645. Urban Artifact (Cincinnati, OH) - Spinosaurus Mango IPA

“Spinosaurus is a Mango IPA brewed with real mango and zero sour character. It’s the first release in Urban Artifact’s Dino line - a brand new series of clean, fruit-forward beers built for drinkers who want big fruit flavor without tartness or funk.”

There are other notes on the website, but it’s basically just Urban Artifact caveat emptoring itself for making something that isn’t a sour. To quote an obscure Jack Nicholson movie from 1994, “It’s about fucking time.” I put one can of this into my shopping bag at Trader Joe’s this afternoon, and I knew I was going to wish I had bought more, though that’s not because I like it. It’s because I can’t make up my mind about it. It’s dry and moderately boozy (7.1% ABV), but it feels like those things take away from whatever fruit flavor might be there. I get a little more of it as the beer warms and the unfiltered sludge settles to the bottom of the mug, but based on this one can, there is no defending their claim of “big fruit flavor.” Am I going to look for more at Total Wine the next time I’m there? Yeah…probably. I don’t like to slam the door on anything after only one…but this one is wildly disappointing.

644. Sun King (Indianapolis, IN) - Corn Dog Beer

“Corn Dog Beer is brewed with corn and smoked malt to evoke the sweet-and-savory nostalgia of a classic Indiana State Fair corn dog. Notes of toasted corn and subtle smoke give way to an easy-drinking finish worthy of the midway.”

We didn’t make it to the fair this year. It’s getting harder and harder to justify spending that much money to bake in the sun all day and walk around dodging corpulent-posteriored Republicans who don’t believe in education or dentists. But man, oh man…was that Corn Dog Beer calling to me. When I heard they had cans of 12-ounce 4-packs for $9.99 at the College Avenue location, I was unable to resist. I had one in the taproom yesterday, and it tasted almost like nothing; and the one in the mug at home today that will be pictured below also doesn’t taste like much (though it tastes like more than the one in the taproom yesterday). The one I had straight out of the can while I was playing Punch-Out! this afternoon with Jackson, however…that one was kind of incredible. The corn and smoke flavors are strong up front, and they mingle on the back end in a way that does sort of make you think of a corn dog. It tastes more like kernel corn out of a can than the batter that encases a corn dog, but that smoke could almost…almost…be a hot dog. A third one, also straight out of the can, but upstairs in my above-ground lair, where it is warmer than downstairs where I was playing Punch-Out! with Jackson, is somewhere in between. I may need to get another 4-pack before I make up my mind on this one.

643. Hardywood Park Craft Brewery (Richmond, VA) - Tangerine Cream Ale

“A most extraordinary dessert-on-a-stick inspired beer, this tangerine cream ale will bring you back to the days of running after the ice cream truck for a citrusy treat. Tangy tangerine and bright, juicy orange notes melt away to reveal layer upon layer of sweet vanilla cream in the finish. Perfect on its own, or paired with your favorite tangerine cream bars.”

I picked this up on a lark as we were heading toward the checkout line at Trader Joe’s the other day…sure that its prominent place at the end of one of the aisles meant that it was from one of those fake breweries that are fronts for Trader Joe’s house brands. But it turns out that Hardywood Park is a real brewery…and it also turns out that I have not logged a beer from Virginia over the course of this odyssey. I know I’ve tried beers from Virginia, but after I looked at my notes, I realized that those were from our trip to Shenandoah National Park in 2016, before I started this whole beer blogging thing. This one gets me to 31 states.

Okay, fine, get on with it, right? How is the beer? There’s more cream flavor than citrus flavor, but it’s still well balanced. Those flavors are sweet up front, but there is just enough of a dry finish to double down on that solid balance. And at 6% ABV, it’s a little bigger than most cream ales. A slightly stronger citrus flavor would not be unwelcome, but that is truly picking at nits; this is the best non-Kismetic beer that I have tried in I can’t remember how long.