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OK, so the easy part of this challenge for me has been to FIND THE BEER and DRINK THE BEER.  The more difficult part has been to blog about it.  It started out fun and exciting and I was really paying attention to grammar and spelling.  Writing and reading was some of my worst subjects in school (in case it hasn't shown).  Well, I'm challenging myself to improve my skills and I'm not sure how well that has been going.  But hopefully not so bad.

This Saturday's beer is a "special" beer for me.  My father has recently been diagnosed with a "gluten allergy".  As far as I know - it is not Celiac.  He doesn't always get the specifics on his medical conditions so to know the exact diagnosis is tough.  His comment to me has been "Well, I stopped eating 'gluten foods' and I'm not on the toilet any more..." - " to me that is all I needed to find out."  Ok, enough said, he avoids it at all costs and has been feeling much better all along.  He used to drink beer, A LOT.  No, not exactly like I did - he didn't really drink it for the "flavor".  He drank it for the feeling - which isn't always good!  Luckily and thankfully for me and my family my father has kicked that habit or way of life and has a much more controlled out look on beer.  I don't think I've seen my father drunk in a few years.  And I know I haven't seen him obnoxiously alcoholically drunk in probably 10+ years.  This makes me extremely happy and proud and I love him more for figuring it out and getting his life straight with that.  He still will enjoy a beer with me on occasion - maybe even two in a night if he is feeling a bit more feisty but that is it.  Now, for the celiac/gluten allergy issue that is something that I think is going to be a bit tougher for him to kick.  I've been seeing gluten free offerings coming out for some time and what better time to try one then when my dad was in town.

We chose the Tweason'Ale from Dogfish Head together as it sounded the most "appealing" to my dad.  I was a bit confused by this as my dad was a 'beers beer kind of guy!"  He drunk Miller Lite pretty much exclusively.  So, flavor was never something he strove  for in a beer.  This beer's label talked about "strawberry's and honey" and this sounded pleasing.  So, we went with it.  We brought it home and I poured a glass.  I was expecting to find some 'differences' with a gluten free option but I wasn't sure what they would be exactly.  Well, they came fairly quick and in my opinion were quite obvious.  The first difference I noticed was the pour was thin with little head.  It was a light transparent red in the glass.  I noticed some carbonation in the glass.  It wasn't very explosive carbonation and showed by little head in my glass.  From there I smelled the beer, and it was definitely different then most beers I've tried.  I got a strong medicinal smell to the beer with definite hints of strawberry.  I didn't notice a malty beer quality to the smell which was not that surprising.  On sipping the beer, the flavor once again was unique.  The medicinal/strawberry smells carried over into the taste for sure.  I actually seemed to get a "cherry" flavoring to it.  I made a note that it was a cherry seltzer water flavor to it.  The texture was definitely light to the mouth feel.

True to Dogfish's style they brew "off-centered" beers.  This beer is no let down to that note.  It gets its gluten free recipe from the use of sorghum.  I checked online and found a few places that has good information on sorghum.  Check out This Site and Here for some more info on Sorghum and its background.  It is the replacement of the gluten-riden malt that hides out and is a KEY role in beer.  The note that I made while drinking Tweason'Ale was that it had an 'alcohol free' beer quality to it (not taste though please don't confuse that).  None alcoholic beer has never had a good taste to me.  But when you are drinking it you can tell or think - this just isn't beer.  Tweason'Ale definitely lacked that malty medium body quality that I've grown to love in a beer.  I would put this beer as a strawberry blonde type brew with a lack of something.  Please try it out... and if I was gluten free and had to find a brew to drink I would DEFINITELY go back for more of this beer for sure.  I think I'll rank this as a 2.25 as the way of beer goes - but if I had issues with gluten I may rank this beer much much higher since I would not have many options to choose from.