Feature Beer Friday: Gnarly Barley's Lion Up Wheat Ale

By Eric Ducote

Happy Black Friday to you all!  I sure hope everyone reading this is enjoying some quality time with friends and family and not fighting the crowds for the deals.  Or if you are out there shopping, maybe hit up some local small businesses.  Regardless, you're not going to find me joining in on the shopping madness!  For this week's offering I dug into the beer fridge to find something that was worthy of FBF praise, and found a can of Lion Up from Gnarly Barley Brewing.  

Gnarly Barley is no stranger to this space, and for good reason.  They put out some of the best beers in the state and the taproom is always a great spot to visit.  Co-owners Zac and Cari Caramonta are usually there hanging out and similarly to how LSU and Tin Roof put out the licensed Bayou Bengal, Gnarly Barley partnered with Southeastern Louisiana University to put out the licensed Lion Up.  It makes perfect sense with Gnarly Barley being located in Hammond and both Caramontas being alumni.  Lion Up is brewed with football season in mind, and although it's been cooler and dreary lately, most of football season in south Louisiana is on the warmer side, so this American Wheat Ale is brewed with late Summer and Fall in mind. 

Gnarly Barley's Lion Up Wheat Ale

The beer pours a deep yellow color, some haze from the heavy wheat bill, and a bubbly champagne-esque white head.  The aroma is very floral with some sweet notes from the malt underlying the Cascade and Amarillo hops.  The taste is clean and refreshing, with the hops holding up well to the wheat and barley base, giving the beer an excellent blend of sweet and bitter and packing plenty of flavor into the 4.5% abv.  The result is exactly what they describe it as, "an easy drinking beer, great for football season!" I could definitely see plenty of these making it into my cooler next year, unless the Tigers are playing the Lions again.

Cheers everyone, and I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!  

Feature Beer Friday: Great Raft's Rhinestone Life Wheat NEIPA

By Eric Ducote

Hello again, another week, another Feature Beer Friday here at Bite And Booze.  Chuck keeps putting the bite in the blog, and I'll keep supplying the booze!  This week we're making our first FBF trip up to Shreveport, with an offering from Great Raft Brewing.  Great Raft Brewing was among the "second wave" of sorts of Louisiana craft beer, following Abita but now having been established for a number of years.  In addition to their flagship brews, Great Raft puts out some excellent sours, a number of collaborations, and some phenomenal hoppy offerings.  

Today's review is of their latest hoppy offering, the Rhinestone Life New England Style Wheat IPA.  By now I'm sure you're all aware that "New England Style" refers to the hazy trend that's dominating the IPA world and is often abbreviated as a NEIPA.  A lot of NEIPAs rely on flaked oats to create some additional body and haze, but the Rhinestone Life from Great Raft takes that up a notch by using wheat in addition to the oats and a base pilsen malt.  It's then hopped with a blend of Simcoe, Mosaic, and Citra.  

Great Raft's Rhinestone Life New England Style Wheat IPA

The first thing I noticed from this brew is a hazy orange-red color, definitely a deeper color palate than most beers of the style, which I can only assume comes primarily from the wheat in the grain bill.  The head is bubbly and white as you can see, and left some excellent lacing as I worked through the pint can.  The aroma is hoppy as expected, with the citra hops providing the bulk of the aroma that I pick up.  On the taste there is definitely some wheat malt providing a backbone of sweetness, but it's nicely complimented by the strong hop presence.  The mouthfeel is silky smooth thanks to the oats and the wheat and it really allows those hop flavors to meld together and stick around through each sip. 

Another well done beer from Great Raft, and I'm sure you'll see more of them on Feature Beer Friday in the future.  Cheers!  
  

Wigle Whiskey: Whisk(e)y Wednesday presented by Calandro's Supermarket

Wigle Wheat Whiskey

Unlike pretty much every white whiskey we have tasted on Whisk(e)y Wednesday, the Wigle Whiskey is not a corn based spirit. Wigle is a "rebellious white wheat" making its primary grain used for fermentation wheat rather than corn or barley. It is aged one day in oak barrels so that it qualifies as a whiskey. Wigle is a tribute back to early days of Pennsylvania distillation. Crafted in Pittsburg, the Wigle folks are definitely up to something fun in their effort to make fine spirits and celebrate their own heritage. The Wigle Whiskey has a sweet nose that reminds me of Halloween. It is boozy but surprisingly soft. I guess that's the wheat! On the palate it possesses more sweetness with a non-jarring bite. It reminded me of a wedding cake snowcone while Eric got a few more metallic tones and Jeremy tasted the kind of brown bread served at Outback. There is no complexity and the whiskey has a smooth finish for only one day in a barrel. It goes down easily and is clearly distilled well to cut out any foul flavors. I'd be really interested to see what this does after a couple years in a barrel, but for now it is definitely still drinkable as a white whiskey and could make some darn good cocktails!

Wigle Whiskey

Average Score 57.67

Whisk(e)y Wednesday is a blog post series on Bite and Booze sponsored by Calandro's Supermarket. Calandro's has one of Baton Rouge's best selections of bourbon, Scotch, Irish, and other whisk(e)ys as well as wine and craft beer. This WW feature was scored by Jay Ducote, Eric Ducote, and Jeremy Spikes. Scores are marked for Nose, Taste, Finish, and Balance and Complexity using our own proprietary scoring system. Marks are then added and averaged, leaving us with a final score out of a 100 point scale. Our scale should be looked at on the full range of 0-100 rather than an academic range where 70 is passing and anything less is failing. A 50 should be considered a very mediocre whisk(e)y while anything below 20 is absolute horse piss and anything above 90 is rather extraordinary.