This is it! The final beer!

As I've said before, this is the perfect time for a beer challenge. I just moved to Upstate New York and there are a ton of new breweries to try. I know a lot of people scoff at beer in the US, but the craft beer scene is rapidly growing all across the country. Most cities have multiple small local breweries these days and they're all experimenting with different ways to make beer. Although they're not all perfect, the competition means that tons of varieties are available and the overall quality is quite high.

Since this is the last tasting, I wanted to find a dark and epic looking beer. The words "12 Gates" jump out at me from the shelf and seemed appropriately foreboding. With a black can faintly inscribed with what looked like runes, I thought I was in for a diabolical night.

However, that notion was quickly dispelled when I got home and looked up the brewery. 12 Gates actually gets its name from an alchemy book and the runes are actually alchemic symbols. I guess no matter how hard I try I can't help but be drawn towards science...

At any rate, this is a west coast style IPA. These types of IPA are known to be loaded with hop flavor and have little maltiness. I'm a big fan of all IPAs, and many american breweries put them front and center due to their popularity these days. This particular IPA is the flagship of the company so its probably a good representation of their skill at brewing beer.

Review

Its a bit darker than I expected, at first taste I can confirm its an IPA. A decent amount of hop flavor and a nice floral aroma make this a damn good beer. However, what surprised me was the balanced flavor. Usually IPAs have a lot of bitterness to them which is partly due to the high hop content. In this case that bitterness was subdued, but the hops still came through. At $1.50 its a reasonable price, and the 6.7% ABV is a nice bonus if you want a bit more punch in your beer.

Would I recommend this to anyone: Absolutely. Its not the best beer I've ever had, but its damn enjoyable.

Well, that's it for the challenge. I had a lot of fun, but my liver is happy to see it go. Again, I want to thank @trumpman for starting this challenge and @abigail-dantes for nominating me. I'd also like to thank my drinking partner Zinnia:

I wouldn't have been able to get through this without her.

For my final nomination, I challenge @bradlovesbeer, an apparent beer lover who commented on my last post and might get this challenge to a new group of people. Good luck!

These are the rules to be taken into account:

• You have to try a new beer every day, for 7 days
• The beer must be something you have never tasted before
• You must put a photo of the beer and write a few words about it
• Nominate someone every day
• If you are a social outcast with no friends to invite you just join the fun. You have every excuse to drink!
• Use the tag "#sevendaybeerchallenge" as one of your five tags.