Tastes over July 14th - 16th

 We did a few more tastes over the weekend and into the new week.  First up on the 14th was a new/old beer.  Founders Brewing Company used to make a beer called Rübæus, then they stopped and now they are brewing it again.  We picked up two bottles at Vintage Cellar because it's a raspberry beer and Brett finds it hard to resist anything that has raspberry in it.  :-)

314. Founders Brewing Company - Rübæus - this is a wheat beer with multiple additions of fresh raspberries at different stages of the fermentation;  it's full of raspberry on the nose and a bit of wheat sweetness underneath and tastes fantastic;  if you like raspberry, raspberry wheat beers, or just want something refreshing on a hot day, give it a try!

On the 15th we did some mountain biking in the morning, did some other errands in Roanoke then headed back to Radford.  Once there, we decided a burger sounded good for dinner so since it was Monday night and Sharkey's had buy one get one free burgers, we headed on down.  While there, Brett tried a new burger (and Megan took a bite as well) and had another 4 taster selection from their 32 taps.

315. Black and Bleu burger - basic cheeseburger, but made with blue cheese;  somehow Brett had never had this although he likes blue cheese very much, but it's now added to his favorites list!
316. Rogue Brewing - Yellow Snow IPA 
317. Devil's Backbone Brewing - Vienna Lager 
318. Breckenridge Brewing - Agave Wheat
319. Hacker-Pschorr (Hefe) Weisse

Of the beers, probably Yellow Snow IPA was the best.   The Vienna Lager was pretty good in Brett's view, but he really likes Negra Modelo as well so that's not too surprising.  The Agave Wheat was pretty sweet and tasted a bit watered down.  The Weisse was not as good as Brett's had from a bottle.  So, the winter beer, which I think Sharkey's had at least a keg still setting around somewhere, was the best (they also have Anchor's Christmas Ale on tap right now....).

Brett had a gift card so on the 16th we decided to go to The River Company and just share a quick sampler.   They had 9 beers on tap, 8 regulars and one seasonal/special.

320. The River Company - Fairlawn’s Finest Cream Lager
321. The River Company - Farmhouse Hefeweizen
322. The River Company - Peachicot Blonde Ale
323. The River Company - River Red Ale
324. The River Company - Timber Brown Ale
325. The River Company - Traveler's Pale Ale
326. The River Company - Southwest V IPA
327. The River Company - Dumpster Dog Porter
328. The River Company - Peach Angel (seasonal/special) 

The first 8 are regulars (although we thought Peachicot was a seasonal...) and the Peach Angel was the special/seasonal beer.  Brett likes the Peachicot very much since he can't find Pyramid Apricot Ale this far east....  Note, he likes apricots almost as much as he likes raspberries.  There will be a growler of this in the frig before the summer is over, but the frig is too full right now.  The best regular beer is their red in our opinion, although on a hot 90+ degree day, the cream lager was quite good as well and matches very well to the style.