Glory Days - A Reunion With An Old Friend

TBC The Princess IPA 
Breaker Brewing Co. / Wilkes-Barre, PA. / 8.9 ABV

First off let me apologize for not getting a beer review on here for a few weeks.  I had some technical difficulties with my laptop that made my monitor not work.  However, now I am up and running and ready to review a beer.

A few Saturday's ago, I had the chance to meet up with an old friend Warren "Savy" Savitz to catch up on things, have a few beers and to reminisce about our high school days.  If you remember the song Glory Days by Bruce Springsteen, our high school days would be it.  More on that is coming up.  After a few text messages, I decided that we should meet up at Breaker Brewery in Laurel Run at about 6:00 PM.  They have great beer made on the premises and the atmosphere is outstanding.  I had to decide because Warren lives in Tennessee and had no idea where to go.  The pressure was on so I wanted to pick a place where we could talk without screaming and a place that might not be too jammed.  Let me say I chose wisely.

At 6 we both arrived, met in the parking lot, shook hands and had a good man hug.  It has been a long time since our days back on Warren Avenue in Kingston, so we headed right in to sit down and catch up with a cold beer.  As we caught up, our conversation turned to drinking beer while we were underage.  When we were 16 years old, we bought our first two 6 packs of Pabst Blue Ribbon from a local establishment that was well known for serving minors.  I will not mention the name of the place to protect the innocent or would it be the guilty.  I will say that it was in North End Wilkes-Barre and had a reputation of giving beer to anyone.  I think if a baby crawled in there they would have sold beer to him or her.  I know back then, in 1974 or 75, the law did not crack down on underage drinking like they do now.  I think if Breaker served Pabst we would have gotten one just for old time sake.

Once we got the beer back home, we drank a few cans and then had to figure out what we were going to do with the rest.  As we sat and pondered, we came up with the idea of burying the beer behind my garage.  You might think that this was a dumb idea, however we had a master plan.  When it got dark, we snuck behind the garage and dug a hole about 3 feet deep.  The beer went in the hole in a small wooden crate like object and then we covered it with dirt, leaves and pine needles to make it match the surroundings.  It was brilliant!  Being underground kept the beer cool and we always knew where it was.  We also knew that no one really wanted to go back there because it was kinda spooky. It was the perfect place.  Neither one of us could remember whether we eventually got caught, but we did have a great laugh.

TBC The Princess

As the night went on, we talked more and more about our "Glory Days" of drinking beer at parties and at the beach in Wildwood among other things that I will not mention.  About half way through the evening, Warren asked me if The Beer Meister was going to review a beer.  I told him yes I was and immediately pulled a piece of paper out of my pocket and asked the bar tender for a pen.  By the way, our bartender at the back bar was great.  Now my big decision came, what beer do I review?  When I decide to review a beer, I randomly pick something that I have never had before and go from there.  After looking over the beer menu, I settled on TBC The Princess IPA.

THE REVIEW

Sight:  When My Princess arrived (no it was not in a horse drawn carriage), I could see a cloudy yellow colored beer with a very slight tint of orange.  The picture on the right does not do it justice.  It looked really good, almost like a German Wit Beer.  The head was pure white and slight but lingered around for quite some time.

Aroma:  When I took my first sniff of The Princess, I got aroma's of earth tones and pine along with citrus.  If I was not mistaken, the citrus was Strawberry in nature.  I also got a very, very slight hint of vanilla bean.  It smelled great.  Now I was like a dog drooling for a taste.

Taste:  Now it was time to take a sip.  At first taste, you get a slight IPA like bite, but after it hits the back of your throat WOW!  I was able to taste a well balanced blend of piney earth flavors, bread malts along with back notes of citrus and vanilla.  Just after I swallowed, I tasted very subtle hints of the strawberry.

Overall, I really liked TBC The Princess.  It had complex aromas and flavors along with the taste of a subtle IPA.  I would recommend pairing this beer with Breakers Old Bay Mac & Cheese or their Pastrami Cuban Sandwich.  If you haven't had the chance to go to Breaker Brewing Co. I suggest you jump in the car right now.  Its such a great place to meet up with new and old friends to have a few beers and something to eat.  You can check out their beer and food menu at http://www.breakerbrewingcompany.com.  You can reminisce about old times or you may even create some of your own "Glory Days".  Thanks "Savy" for a great night.  We will do it again next time you are up this way or if I get to your neck of the woods.

5= Outstanding

4= Very Good

3= Good

2=Fair

1=Skunk