It’s Saturday night, and my wife suggested we go out for pizza and beer. Since, unfortunately, our favorite place, Flinger’s Pizza Pub, hasn’t found a new location yet, we ended up going to Joe’s Station House Pizza Pub. They usually have a couple good microbrews on tap (but nothing to the level that Flinger’s used to have). As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, it seems like I’ve had several Greenbush beers around town over the last couple months.
Location: On tap and served in a tumbler pint glass at Joe’s Station House Pizza Pub in Normal, IL.
Numbers: 6% ABV, 40 IBUs, 24.5º Lovibond, ~150 Calories
Ingredients: Grains: 2 Row, Munich, Crystal 60L, Gambrinus Honey Malt and White Wheat Malt; Hops: Apollo; Yeast: British-style Ale yeast
Appearance & Aroma: It’s amber in color and slightly hazy with a foamy-soapy-looking, off-white head that had decent retention and lacing. In the aroma, there’s some light caramel maltiness with some citrus and floral hop notes.
Taste & Feel: The body is medium and the mouthfeel is mostly smooth with a bit of hop crispness. The flavor up front is caramel malty with some honey and bready notes. A citrus-pine hop flavor and bitterness kicks in during the middle, and grows in the finish. The finish peaks with a citrusy hop bitterness, which lasts for a minute or so in the aftertaste.
Food Pairing: This beer has some caramel and breadiness, but it was dominated with citrusy and piney hop flavors and bitterness. It went great with our pizza, as the hop flavors mixed nicely with the cheese, slightly spicy sausage, and green peppers. I think this would easily go with most pub fare, like burgers and fries as well.
Overall Impression: This beer had a nice range of maltiness and hops from front to finish, but there wasn’t a whole lot of complexity to it. I enjoyed both, but the hops weren’t too complex and seemed to overtake the malts, rather than play together with them. Overall, it was a decent IPA that I’d have again if offered one.
My Rating: 
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