On my recent trip to Orlando, I made a couple of stops on the way home. I had been dying to try to beers at Darwin as I was hearing so many great things about them. On my last trip up that way, they were not yet open (I think they opened about a week later).

I was not disappointed.  I enjoyed the atmosphere, the people, and the brews.  I will definitely try to stop back here next time I am in the area.

I started with the San Juan Helles Lager.  I really don’t have much to say about this one. I am not a huge lager fan and this beer had a great lager nose and taste.  I imagine this would be a great one for someone who is really into lagers.  However, for me, lagers in general are pretty dull.

The Summa Daze Citrus IPA was great– my favorite beer here. I find that I have become a huge fan of citra hop and that was the hop in this one. It had a great citrus finish and nose.  At only 6.6%, it was light and easy to drink.

The Pirata Pils was a German Pils.  Like many pilsners, I didn’t find this had much of a nose. However, this beer did have a sweet taste on finish. I often feel about pilsners in a similar way to lagers.  However, this pilsner was not bad and had just enough taste that I would drink this on a hot day.

The Circa 1926 was supposed to be a wheat. However, I didn’t find that it had any of the typical characteristics of a wheat beer– no wheat on nose or finish.  I also didn’t like the odd bitter/sulfur taste on the finish. This was definitely not my favorite here.

Chapo was a weizen bock.  There was not much nose here but it had good herbal flavors which I thought were a little much for a traditional bock. There was also a tad bit of sour on the finish. Overall not a bad beer.

The Rye Saison, Belgian farmhouse ale, was very similar to me to the Chapo but more amber in color.

I actually like the Cala Pumpkin. However, I would have to drink this in small doses almost like a sherry as it is so sweet. I found it tasted a bit like a mead with strong flavors of clove and cinnamon.  The herbal flavors were the most pronounced here with just a bit of pumpkin at the end.

The Llama Mama, a sweet stout, was not all that sweet but was a very solid stout. The nose and start of each sip were of coffee but it finished with a burnt malt flavor.

The Berliner Weisse was a bit tart for a weisse but had a great nose. Again another decent, solid beer.

We were given the opportunity to taste a pilot batch of beer done with sage and white oak.  This was fantastic with strong flavors and aromas of sage and hints of white oak.  I would have been sure to have a pint of this beer.

I hope Darwin keeps up the great work and I look forward to trying new brews in the future!