4. Black Acre Brewing Company - Natural Liberty

“Aggressively Citra hopped with plenty of bold citrus hop notes and a light pilsner malt body.”

It’s so warm up here in my aboveground lair that by the time I got to the end of this one, despite the fact that I had poured it into a frosted mug, it had warmed up to the point that the grapefruit notes from the Citra hops were quite prominent. So then I tried a cold one in the same now-warm mug to see if the grapefruit notes were there, and they were not. I detected more in the way of floral notes, and the beer, while possibly less complex, was more refreshing. Regardless of the temperature, it’s a little bit sharp for my tastes—but just a little. It’s possible that I am partial to Black Acre because they here in my 'hood, yo—but they are making some pretty good beer (and more of it now that they’ve moved the brewery into larger digs).

Originally posted on July 2, 2017

TAKE TWO (January 29, 2023): Black Acre will close its doors on February 4, 2023 - 11 years to the day after it opened. When Black Circle started closing after the holidays last year (by which I mean 2021), I started going to Black Acre to do my drink-two-beers-and-write-for-an-hour thing after work; and it proved to be such a better place for that than Loom or Black Circle ever were. This was the first Black Acre beer I posted, way back in 2017 when I started this odyssey. I no longer stand by what I said about this beer the first time. The one I am drinking now, out of a can - and probably the last of its kind that I will ever drink - is unremarkable. They call it an "American Pale Lager," but if they started brewing it today, they would call it a "Cold IPA." It's too dry and upright to be a genuine lager, but not quite enough of either to be a genuine ale. And you know what? That's kind of what was always magic about Black Acre. They brewed all kinds of nonsense that did not always fit easily into standard beer categories; and before the world shit the bed, they brewed some fantastic one-off IPAs. (I almost said that this beer is very approachable, but that's what Sun King says about their cream ale; and I don't want to be aping those cats.) It's light and dry and good...and it's Black Acre. You got six more days, people. Most of the good stuff is gone, but they're still tapping kegs; and you can still get a booth and sit there for an hour while you drink two (or three) beers and do some writing.