Pizza (and beer) Fusion

So, here we are on Saturday and again I have pizza and beer excursion to share. I shouldn’t put it that way because before last Saturday’s trip to Mellow Mushroom I cannot remember the last time I was out for pizza. It’s not exactly on my weekly schedule.

We happened to be in the area of Pizza Fusion and since my wife has been talking about going there for quite some time, we really had to give it a try. Once we were inside I also really had to try out a few beers. Just to get it off my chest right now . . . Yes, I was the guy taking notes on the beer at the table and yes, I was wearing my Voodoo Doughnut shirt because they are the best doughnuts anywhere, period, end of story.

Hard at work.

Pizza Fusion has made a name for itself by using only the highest quality ingredients, most of which are organic (over 75 percent) and with all of them being extremely fresh. With that they also serve organic and gluten free beers (at least at our location in Orlando). I chose a sampler of four beers from Orlando Brewing (certified organic brewery) consisting of their European Pilz, Red Ale, Pompous Ass IPA, and Eagle Stout.

As I mentioned in the post on my experience at Mellow Mushroom, it’s not the best situation to review beers back to back to back to back, but I am a trooper and gave it a go anyway. I wrote a few things down on each of the four, not a comprehensive review, but enough to share my conclusions.

Posing for a picture

The European Pilz was clear, light, clean, and crisp as I expected a pilsner to be. It really is a good accompaniment to pizza in part because it doesn’t fill you up on its own and leaves you with plenty of room for more pizza. It doesn’t really have a distinguishable aroma, but that may have been affected a bit by my environment. There was some bite from the carbonation.

The Red Ale didn’t really have a prominent aroma either. It was somewhat smooth and creamy on the palate. There was slight hop bitterness with some dryness at the finish. It was clean, but didn’t have a lot of flavor (for an ale).

The Pompous Ass IPA (great name) didn’t have a big aroma, but there was enough hoppiness there to tell where I was headed. The flavor had good hop bitterness, more so than the aroma implied. There was also slight creaminess on the palate and some bite from the carbonation.

The Eagle Stout had a light roasted malt aroma and a medium body. It also was a bit creamy and had some sharpness to it. There was some roasty to burnt flavor there, but also something else that I couldn’t quite pick out.

My overall impression is that each beer was OK and I say that perhaps viewing them differently as an organic (and local) product. They were not my favorites since I tend to enjoy beers with bigger flavor, but they are good and everyone should give them (and other organic beers) a try if they have been hesitant to this point.

I wouldn’t want to end this post without telling you about the pizza. It’s really good. I don’t think I need to say much more than that. I had the Philly Cheese Steak Pizza with steak, roasted bell peppers, roasted red onion, parsley, tomato sauce, gorgonzola, mozzarella, provolone, and parmesan on a thin multigrain crust. How could all that have possibly turned into a bad pizza?