Admiral in Asheville,NC

  Asheville is a great food town. With the convenience of walking and variety of food, I hardly ever venture away from downtown,but the Admiral was too tempting to pass up. This is a restaurant loved by local cooks and bartenders. Always a safe bet.

                    As you can see. Not really concerned about curb appeal.

   The interior looks more like a dive rock club than fine dining establishment. I love it already. On closer inspection, it is clean comfortable dining room with a well appointed bar.
  Started with a Wedge Iron Rail IPA, very good NC ipa made down the street. My lovely wife had the house cocktail deftly mixed by a real bartender.
  We had mussels to kick things off. Served with a nice red sauce with a few potatoes thrown into the mix. Very simple dish made with very good mussels.
  Next was the highlight of the meal. The reason this place will be burned into my memory. Braised short ribs with brussel sprouts and amazing creamed potatoes. The meat was full of flavor and brussels were a perfect crunchy counterbalance. The cream tied it all together with a delicious bow. Amazing dish. Top 5 of my life.
  The entree was a perfectly cooked ribeye with great fries and an amazing aioli drizzle.

  This place is about craft. Crafting great dishes with the best available ingredients, while highlighting the art of mixed drinks. Go here. You will need a reservation.

http://www.theadmiralnc.com/menu.html

http://twitter.com/#!/blacktablecloth >

O'Fallon 5 Day IPA
Brownish coppper in color.tons of fresh citrus aroma. Bright orange first impression. meduim light body.High level of carbonation. Wheaty notes with a fairly short bready after taste. Interesting flavors in this one. Not used to tasting wheat in an ipa. Lighter body than I am used to. Quite different than southern IPAs.

Good IPA. Would be a good IPA to introduce a budding beer drinker to the style.7/10 >

Shiner Old Time Alt

Copper color. Light head, Malt and yeast aroma. Caramely malt start with a quick punch of hops. Leavened bread flovors with a clean dry finish.

This is a pretty good beer.Only the third alt I have tried. Does not compare favorably to Woodruffs Alt, which is one of my favorite local brews. Would try again. >

Amber Is A Slut

My attempt at an easy to drink summer amber. First time using grain extract and grain.

Fruity malty aroma. Little citrus hop notes. Light body. Slight sweet first impression.Softer more floral hops than previous brews. Short sour sweet after taste.

Used the wrong specialty grain. I will sub with some smokier darker grain to bring some balance to the sweetness. Good start to a porter recipe. A little more extract should fill it out some.
Recipe:
http://hopville.com/recipe/763517/american-pale-ale-recipes/amber-is-a-slut >

50 Brit Warriors IPA

This is my second batch of homebrew. First attempt went well so I used the same recipe with a few tweaks. Correcting a few of my first batch mistakes.   

Nice copper color. Light malty evergreen aroma. Nice head. Good clean bittering with mild lingering hop flavors of citrus and evergreen. Nice malt flavors to balance it out. 

Feel very good about this being my second attempt at brewing. Could use a little more body and aroma, but very good drinkable summertime ipa. 

Here's the recipe:

http://hopville.com/recipe/747468/american-ipa-recipes/50-brit-warriors

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Rogue Dad's Little Helper Black IPA

Dark brown almost black. With a nice creamy head.

Light aroma. Sort of a roasted plum and pine combination.

Sour porter like beginning. Moves into a floral piny bitterness.

Balanced with medium body and good carbonation.

After taste is very similar to an oatmeal porter.

So starts like a porter finishes like a porter with a nice floral ipa middle.       

..Mmm thats a good sandwich.

Good beer. Complex and surprisingly balanced. This was a fun one to try, noticed different characteristics with every sip(or gulp). 

Try it on tap if you can find it. The body becomes a little more pronounced and adds another wrinkle to this one.

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Chesapeake's; its historic, like outbreaks of cyphilis.

Thought I would start with a slightly negative review of  Chesapeake's downtown Knoxville. 
    Mediocre seafood. Dining room smells like underpants taken off a dead body fished from the bottom of the ocean. >