I’ve had this six pack in my fridge for the past month.  It hurts to look at it.  The story of how I came by it is one fraught with heartache and disappointment that is still lingering.  This blog isn’t the place for me to launch into a sob story, but suffice to say that it was some of the highest highs, followed by some of the lowest lows that I’ve experienced in a long, long time.

For those that don’t know me very well, I’ll give you a little history.  I moved to North Carolina in 2004 to roar out my twenties and see what kind of adventures I could get myself into.  I had lived in MA all my life up to that point, and it was high-time to get out and experience a different area and culture.  Due to a good friend already being down there, the decision was easy.  So here I am in downtown Raleigh, running my own business and learning how to be a man.  Said business just happened to be a block away from a great beer bar called The Flying Saucer.  I had never experienced anything like it before.  They had 81 drafts and a whole bunch more in a bottle (over 200). My craft beer knowledge was pretty limited at that point, relegated mostly to Sierra Pale and Allagash White.  I liked beer, I just hadn’t had an opportunity to try a lot of it.  The Saucer changed that.  I was there so much I became like a piece of furniture.  When my business venture started to shit the bed, I pestered one of the managers for a bartending gig (Hi Erik).  He finally relented, and I worked there for the back half of my four year stint in NC.  This was where I gained a lot of my beer knowledge and became friends with many wonderful people, one of those being the young lady who brought me this beer.  I’ll be honest, I really miss NC.  They have an excellent craft beer scene and quality people that are involved in it. It’s really accessible, and I count those years as some of my best, especially from a life-education standpoint.

Highland Kashmir was one of the first new beers that I tried when I first started going to the Saucer in 2004.  Highland is a great brewery in Ashville NC, about four hours from Raleigh.  They’ve got a pretty good bead on quality beer-making, having been in the business since 1994.  My friend Mark had talked the Kashmir up so much that I finally relented to try it-I was not an IPA drinker then-and was summarily blown away by its complexity and deliciousness.  “Holy shit, this is what I’ve been missing?” “Yup”, Mark said.  Apparently this is the beer that turns me into a hophead.

I know it's not a Highland glass, but it's the best I had to rep NC

Kashmir is 5.6% and 60 IBUS.  It pours a very light wheaty hue, but slightly hazy as well.  The barest of heads is complemented by a super aromatic malty sweetness, not a lot of bitterness in the nose at all.  The first sip gives you a good hop wallop on the ol’ tastebuds, which is unsurprising as it has five varietals in it.  Medium bodied, with a wonderful mouthfeel and a clean finish that is difficult to find with a lot of IPAs, west coast stuff in particular. Kashmir gives you good feelings in the lower depths.  It’s refreshing and quaffable (I freaking love that word), and there is some awesome lacing going down the glass as I drink its bittersweet goodness. Warming up, more of the malty nose takes over and it becomes a little more balanced, further cementing its place in the heart as one of my favorite beers.

To be blunt, I had a lot of trouble writing this review.  Playing the four years over in my head-plus recent developments-had me stopping, starting over, revising, freaking out and generally just being a wreck for a few days.  Simply put, I owe my love of craft beer and the community that surrounds it to that state, and I’m thankful that I was able to have that knowledge with me as I moved back to MA.  It’s very easy to take things for granted.  I mean let’s face it:  Life is difficult, sometimes overwhelmingly so.  But most of the time, all you need is a good friend to raise a glass with and the universe rights itself again for awhile.  So I’ll take this time to say cheers and thank you North Carolina, my life wouldn’t be what it is today without you having been in it.

10.0.  Nuff said.

Check out Highland Brewing here:  http://www.highlandbrewing.com/beerstyles.htm

Note to the reader:  If you made it this far, thank you as well.