hours. Oh yeah, the beer was piquant.
ReplyDeleteGreetings and thank you for including me in the holiday festivities.
ReplyDelete"Real Virginia Beer"
Growing up in the Commonwealth, I never really considered that there could be such a thing. Real Virgina Ham? Sure. Real Virginia Tobacco? Absolutely. Real Virginia Moonshine? I'm aware of its existence I but have never seen it as far as the ATF knows....... But Virginia beer, nope. So my expectations? Low. I figured it would taste like something Uncle Jessie made out back to drink with his vittles. So when I poured my Full Nelson into a glass and saw something that looked like the dregs of a Sam Adams on the rocks, I wasn't terribly surprised. In all seriousness, I'm not a huge fan of hoppy beers, so this one really never had a chance with me, but I suspect the IPA crowd will enjoy it.
Not a bad start with this beer, I enjoy hoppy beers and this was one of them. Not as strong as the Virginia White Lightning that I am accustomed to drinking on Saturday mornings, but it still did the trick. As far as the full nelson goes, in college I once saw Katy put her roommate Teri in a full nelson for spilling her strawberry Mad Dog 20/20.
ReplyDeleteLove this beer. I'm always excited when I see it in a bar. And I swear to God beer tastes best coming out of a can. Well done, Mark and Tony. This will no doubt ease the pain of the crappy Christmas beers sure to come.
ReplyDeleteDisgusting was my first reaction. But since I drank this on an empty stomach and coupled with the high ABV, the last third was awesome!! Need another was the cry but my wife wanted me to eat first. Good thing this had a high ABV!!!
ReplyDeleteGrade 4.5
I've never been a real pale ale fan, but this one was not that bad. It definitely has a bite as advertised. I've never heard of Blue Mountain Brewery but next time I'm down near Nelson county, it might be worth the stop to try their other beers. I bet that Tony will have two of these because I already can guess Katy's reaction to this.
ReplyDeletegrade 5 of 10
ReplyDeleteBob Evans, you are correct. I don't think I'll be finishing this one. It's too hoppy for me. The good news is, I practiced my Full Nelson on Tony and I've still got it!
ReplyDeleteI like hoppy beers and I like pale ales, so I like this beer. It's not my favorite of all time, but I enjoyed it. I think it got better the more I drank too. Grade 6.5 out of 10, C+
ReplyDeleteSide note: Katy did pull a sneak attack. She had me stunned and in a full nelson before I knew what was going on. Little did she know I was also an avid wrestling fan growing up and know how to escape from such a hold. Even as I was temporarily stunned and confused, my basic instincts kicked in and I was able to reverse the hold and had Katy yelling uncle in no time. I think she learned her lesson.
As much as I love my home state, I didn't have my hopes up for this one. I'm not a huge pale ale fan and was tempted to grab the bottle of Chardonnay before drinking this. I was pleasantly surprised and this added a nice touch to decorating the Xmas tree. I wouldn't turn this down if offered, but wouldn't order it if there were other decent options. I'm really looking forward to the line-up this December- it sure beats all the wheat beers last summer. Thanks all for organizing!
ReplyDeleteAs many of you are aware, if it is not a Stout or at least a Porter or worst case, a Miller Lite, I was not salivating with anticipation. IPAs are by far, my least favorite style of beer. Anyway, after tasting this first choice, my initial reaction was "wow, that is pretty good" and I'm still shocked with my positive reaction. Not sure if the ABV positively affected my liking it or the accompanying Lost Dog pizza that we have been chowing down. With that written, bring on the Stouts and Porters, already!!!!!
ReplyDeleteTaste like Sierra Nevada. That I really never wanna. Not a fan that it's in a can. Better than Miller light, any day any night.
ReplyDeleteGo Virginia! I've always liked the Full Nelson. I don't find it overly hoppy, but unlike most of you, I love hoppy beers. Sadly no Bell's Hopslam in this year's selection of 24.
ReplyDeleteThey should change the label to Katy having Tony locked up in a full nelson.
The tree has just been decorated, It's a Wonderful Life is on TV and 24 days of beer is underway... it truly is the most wonderful time of the year. As far as a first beer, it is a nice solid start. I love a nice hoppy bite with my beer. This has the bite, but not much else. Not much body or notable flavor that I can detect beyond the hops, but it is smooth and actually almost refreshing for a Pale Ale. I'll give it a 6.5 out of 10.
