Hello everyone.  For today’s craft beer review I’m going to be trying the Five brewed by the Upright Brewing Comypany located in Portland, Oregon.

As you may recall, I posted my review of the Four a couple of days ago.  I thought that was a very nice little beer, so I’m pretty eager about trying this one.

Let’s get back to the website, uprightbrewing.com, and see what the Five is all about.

Five blends three hop varieties with pale caramel malt to create full flavors. Subtle pale fruit aromas produced during the fermentation brighten the profile and provide contrast to its bitterness.

Alright.  Let’s channel the spirit of Charles Mingus and turn this bottle “upright”.

This brew came in a 25.4 oz. bottle and it had an ABV of 5.5%.

It poured to a hazy orange color with an off white head.  The cap was sized great, rocky and quite foamy.  The retention time was outstanding and the lacing looked awesome.  It was really a nice looking brew.

The nose presented tones of herbs and earth along with a decent citrus hop profile.  Hints of hay and grass intermingled with a very light and manageable barnyard funk.  It had a solid little bready profile too.  I also picked up on some sort of deep spice that I couldn’t quite distinguish.  As it warmed it became more balanced and harmonious.  All in all, I felt that it was a somewhat complex and very nice aroma.

The flavor released a solid bitter hop profile.  There seemed to be more in the taste than in the aroma, but still not a tremendous amount.  It seemed to be more of a complimentary, albeit nice, characteristic.  Favorable savors of ripe pear and herbal tones.  Becoming suggestions of bread and yeast stepped up while a very minute amount of funk showed itself toward the end.

The mouthfeel was medium bodied.  Dry, mostly smooth, but crisp, refreshing and thirst quenching.  The carbonation was medium to medium/high.  A good dose of flavor was left behind after the swallow for me to enjoy between sips also.

In conclusion, I thought this to be a very delightful and well balanced beer.  It had a lot of intricacies and the drinkability was great.  It would pair superbly with the warmer weather of Spring and Summer, however it could be enjoyed at just about anytime of year in my opinion.  I’d suggest trying it if you can get your hands on it.  I’ll probably grab it again sometime that’s for sure.  So, if you happen to taste the Upright Brewing Five, drop me a line and tell me of your opinion.  I’d really like to hear from you.

Thanks for reading everyone.  I really appreciate it.

Until next time.  Cheers.

Score:  4.1 out of 5

Grade:  A-