MashCraft also happened to be where relatives of mine decided to celebrate a birthday in the family; they picked it because MashCraft promotes itself as a family-friendly establishment, and we had several school-age children in our party.
Also, a daughter of mine and her husband had recommended the place to us, having been there very recently for a large gathering of friends and acquaintances. They said there were a good amount of children in that group. MashCraft has a room that it avails to customers with children -- it gets them away from the adult customers, and it satisfies legal requirements to create some kind of physical separation for minors who enter an establishments where alcoholic beverages are sold and consumed.
OK ... let's get down to the important stuff: the beer. For my flight of five samples, I went with what I was pretty certain I'd be "safe" (for me) with. In the photo below, they are (left to right) the MashCraft Gold American blonde (5.0% Alcohol by volume, 25 International Bitterness Units); MashCraft Red amber ale (5.5 ABV, 35 IBUs); Ruze smoked amber lager (5.6% ABV, 31 IBUs); MashCraft American IPA, 6.5% ABV, 70 IBUs); and Kitty's Got Claws Imperial IPA (8.7% ABV, 110 IBUs).
The amber ale had a rich, porter-like taste to it but not nearly as strong or bitter as a porter. So it was OK, but probably not something I'd try again. I thought I was going to be pleasantly surprised by the Ruze, but the smokiness and caramel/toast notes were more prevalent and distracting than I care for, so I'm sure I wouldn't return to it.
Joining me in sampling slights were my sons Joey and Ben. Ben's tastes are not too far off from mine, but he felt in an adventuresome mood Saturday, and added a variety of porters and other dark brews to his seven-sample flight mix. Turns out, he didn't care for a lot of the darks you see in his flight in the photo below. I know he didn't finish several of them, much less consumer more than a sip or two.
Joining Ben and me in a flight sampling was my other son, Joey. He favors porters and stouts, and he limited his flight to four darker brews. Far and away his favorite was Any Port in the Storm (5.0% ABV, 31 IBUs), which he said, in fact, that he liked a lot. He also liked the Ruze amber ale. He was not enamored, however, with the two James brews, Sir James (10.4% ABV, 10 IBUs), an English barleywine, and Mr. James (10.7% ABV, 80 IBUs), an American barleywine. Joey didn't finish either, and Ben and I both tried it ... and we concurred with Joey's dislike.
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