The First Pour: Arcadia Sky High Rye

Cicero’s understands that when it come to beer, most people’s favorite is the latest and greatest new beer. Very few beer lovers drink the same beer over and over again. Sure, you might go back to an old standard, but you always try the latest beer first. For that reason, and others, Cicero’s changes their menu every week. When kegs kick, we change them up, unless we decide to keep it tapped for a while longer because it kicked so fast. With that in mind, we strive to keep you, our customers informed on our weekly changes. The “First Pour” series of blog posts will highlight and review the newest beers we have on draft for you. Again, we have a happy couple writing these posts for us. If you see them around, make sure and thank them for their hard work.

By Alaina Kantner and Mike Vecchio

6% ABV

55 IBUs

Availability: Year-round

To celebrate Arcadia’s 12^th Anniversary in 2008, Sky High Rye was created. Arcadia Ales was established in 1996 in Battle Creek, Michigan as a brewery that specializes in British-style ales. Sky High Rye aims to bring out the inner explorer in everyone, so come on down to Cicero’s, grab a pint, and feel your inner explorer soar.

The beer pours a hazy yellow color with hints of orange that catch the light. Off the pour a one-finger head develops and turns into lacing that sticks around while you drink the pint down. The aroma packs a powerful hops punch that come from lemon-y citrus hops. Underneath the hops you catch a hint of rye, but to be honest, we were expecting more on the aroma. Unfortunately, the taste isn’t much different. This beer is heavy on the hops and light on the rye. We thought that because the name of the beer has “Rye” in it that more rye would be present, but sadly this isn’t the case. This by no means is a bad beer, but it doesn’t drink like we expected and is lacking dimension. Arcadia says it’s a West Coast Pale Ale; maybe this explains the extreme IBU level for a rye ale? Next time you’re in Cicero’s please grab a pint and tell us what you think – heavy on the hops or just right?

 

About the Authors – Alaina and Mike moved to St Louis from Ohio in 2008 and quickly jumped into the craft beer scene. Alaina has gone from drinking light lagers almost exclusively to enjoying maltier beers – most notably porters and stouts – and hefeweizens. In her free time Alaina enjoys reading, running, and attempting to teach their dog tricks. Mike has evolved from drinking highly hopped IPAs to enjoying a wider range of pale ales and traditional hefeweizens. Mike enjoys trying to teach his dog not to bark at anything that moves, reading about crime and gangs, and home brewing with his co-workers. Both Alaina and Mike have been attending Cicero’s Beer School for a year and credit it to helping them expand their knowledge of craft brew and assisting them to take the plunge into home brewing with their friends. Hopefully, they will bring in some of their home-brew one day.