Luzerne County restaurant inspections: July 6 - 10

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Showers, thunderstorms possible this week

<p>Over the years, beer has transformed from its most simple form of just hops, malts and barley and varying fermenting to specialized hops and malts, along with the mixing of everything including from pumpkins to the kitchen sink. Way back &#8220;in the day&#8221; there was nothing fancy, just a glass of Bud, a bottle of High Life or a can of Pabst. If I go way, way back I can remember Piels, Steg and Gibbons.</p><p>How about that slogan, &#8220;Gimme, Gimme. Gibbons.&#8221; Remember that one? Now a-days, just good plain beer is not enough. People need more from their beer which has led us to the Season of the Sweet &amp; Sour Beers. We now have Lemon Shandys, Tangerine Wheats, Blueberry Ales and Grapefruit Sour beers.</p><p>It takes a very experienced master brewer to infuse fruits into beers to come up with just the right balance. If you put in too much fruit you end up with what I call a &#8221; beer punch.&#8221; Unfortunately, I had the chance to try a Belgium Strawberry Beer called Fr&#252;li. Now, let me tell you, the Belgians make great beers: Chimay, Hoegaarden and Delirium Tremens to name a few. So when I ordered a Fr&#252;li, I thought this would be a great tasting beer. You can&#8217;t go wrong with beer and strawberries right?</p><p>Wrong-o beaver breath!</p><p>The brewers of Fr&#252;li went totally off the fruity deep end when they made this beer.</p><p><strong>Sight:</strong> When my snifter of Fr&#252;li hit the table, I saw a beautiful reddish orange color that held its hue all the way through. There was little to no head on the beer which I found to be very disappointing. At this point, I was very worried about this beer being too fruity. One thing I hate is an overpowering fruity beer. However, it had a great color so I had to give it a try.</p><p><strong>Aroma:</strong> As I lifted the glass to my nose, the only smell I got was strawberries. In fact I think I smelled strawberries even before I picked up the glass. This was strawberry overload! Was this a beer or a glass of juice?</p><p><strong>Taste:</strong> Like its aroma, Fr&#252;li was all strawberry. When I took my first sip I thought I had bitten into a fresh strawberry. It was like drinking a strawberry drink from a juice box. Where was the beer flavor? After a few more sips I did taste some back notes or orange and coriander. For me, Fr&#252;li was just way too sweet.</p><p>Overall, I did not like Fr&#252;li. I had to muster up everything so I could choke down an entire snifter of this stuff. If you really, really like strawberry juice, then this beer may be for you. I recommend drinking a Fr&#252;li with a big chunk of chocolate cake or with a slice of white chocolate cheesecake.</p><p>The Brouwerij Huyghe brewery was founded by Leon Huyghe in 1906. They are best known for their award winning Delirium Tremens which features a pink elephant on the label and an 8.5 percent ABV.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Jim McCabe The Beer Meister </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_james.jpg</photo0><caption0>Jim McCabe The Beer Meister </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_fruli.jpg">
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>Jim McCabe</p><p>The Beer Meister</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p>The Beer Meister is a new column that will appear twice a month in the Times Leader</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p style="text-align: left;">Jim McCabe is an avid beer enthusiast and the circulation manager for the Times Leader.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

The Beer Meister: Früli Strawberry Beer