Ancient City Brewing - St Augustine, FL

Published on 25 February 2024 at 22:06

It's been awhile since I have blogged, so I apologize for that.  I recently took a business trip to Florida and hit a few breweries.  Ancient City was one I had on my list.  Right in the heart of old town St Augustine, I stepped in as a brief rain shower hit.  It was just before lunch, so the crowd was small and I got a table in the middle of the room.  Like normal, I gravitated to my go-to's and decided to have a red ale called Matanzas River Red Ale.  At 6.2% alcohol and an IBU rating of 26 I expected it to be smooth, but my first sip was more harsh and bitter than expected.  It smoothed out after that.  Now, I had not eaten anything at that point and had brushed my teeth about a half hour before that, but it caught me off guard.  As I took a few more swallows, I could get some of the chocolate notes, but not the pecan.  They state it has a dry finish and it does.  So, not a normal red, in my book, but not bad either, just different.  I used to not think of pairing my beer with food, but some people are religious about it.  Ancient City says it goes good with barbeque and I can totally see that. 

I asked the bar keep what they would call their flagship beer and it was a toss up between their Galleon Golden Ale and their Augustine's Orange Amber Ale.  It wasn't warm enough that day for me to want a golden ale, but I decided to try it.  In warmer climes, you will always find their best sellers are lighter ales and IPA's, so I wasn't surprised.    Galleon was light, with a citrus and sweet flavor.  It was easy to drink and is kind of a perfect Florida beer.  Just 16 IBU and lighter in alcohol at 4.2%, I thought I could see myself drinking more than one of these, so that's a solid kudos for the beer.  They had two more beers that intrigued me that I did not get to.  Their Castillo Coconut Porter sounds as good as the name suggests.  Dark chocolate, coffee and toasted coconut in a beer makes my mouth water.  The aforementioned Augustine Orange Amber also caught my eye due to the orange zest and caramel malt.  Sadly, they didn't serve any food or I would've stayed and had another beer, but I did grab a pretty cool t-shirt.  I also had a nice chat with two couples down from Canada.  They were sampling two flights of beer, so they could try everything.  Maybe I should've done that.  Duh.

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