BEER (2017-2023) - What did we drink (today/recently)?

Presunto · April 18, 2022, 7:26pm

California (session) IPA - Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Chino, California. 4,2%. Simcoe, Crystal, and Chinook hops.

Appearance: pale golden and just a little hazy.
Smell: citrusy all right.
Taste: mainly mandarin and grapefruit. Nicely bitter and finish is dry.

Surprisingly enjoyable despite the lowish alcohol content, and I don’t usually like “session” beer.

The texts on the tin are so small and almost impossible to read. When I put on my thick reading glasses I could see malted corn in the ingredient list. Is it true one of the reasons it’s used is for that “dry/crisp finish” and colour? And the usage is widespread?

Asparagus - Bière Brut - Breweries colab: Huttenkloas/Sallands Landbier/Hommeles - Netherlands - 6,5% 24 IBU
Contains champagne yeast, grape most. Brewed with Hercules and dry-hopped with Nelson Sauvin

It does have a taste of asparagus, but not overpoweringly asparagus-y. Probably my first such beer. Dry and a little bitter, and soft. Smells sour and grain-y. Bière Brut style is lost on me but this beer has taste and texture. I think it’s more like a soft and dry lager. A fun beer to check out.

They got a bronze medal at Brussels Beer Challenge so it’s a success.

honkman · April 18, 2022, 9:13pm

It is gaining more popularity in recent times but was quite often used in “earlier “ brewing times but than extensively misused by “big beer”

honkman · April 19, 2022, 2:42am

First Call by Modist Brewing Company (Minneapolis, MN) - Lager

Very interesting combination of lager and coffee which worked surprisingly well. Upfront typical biscuit, cracker flavor of a lager which is followed by a nice coffee punch that is really well integrated, very slightly sweet towards the finish.

honkman · April 19, 2022, 5:53am

Classic Stout by Orono Brewing Company (Orono, ME) - Stout

Fitting name as this beer has all the attributes of a stout - malt, coffee, toffee, chocolate notes with relatively low bitterness and some very slight sweetness in the finish. Overall relatively low on the roasted malts notes and perhaps closer to a porter and a bit too watered down.

Presunto · April 24, 2022, 6:29pm

Mosaic IPA - Van Dutch brewery - Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil. 6.4% 60IBU

A big gusher.

Looks, smells, and tastes like a hoppy NEIPA. Juicy, like drinking a mixed tropical fruit juice with alcohol added. Medium sweet, light bitterness, watery and soft. A touch of barnyard, wild yeasty taste. Barely noticible but it’s there. The advertised 60 IBU is vastly exasgerated. Really, no more than 30 IBU in the taste.

It’s a nice enough beer considering Brazilian beers are always higher in cost, but they are more often “misses” rather than “hits”.

Tropical Hazy Sour Ale - Anderson Valley - Boonville, CA. 4,2%
With passion fruit, guava and coriander.

Pale, almost see-through. Dry and a bit tart, but not vinegery. No “body” to speak of. Or maybe the high dryness gives it an illusion of body. Coriander (don’t you use the Spanish word “cilantro” there, though?) comes through but I would rather it doesn’t. Weak passion fruit and only a whiff of guava.

Zoltan - Caol Ila- Aged Imperial Stout - Van Moll, Netherlands. 11%, IBU50, malted on Scottish Caol Ila barrel.

Smell: smokey! A lot like a whisky, obviously.
Taste: peaty, a mouthful, oily, dry finish. Chocolate, vanilla, boozy, woods, roasted malts. A tiny bit of sweetness but it’s good and balanced. A slow sipper and it is delicious. Will buy again.

Malts: PILSNER, BROWN, BISCUIT, CHOCOLATE, PALE, CHOCOLATE, CRYSTAL RYE, SPECIAL B, PEATED
Hops: chinook
Also contains maltodextrine.

Zoltan has been brewed a bunch of times, each time aged in a different wine or whisky barrel and they are all delicious.

I read about corn being used in (craft) beer and went far down the rabbit hole. If possible I would rather not have it in craft beer. I do taste the corn, in one form or another, in industrial beer.

StephanieL · April 25, 2022, 2:19am

“Cilantro” is usually applied to just the fresh leaves. Coriander can refer to the seeds, either ground or whole. I’ve seen a numbers of beers brewed with coriander.

Presunto · April 25, 2022, 6:18am

Thanks.

It’s a little “woody/spicy”. They use the seeds in Witbier. One of the reasons I stopped drinking it because I was tasting it more and more in the beer.

Presunto · April 30, 2022, 3:46pm

Big Night In (Part 1) - Imperial Doughnut Pale - Fierce & Crosstown breweries - Scotland/UK - 9,6%
Brewed to replicate the flavours of a Crosstown ‘Tongan Heilala Vanilla bean sourdough doughnut’. Soft, smooooth, vanilla.

Fizzy and boozy. Smells pastry sweet. Sweetness is so overpowering I can’t taste any vanilla or “sourdough”. Thick, creamy mouthfeel.

I tried, but this style is not for me.

Fogra39 - DDH NEIPA - Hajnali Sörfőző Brewery - Hungary. 6%
A big gusher. Creamy mouthfeel, low dryness. Oaty with soft fruity flavour, especially apricots. A bit “woody”, like some old forgotten pineapple (?) languishing in the shed. Tend to be more mellow than a typical DDH NEIPA. Tastes more like a standard NEIPA.

Dead Presidents -(NE)IPA -Barrier Brewing -Oceanside, NY. 7,5%
DDH IPA with Mosaic, Cascade, Chinook and Comet.

