Florida Beer Company's Hurricane Reef Pale Ale

I hate cleaning out the cellar and seeing a beer that I just know I don't want to drink.

Pours a very clear light amber, with a nice tan head and decent, if slow, carbonation. Maybe the slowness means it has a decent body to it. We'll see.

Smells sweet and light, with a hint of yeast. Tastes light as well, and sweet, until the bitterness turns a bit cardboard-ish. Very mildly bitter, for a pale. After a couple of larger sips (to try to get rid of it), it tastes a bit like a stronger Budweiser, but sweeter.

I remember setting this one aside and not remembering of it was one that I should give away. I have several friends that I give mixed sixers made of beers that I wasn't terribly impressed by, and this should have been one of them.

Florida Beer Company's Hurricane Reef Pale Ale

We'll see if this one is better than their Golden, which I drank all of but was non-plussed by.

Pours nicely. Good yellowish amber in color with a nice small-celled light tan head that stays nicely enough with fairly strong carbonation.

Good sweet bready malt smell with a slight hint of raw grain. No real hops to speak of.

Like the golden, it's too zippy in the body because it's too carbonated. Decent hops grassiness that's appropriate for a pale. It would have more body if it didn't feel so much like a soft drink. And that's my only complaint. It's appropriately hoppy, but lacks and real substance because it feels like a bitter ginger ale going down.

Too bad. The taste is right on, but rarely is a beer dragged down so clearly by the carbonation.

Florida Beer Company's Key West Golden Lager

Another questionable delivery from one of my beer of the month clubs. I'm less than impressed with the label, and chose this one before the IPA from the same brewery because I'm usually less than impressed with this style and I'm hoping that if it's not very good I can wash the taste out with their IPA. I find myself already hoping their IPA is good.

It's also my first beer from Florida, and I'm not sure of that's a good or a bad thing.

Decent head for any lager, especially one this light. It pours the standard clear, oily looking yellow that the style should have, and the large head sticks pretty well. I expected it to be much fizzier. Moderate to low carbonation.

Smells sickly-sweet, with a bit of cardboard bitterness that like a pilsner comes more from the grain than any degree of hops. Except unlike a good pilsner, these are adjunct grains. So far, it smells like a sweeter macro. Maybe it because there's more malt, we'll see.

Yep. Like a Euro Golden, it's sweet and cheap tasting. A European version of an American Macro. There's a bit more malt than a rice-fueled macro, but it's not right, except for the style. The style isn't right, so that's not truly redeeming.

It's not awful, it's just a weak style. I wouldn't drink it even in Florida by choice, and much prefer Budweiser except I'd rather support a smaller brewery. So, if in Florida, I'll probably pick Yeungling, which I can't get here.