Last night, Susan and I went to Union Station Brewery (owned by John Harvards) for dinner after an afternoon of ice skating, perusing Craftland, and watching the Christmas tree lighting at City Hall. The food was decent, I had the Salmon Paella. It wasn’t anything special, but it wasn’t terrible, though it did give me a bit of gas. It was a piece of oven roasted salmon, which was a little on the dry side, on top of rice with peppers, onions, muscles, shrimp, and sausage mixed in. Along with that, I had their cask conditioned Amber Ale. The beer was a nice amber color with very little carbonation (due to the cask conditioning) and a nice thick creamy white head. The beer smelled slightly of hops with some malt sweetness mixed in. The scent wasn’t big. The flavor was good, though a little weak. It tasted of a slight hops bitterness, which was a little floral and overly balanced by a malt sweetness. It was a really smooth beer and very drinkable, but not very flavorful. Susan had their Black Lager, which was good and had more flavor than mine (roasted and chocolate malts dominated the flavor), but it was still a bit too weak in taste. I’m not surprised as I’ve been there before and not been impressed by their beers.
At the end of last night, I went to the Wild Colonial in Providence after seeing Improv Jones at the Perishable Theatre (totally worth the $5, they play there every Saturday at 10pm, check it out). The Wild Colonial is a great little dive bar on South Water Street. To top it off, it’s also got a good selection of beer (though I wouldn’t go so far as calling it a great beer bar). Not being able to read the labels on the bottles in the fridge, I ordered what I could see, a Stone IPA. I had had this once before at Track 84 during their kick off party. The beer is one of the better IPA’s I’ve had with a different flavor to it. It’s a bit more floral in scent and flavor than citrusy or piney, though it’s both of those as well. It has a nice body with lots of flavor and a nice balance of malt sweetness as well, though being an IPA, the hops are prominent. It also lacks the hops aftertaste that most IPA’s have, which is kind of nice. It’s a great refreshing IPA, something I’ll have to try in the summer when it’s hot.
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