Last night my wife and I attended an event that was held at the River Center and then the Gold Room at the Hotel Blackhawk http://hotelblackhawk.com/. The hotel has been recently reopened after a $45 million dollar refurbishing and it looks wonderful. We stayed overnight in a nicely furnished room. It even has a built-in flat screen tv in the mirror in the bathroom.
Before the event we went downstairs to the bar on the first floor. It is a cozy, dark wood embellished bar. The have six taps running the range from Bud Light to Warstiener Dunkel. Only one tap handle was the mass produced American beer, my wife did get a draft of Stella. (this is for you sweety STELLAAAAAAA!) They also had a better than average bottle selection. In total they had around a dozen different bottles and again it ranged from Bud Light to fine craft beer. My first beer was a Brau Brothers' Sheephead Ale http://www.braubrothersbrewing.com/ , it comes across as an American IPA. It is a copper color with a firm persistent white head, with a slight haze. On first sniff the spicy, herbal, citrus hops explodes in the olfactory senses. The hop aroma stays throughout the finish of the beer. On taste there is a definite malt backbone coming from the toasted and chocolate malts used in the beer. The hops certainly compliment the malt backbone. Overall I enjoyed this wonderful Am. IPA. I would recommend this beer.
My second beer was a Sierra Nevada Torpedo American IPA http://www.sierranevada.com/index2.html . This is a personal favorite of mine. This beer pours a light copper with a white long lasting head. The aroma from this beer is wonderful if you are a hop head like me. This is dry hopped as well run through a hopback that is shaped like a torpedo, thus the name of the beer. They use a mixture of whole cone hops in this beer including Magnum, Crystal and Citra. There is a strong malt backbone to carry the hops in the taste coming from the base 2 row and crystal malts that are used. As I said this is a personal favorite of mine, this holds up to about any Am. IPA I can think of.
The third and last beer I had was a Point 2012 Black Ale http://www.pointbeer.com/point/ . This is a new beer to me, it pours black with a nice firm long lasting tan head. There is a complex rich roasty notes complemented by a spicy, herbal notes from the hops. On tasting it is a dark rich complex with noticeable hop aroma. I greatly enjoyed this beer and it has won an award at the World Beer Championship in 2010. This was a nice change up from the Am. IPAs I had previously had.
My wife's second beer was Goose Island Pere Jacques http://www.gooseisland.com/pages/home/56.php , a Belgian Abbey style Ale. When poured it is a rich amber color with a good white head. The aroma is of caramel with complex dark fruit, wonderful! Just a hint of hops to compliment the malt. The taste is quite similar to the aroma caramel with dark fruit and a hint of spiciness. This is nice beer in Goose Islands Vintage series. I would strongly suggest this beer to those who like Belgian beers.
Overall this bar is a cool place to have a few beers and meet some friends before a night out on the town. This is a typical bar at an upscale hotel that is for the guest or locals looking for a different place to try. Plus they have a good selection of beers in the limited number that they have. A cool place to check out.
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