601. Moontown Brewing Company (Whitestown, IN) - Starve Hollow

“We raise our glasses again for our next foray in our Pints for Parks series! Our 11th journey in our series takes us just south of Brownstown to Starve Hollow State Recreational Area. Given that it’s summer and this beer is for honoring a wonderful recreational area we made a delightful and very refreshing IPL. Built like a pilsner, to be so clean and crisp, and hopped heavily like an IPA with Nectaron, Mosaic, and Citra, this beer is extremely smooth, floral and fruity, finishing light and dry, it’s perfect for any adventure. Thank you for continuing to support our state parks, cheers to the great outdoors!”

We got back today from a three-day weekend at Turkey Run, and on the way out on Sunday, we stopped at Moontown for lunch. The food was only so-so, as it has been the last couple of times, but the beer is still very much on point. I was pretty stoked to see that they had finally replaced the Lincoln ESB with a new entry in the Pints for Parks series—and especially so when I noted that this new entry is hopped with Nectaron. That particular hop always makes me think of nectarine, which is one of my favorite fruits; and this beer has got all kinds of things going on. I initially thought I would compare it to Natural Liberty, from Black Acre; but after I checked my notes, I saw that Natural Liberty is an American Pale Lager, while Starve Hollow is an India Pale Lager. Is there a huge difference? As my grandmother might have said, "I haven’t the foggiest." (I also think that the line separating India Pale Ales from American Pale Ales has more to do with semantics than with flavor or brewing technique; but please be reminded that I am not within shouting distance of being an expert about anything.)

What I can say for sure is that this beer is more interesting than Natural Liberty. It’s got some bitter, piney things going on, and it also has some vaguely sweet stone fruit things going on. (And if you’ve been stopping by here with any degree of frequency over the last several years, you will not be remotely surprised when I say that the first of those two characteristics decreases in direct proportion to the amount of time the beer has spent out of the refrigerator—and that the second increases.)

Best of the Pints for Parks series? It’s only my 4th, of the 11 they have so far produced; and those have all been excellent. But yes…this might be the best one I have so far tried.