ReplyDeleteSooo… here goes response number 3, if this one doesn't post, you guys may never hear from me again. Anyhow, Full Nelson was pretty good. I do hope that the beers get better as we go down the list. I did notice however that there is another can in the case, so who knows. Stay tuned for my future input. I look forward to drinking and commenting on tomorrows beer from the shooting range. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteNot too existing for a pale but surprised that is was made in Va so for that kudos. I did fine that beer to not be too refined at all. Quite simple and unbalance. rated 4.8/10
ReplyDeleteLike Megan, I drank this while doing some Christmas decorating. I was sprt of nursing it and I agree that it is very hoppy...maybe too much for me. But, that's the great thing about this 24 days of beer; you only have to drink one! I do love that it is from Nelson County, where I did my student teaching and the schools are empty on the first day of hunting season. Rating: 6/10.
ReplyDeletePS. Sarah Congable, you need to raise your commenting game.
I agree with Dave - I swear beer tastes better out of a can. But WTF happened to my can? It looked like it was dropped down a flight of steps and landed in some pancake syrup. Mmmmm syrup.
ReplyDeleteAnyway - onto the beer. My pallet isn't exactly refined, but I could have sworn this was Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. My biggest issue with this, as well as most IPAs, is I can't drink more than 4 or 11 before I get sick of the taste. So it better be loaded with Alcohol. This appears to be the case here. Also - props for it being a VA beer.
Grading system will again be on how drunk I would want to get on this beer.
Grade: Cab home, can't figure out how to work keys on deadbolt, ring bell and wake up wife.
Hello all and thanks for letting us join in the fun this year.
ReplyDeleteWe appreciate the local nature of this beer and, in fact, we honeymooned in Nelson County so it was a bit of a trip down memory lane for us. Justin poured it out and noted that, as we are sharing an entry, it was a Half Nelson for us (we'll be here all month folks).
ANYWAY. I didn't have high hopes for this one. First of all, Virginia. Second of all, I know beer in cans is trendy and all right now but it reminds me too much of high school. After seeing it in the glass, it looked just like Sam Adams. After tasting... pleasantly surprised! Justin is a fan of hoppy beer, and thought this one was a solid entry. I'm not so much a fan of the hops, but thought it was not too bitter for me to enjoy. It had a soupcon of MGD on the top, so I wouldn't go out of my way for it, but a nice way to have a beer.
Hoppy, but a light beer. Being an IPA, having the hoppy smell and high ABV I was expecting a beer like Sierra Nevada. I liked the hoppy aspect without the aftertaste. Currious how they got the high ABV without the taste or sugar content. Average beer.
ReplyDeleteNot bad, not bad. Nothing exceptional, but I certainly wouldn't complain if I was served this at a party. Solid B.
ReplyDeleteI just assumed Virginia beer was the same as Virginia wine, in other words, undrinkable. So I had pretty low expectations. And I admit that the can thing always makes me either think (a) it's bad, or (b) it's some overrated hipster thing. Then I saw that it had Cascade Hops. I consider Cascade Hops to be one of the 5 main food groups on my personal food pyramid (although I don't recommend eating them straight and yes, I have tried that). If I had one beer, it would be a Sierra. If I had 12 beers, it would be 12 Sierras. So this beer is outstanding. And this gives me hope to one day brew a Sierra Nevada clone in my basement.
ReplyDeleteI am left with the question, what is fake Virginia beer?
Virginia is delicious.
ReplyDeleteIt reminded me of a Dogfish 60, another beer from a mid-atlantic brewery--Delaware. Not a bad thing. Only wish I had some mahi mahi tacos to accompany it.
ReplyDeleteWould go great with bar food. Nice taste.
ReplyDeleteSorry, folks, late to the game here. Like many of the folks in this list, I found this beer to be better than expected (though perhaps because expectations were low going in) and was more than a little surprised when I found it to be somewhere between "not bad" and "pretty drinkable." Probably a B-/C+ out of me.
ReplyDeleteLike chewing on hops. I gave the rest to Bill since he likes to chew on hops. Makes the dog beer taste excellent.
ReplyDelete