Brewery #5: Hales Ales

If you haven't noticed, I've had to mess with the template a few times to get the comments option to work. Since I don't know much about html I had to resort back to a generic google template. It's not my favorite but at least people can tell me what they think.

As far as ambiance goes, Hales really isn't the best. If you're just going for dinner it feels too much like a bar and if you're going just to drink it feels too much like a restaurant. I wish we had gone on a different day when the brewery is open to take the tour. I think that would've been it's one redeeming quality.

The waiter at this place was really creepy. He accidentally spilled one of the samples on Kelsey and kept giving us free stuff for the rest of the night. Which, was pretty great, except that meant he kept coming by and getting awkwardly close and breathing really heavily. Not my favorite guy, but I gave him a little credit because he probably saved us $20 on his own dime for spilling a little beer. Thanks Kelsey for taking one for the team.

The sampler at this bar gives you a choice of any five beers they have on tap. We got two samplers for a total of 10 different types of beer. It was brought out on this big tray and the beer was set on top of a chart with the names on it. The only problem was, there were more beer names than beers on the tray and it was difficult to tell which was which. The waiter told us when he brought the beer but it was hard to remember. So I made my best guess as to what type of beer I was having, you guess is as good as mine as to whether or not I'm right.

It was brought to my attention during this meal, that I should be rating the beer on some type of scale. This would help with my lack of adjectives to describe the beer. There were multiple suggestions, some complex and some kind of kooky, but I think in the end I may just rate the beer on a scale of 1 to 5 and the bar on a scale of 1 to 10. The extra 5 points for the bar will include the ambiance and the food and the overall good time that was had.

Wee Heavy Winter Ale (4)

This was a decent winter ale with a little bit of spice. I would say this beer is good but not great. The most anyone could get out of me at the table was "pretty good".

Cream Stout (3)

This beer is a nitro and to be honest, it's a little weird. I don't think I like the mixture of the cream and the stout and making it a nitro unfortunately didn't help much.

Nut Brown Ale (4.5)

Great beer! This one has just the right about of nuttiness and tastes pretty smooth. I actually wrote "Not too nutty. Yummy yummy" on my notes.

Mongoose IPA (2)

Since I've been sampling beers I've had to try quite a few IPAs. I'm not really a fan of this type of beer, but I have come across a few that aren't too bad and even a little tasty. This is not one of those beers. This IPA tastes like flowers. So much so that I made a sour face after trying the beer, quite similar to that of biting into a lemon.

El Jefe (2.5)

This hef was too orangey. It also has that familiar taste that I have really grown to dislike in hefeweizens. I have no idea what that taste is, but I know it every time I taste it.

Kolsch (2)

Hale's german style beer. I'm guessing this is a lager because of the sour, unrefreshing taste. I didn't like this one at all.

Hales Cream Ale (2)

This was a nitro but it wasn't cold enough. Almost like they had poured the beer half an hour before bringing it out. It reminded me of flat bud light and pee. Maybe if it had been the appropriate temperature for a nitro I wouldn't have noticed the bad flavors.

Pale American Ale (4)

This one had a lot of good flavors and was pretty rich for a pale ale. No one else seemed to like it but I really enjoyed this one. It was a nice contrast to the horrid cream ale I'd had right before.

Hale's Special Bitter (4)

This one is also a nitro and actually the best of the three they have on tap. It had a good amount of hops and went down smooth.

Obrian's Harvest Ale (3)

The best I can give this beer is an alright. It reminds me of an ESB, which could be why I'm not a huge fan. Jenn really did like this one, so for anyone else who's an ESB fan, this beer might be good for you.

Overall, I'd say the beer at this bar deserves a 3 on the rating scale and a 3 for ambiance and food. It was a pretty average bar and really didn't impress me on any level, and for that, Hales Ales deserves an overall rating of 6.