Thick and hazy. Juicy, ripe mango and papaya juice. Creamy with a dry finish. Perfect bitterness, nice smelling hops. There’s nothing to fault at all. DDH NEIPA is one of my top my favourite styles.

(By the time I reach this sentence the beer is already half way finished.)

honkman · May 1, 2022, 6:06am

West Whirled by Barebottle Brewing Company (San Francisco, CA) - IPA

Citrus with some berry flavors upfront, followed by a rather strong hop-forward, piney taste and a long, quite bitter finish. Overall quite an enjoyable west coast style IPA with a bit more fruit-related flavors than expected.

honkman · May 1, 2022, 6:21am

Bananas Foster by Aardwolf Brewing Company (Jacksonville, FL) - Imperial Stout

Typical stout flavors of coffee, dark chocolate, molasses upfront but with some sweetness from the lactose. Midway cinnamon becomes quite dominant with some notes of vanilla and banana towards the end. A little bit less of cinnamon and more banana would have given a better overall profile but still quite tasty and too easy to drink at 12% ABV.

honkman · May 5, 2022, 6:00am

Intergalactic by Lead Dog Brewing (Reno, NV) - DIPA

Grape, peach and orange upfront but still not overly juicy. A lot of spices in the middle with some pines in the background and a relatively low bitterness finish. Quite creamy mouthfeel. Overall decent DIPA but less hazy than expected.

honkman · May 5, 2022, 6:11am

Frucht - Passionfruit by The Bruery Terreux (Anaheim, CA) - Fruited Sour

Foeder-aged gives this sour more complexity than some of the kettle ones and adds some funk to it. But the sour is very tart and misses any balance from the passionfruit which is hardly recognizable. Despite some funk this sour feels too one-dimensional.

honkman · May 7, 2022, 3:57am

Villager by Fort Point Beer Company (San Francisco, CA) - IPA

Very solid west coast IPA with stone fruit/peach upfront but quite restrained, followed by some piney tastes and a constant floral note in the background. Medium bitter finish with some slight malt notes.

Presunto · May 7, 2022, 5:37pm

Bad beer days happen…

Tropical Eclipse - Coconut imperial stout - Bakunin Brewery - St. Petersburg, Russia. 11,5% 30 IBU

My can just says “imperial stout”. I tried looking for the exact label but only one that turned up was “coconut sweet imperial stout” with the exact design. Had I known this I would not have bought it. One, it’s sickly, diabetes-inducing sweet. Two, it contains coconut. Both of these ingredients are nausea-inducing as my system can’t process them.

My tongue burns after just one tiny sip. Only tastes the sugar and coconut. I almost passed out, seriously. Since I can’t drink it I will put it in a pastry dough tomorrow.

Berliner for the partner

Joyful NEIPA - Kompaan brewery - Netherlands. 4.5% 18 IBU
Contains corn. Hops used: Hallertau Blanc and Mandarin Bavaria.

Hazy orange colour. Smells sweet but something is off. Tastes sweet and corny, Mandarina Bavaria comes through in full force. That’s all I taste… very strong sweet tangerine. Low hoppy and almost no bitter. Thin bodied with fizzy mouthfeel. More like an alcoholic Fanta, not really NEIPA. Found no joy in this beer.

Merciless Double IPA - Kompaan brewery - Netherlands. 8.2% 60 IBU
Hops: Amarillo, El Dorado, Simcoe

Tastes sweet and warm alcoholic. Surprisingly low on bitterness. Medicinal, piney and candied orange. A little soapy. They probably wanted this to be a “West coast style” DIPA. Still can’t get past the sweetness. No redeeming qualities.

Reckless NEIPA - Kompaan brewery - Netherlands. 6% 40 IBU
Hops: Cascade, Idaho7, Magnum, Talus.

I really don’t have much to say about this beer. It’s a weak and forgetable NEIPA. Seriously, this day in age you have no excuse for producing a crappy/boring NEIPA.

I washed my hands of this brewery after these beers. Drank many in their early days. Something happened. Maybe they are owned by a big multinational brewer now, such as InBev or Heineken.

brisket44 · May 7, 2022, 8:49pm

Thanks for the honest reviews @Presunto ! Hopefully your run of bad beers is at an end and the next three will be great.

honkman · May 8, 2022, 5:25am

Windy Hills by Mikkeller Brewing San Diego (San Diego, CA) - IPA

Nice upfront flavor of pineapple and orange which lasts throughout the sip but gets some malt backbone and grassy notes. Medium bitter finish which lingers for quite some time. Very refreshing NEIPA with a nearly chewy mouthfeel

honkman · May 8, 2022, 5:34am

Something about Berry by Local Brewing Company (San Francisco, CA) - Fruited Sour

Nearly perfectly balanced sour - cranberry, raspberry and passionfruit give a nice complex juicy (but not very sweet) balance to the sour/tartness of the kettle sour. In every sip the juiciness really complements the tartness and makes it a perfect summer beer.

honkman · May 12, 2022, 3:59am

Pomegranate Montemorency Cherry Sour Ale by High Water Brewing (Lodi, CA) - Fruited Sour

Interesting concept as the ale was only slightly sour but the tartness comes mainly from pomegranate and sour cherry. As the same time both fruits add some juiciness and slight sweetness. Very nicely put together sour ale which is very well balanced.

honkman · May 12, 2022, 4:07am

Space Ways by Modern Times (San Diego, CA) - IPA

Very nice hazy IPA with lots of juiciness of orange, grape and mango followed by some mellow resinous notes and a long, medium bitter finish which brings back some of the juiciness from the beginning.

MaxEntropy · May 12, 2022, 6:22am

Alas coming up empty for the last two sours at my usual sources in MA