9/100) Zipline

I have set myself the goal to review three beers or ciders every week for 100 weeks. I will be learning about beer and ciders more as I do this, and if I am successful in this venture, I will have tried about 300 unique drinks. If you're curious how I'm doing, the number in the post's title tells you which week I am in now.

Oatmeal Porter, Country White, NZ IPA

Zipline is a young brewery that is in Lincoln, Nebraska. They just got underway in 2012. In the near future, I hope to go there for a tour because they have a small line of cask-aged beers that intrigues me. However, my general impression of their beers is that while they are good and won't let you down, they aren't too adventuresome, yet. I look forward to watching them grow.

Oatmeal Porter) In short, this porter had chocolaty notes in the initial to mid that were somewhat overwhelmed by the fairly harsh finish. I can see why Zipline had attempted to keep it as a seasonal. Perhaps its flavor profile is more enjoyable in the cold of winter. It's not bad, but as a porter, it just didn't have enough smoothness or flavor for me. ☆☆

Country White) This beer uses a farmhouse yeast strain and is their seasonal release for summer. The pour forms a pretty tall head of foam, and it's pretty easy to make too much froth on this one. The taste has a touch of wheat but is refreshing with a nice citrus in the backdrop. There's something though that makes the beer have an almost "chewy" aspect to it which is really the only thing that set it off from something like a generic Blue Moon. ☆☆☆

NZ IPA) First of all, I had to look this up, but what makes an IPA an NZ IPA is just that the hops are from New Zealand. Of course, depending on where you get your ingredients the taste can change. If this Zipline brew is exemplary of NZ hops, I might search out more like it. The bitterness wasn't overwhelming and didn't linger or build like other IPAs I've had. The hops might even be floral because there was a touch of citrus in the middle. Other than that, this IPA was also lightly effervescent.  ☆☆☆☆