There are a few perks in this job and one of them is the occasional beer delivery from the folks at Starr Hill.
There are a few perks in this job and one of them is the occasional beer delivery from the folks at Starr Hill.
For the unfamiliar, Starr Hill Brewery is based out in Crozet, VA. They make what RVAMag’s editorial staff calls “refreshing beers” in that they almost never come off too heavy or too imposing. They can be thick, but even their stouts (one of which we’ll review below) don’t sit in your stomach for hours and slow you down.
So without further ado, here’s a bit about the two new brews they sent us:
Little Red Roostarr Coffee Cream Stout
When you take a first look at this beer you think you’re headed for creamy/heavy stout country, but we were all pleasantly surprised with the lightness of this beer.
Brewed with coffee from the folks at Red Rooster Coffee Roasters from Floyd, VA, this malty-sweet beverage carries hints of chocolate and caramel, but the strong coffee flavor stands out he most.
It’s for sure a little different from normal stouts, with a crisp flavor that could pair well with any number of after-dinner sweets. Cake? (send us cake and more beer and we’ll confirm this)
The consensus from our staff was we could even drink it in the summer to help pick you up after a light meal.
Coffee lovers will dig this unique flavor for sure, and it might even be good over ice or a scoop of ice cream.
RVAMag President John Reinhold weighed in from the beer-science angle and called it “well balanced, trying to not overwhelm you with high ABV.” – this is only 6%, pretty low by modern craft stout standards.
“You can throw sugars in the mix and give it lots of alcohol to cover for flavor inadequacies, but there’s no masking going on here,” said Reinhold. “You can taste the coffee, the malts, again, it’s quite refreshing”
Up next is the….
Reviver Red IPA
According to Reinhold, in a world of red IPA’s everyone wants to be Nugget Nectar (brewed by Tröegs) – but Starr Hill’s Reviver isn’t an imperial, so its brewed differently and ends with a different set of flavors.
Double IPAs generally use more hops and they’re boiled longer – sometimes a secondary fermentation process happens to too increase ABV. Reviver is a regular red IPA, so it doesn’t get into the double or Imperial ABVS, but it still has a solid hop profile.
Lots of different hops were used in making this bad boy – Mosaic, Citra, Amarillo, Simcoe, & Columbus – with that Citra creating the citrus-y flavor. But don’t be fooled, this isn’t a fruity IPA, it stays mellow-sweet with out overpowering the taste buds. Reviver is also an amber with hops added, giving it a lower ABV that you’ll enjoy if you like more malty-beers.
As you can imagine, we enjoyed both very much.
Check out more details from Starr Hill here, and we’ll let you know when their new brews drop as quick as we can drink em.
