Brunch, Day Drinks, and Local Beer? SOLD.

Beer #148 Citra Pale Ale / Free Will Brewing Company, Perkasie, Pennsylvania

Spent some time at a Strawberry Festival today, which is odd for two reasons.  One, is that it seems very early for strawberries in our neck of the woods, and two, I don't like strawberries.  Well, that's not entirely true.  I like strawberry Quik, and strawberry Chief Crunchie ice cream bars.  I'm sure someone told the Chief Crunchie folks that their name is sort of racist, as they're now "strawberry shortcake".  Whatever, I'm old school.  Sadly, I couldn't find a picture of this delicious strawberry-esque treat on line, but I did find it's chocolate cousin.  Yeah, I can see why they changed their branding....

Insensitive, but delicious!

More importantly, the Strawberry Festival gave me an opportunity to do two of my favorite things - eat brunch with friends, and drink outside with friends.  One of the brunch highlights was seeing some great local craft brews on the menu.  I opted for the Citra Pale Ale from Free Will Brewing Company, a small and relatively new outfit not too, too far from our home.  It poured a light amber color in the glass, and gave off aromas of citrus and pine.  At the first sip, you get earthy notes of grapefruit, grass, and bitter hops, and it finishes dry and clean.  Quite tasty, especially for those who don't wish to be clobbered over the head by the hops in their pale ales.  Very drinkable at 5.7% ABV, too.  Well done, new brewery.

Not racist

Per their website, they finally have some licensing issues solved, and have been selling beer to the public since January of this year.  You're seeing the circle of (beer) life today - Marci samples a brewery that is going out of business, and I sample a brewery selling beer for less than four months.

Thing to Think About Today:
So I'm not a big fan of strawberries.  Instead, what about raspberries?  They're perfectly fine, and loaned their name to the title of a most fantastic song, Raspberry Beret.  Let's let artist occasionally known as Prince to finish things up today in style:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyzAB7r3d_s