Beer Review: Irish Table (Fonta Flora Brewery)

This started somewhat late at night, I worked from 10-6PM, I was up at 6AM to get my oldest to school, then at 815AM walked my younger two to their school, then work from 10-6, and immediately after work I had to do training for a new variant of a game we have on the floor (Face Up Pai Gow rather than just regular Pai Gow Poker), after this I drove fast to get to Mid-Town Scholar for a speech / lecture from philosopher Eleanor Gordon-Smith, proceeding this (and wandering around the bookstore – good god I shouldn’t be allowed alone in bookstores – for a good twenty-thirty minutes) I walked down to ZeroDay and had a wonderful flight, following this I had to stop at Wal-Mart for cat food. …and my night was still not quite done. Had to drop stuff off at my parents and walked my dog; all told I got home and finally sat down around 11-11:15PM. And thats when I did my book review from the day (finished a wonderful book on what the mind sees while reading) and then I finally started this beer review.

Whew…. sorry for the long introduction, but I just want to preface how this review started up, and how my day was, so you get some kind of idea in case its not what you thought, or not what you wanted, etc.

Again, as the same with the Sour Me Peach Sherbert and the Athena beer reviews, this one I had last thursday when it was crazy windy and even raining and such. (My Untappd review says “You know its Windy when a cat flys by.”)

But this was a part of the South Carolina beer mail I got, and working through them all for reviews. On a rainy, very windy, dreary, cold, day, a dry irish stout is the perfect remedy.

Sadly, from another local for local beer it forward chain, I received a rather lackluster beer mail package:

I had sent 8 16oz cans, an assortment of Boneshire Brew Works, Tattered Flag, Troegs Brewing, and Pizza Boy. I received from the next person in the chain 2 16oz cans and 4 12oz cans. The New Heights pictured there was canned on 12.28.18, so nearly a full year old as well. The Wise Acre’s aren’t much fresher, and sadly are also somewhat locally distributed. But oh well though, win some, lose some, its all hit or miss anyway.

So enough deliberating and talking about this or that, and lets move onto the beer review itself:

Beer: Irish Table
Brewery: Fonta Flora Brewery
Style: Stout – Irish Dry
ABV: 4.5%
IBU: 38
Untappd Write-Up: (Blank)

Appearance is very black, with a nice brown ring of a head. Not a crazy foamy head but a small bubbling bit of froth to it. The bubbles are disperse and varied, no big popping ones. The beer is reflective black deep and dark.

You can practically smell the dry Irish-ness of this as soon as the can is cracked. There’s definite notes of coffee grounds, notes of the darker grains and barley, with hints of chocolate. A roasty smell lingers over it all.

Immediately its dry, its roasty, there’s the notes of chocolate, dark grain, coffee, a genuine heavyness and dryness to it. The flavors combine as you drink and lend it a very interesting texture and mixture. It stays dry throughout like it should. There’s nothing offending or off about this, no burnt, no peaty or earth flavors that disrupt the beer and what their going for. Just a nice relaxing, good morning, good evening, good rainy day, good sunny day, good any time beer that is easy to crack and drink, and with a low 4.5% won’t upset your day. The 38IBU does lend it a bit of bitterness, but completely in a pleasant and pleasing way.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.78 (as of 10.23.19)

For Thursday look forward to some more beer reviews, and a write-up about Boneshire Brew Work’s 3rd Anniversary Celebration that kicks off Friday night (10.25.19).

So definitely be on the lookout for those. I also think J. Doncevic will be posting a review Thursday, and the two of us will be collaborating on a post-Anniversary write-up.

Cheers!

-B. Kline