What Beers Did You Drink Today? Or Yesterday? (Part 2)

[ChrisTaylor]

A true local: Temple's Bicycle Beer, which is brewed in one of Melbourne's inner 'burbs. Very light. Citrusy. Jacked with a little salt, according to the label. I guess this is the beer in hipster cred. Brewed in Brunswick. And the old label, back when I first tried this a couple years ago, went on about some component of the beer--presumably not the finished product, given that it's not that hard to find this stuff--being delivered to ... somewhere ... by bicycle. Whatever. It's alright. I reckon if I had a 24-pack of the stuff it'd take a good while to get through them without assistance, though.

[FrogPrincesse]

Karl Strauss Full Suit Belgian Brown Ale. Malty, a little sweet. Pretty good but not unforgettable by any means.

I like this quote from their press release:

You know it’s winter in San Diego when the surfers start to paddle out in their fullsuits, so the name seemed fitting.

Edited January 15, 2014 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[ChrisTaylor]

Drum roll, please.

I just cracked open the first bottle of my first attempt at home brew. It's been aging for three weeks. The guys at the shop recommended aging it for at least two months before tasting it but a friend experienced in the ways of home brew said that, given the heat we've had recently, a couple weeks should be enough to get an idea of what the finished (i.e. aged) product will be like. So here goes.

Appearance: placed the glass against a piece of paper so you can get a sense of the colour, I guess. When it was in the bottle--hard to tell, given the dark glass--it looked a whole lot paler than I would've wanted. Looks fine in the glass, though. Cloudy. A little bit of sediment. Suspect I won't have any of that in the second batch as a friend is giving me another container into which I can decant my brew and then let it settle before bottling.

Nose: yeasty, initially. This disappears once it is poured into a glass at which point the nose reminds me of ... well, beer. Not being a smart arse. But you know that generic beer smell of a lot of mass produced beers? Not so much something like Heineken, which has a smell all of its own, but one of those beers that you'd struggle to tell apart from a dozen other, similarly-marketed beers in a blind tasting.

Taste: what strikes me, first up, is the carbonation. It's not like a glass of cola or anything but it's a bit more heavily carbonated than what I normally drink. I suspect this is due to using those 'carbonation drops'. The idea is you put one drop into a 375 mL bottle. I mostly used 330 mL bottles. The drops were also of uneven size. Some had chunks missing. Some were demented, Tetsuoooooooo-style monsters. It's kind of ... bland. I mean, I mostly used a kit and additions suggested by the guys at the shop (some sort of finishing hop that I can't recall the details of and an English yeast) so I suspect this is a product of that. You know, the goal being an easy-drinking, inoffensive pale ale. Crisp. Clean. For a first attempt at, well, dumping a few packets worth of stuff into a container and walking away for a while I'm happy enough.

Edited January 20, 2014 by ChrisTaylor (log)

[Pilori]

Congrats on your first homebrew ChrisTaylor! It's a lot of fun and can be very rewarding!

I'd recommend next time using priming sugar (or table sugar) to carbonate your beer and to use a priming sugar calculator so you can match your level of carbonation to the particular beer style you are aiming for.

[ChrisTaylor]

Sierra Nevada's Celebration Fresh Hop Ale (2012). Billed as a brew suited to the holidays--which means something a little different to me than it does to most of you people. It's hoppy and malty without one of those qualities really beating the other into submission. I've had a so-so experience with Sierra Nevada so far--I really enjoyed their rye beer but think most of the readily available ones are overrated--but I like this one. It's working nicely with a platter of cheeses: particularly the aged French cheddar which has an outside so nasty it looks like it's about to jump up, run over my desk and steal my beer. Afternoon tea of champions.

[Ashen]

I don't as a rule go in for flavoured beers but this one is quite nice. It has a undertone of vanilla that reminds me of a beer float made with really good vanilla ice cream.. the nitrogen charge on the can gave a very generous and creamy head.

[FrogPrincesse]

I was very eager to try the latest batch of Enjoy By IPA from Stone (02.14.14). Disappointment - very little fizz. The taste was right but the beer was practically flat.

Here is the October release, but on draft, for reference (in the front).

Edited January 27, 2014 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[rotuts]

Im not that much of a beer person, but have a couple of bottle of Dogfish Head :

Piercing Pils ( pear juice and pear tea )

Sixty-One IPA w syrah grape must

better be real good they were $ 2.50 a bottle !

http://www.dogfish.com/brews-spirits/the-brews/index.htm

Edited January 27, 2014 by rotuts (log)

[Hassouni]

Been dipping into Goose Island Matilda. Now that's a hell of a beer...

[ChrisTaylor]

Sail & Anchor Changing Tides Barleywine Ale 2013. Overly long name. Not doing much for me: the brew, that is, not the name. It's brown and cold, at least. Can only go so wrong there.

[haresfur]

Sail & Anchor Changing Tides Barleywine Ale 2013. Overly long name. Not doing much for me: the brew, that is, not the name. It's brown and cold, at least. Can only go so wrong there.

If it's really a barleywine, try putting some away for a few years.

[ChrisTaylor]

Fat Yak pale ale. Consumed in the shower. A drinkable/accessible summer beer. Didn't lose anything going mass produced.

[teapot]

Here's what we picked to watch our Seahawks play in the Superbowl Sunday. Coincidence? I think not!!

[FrogPrincesse]

Stone Pale Ale and Julian Hard Cider.

Every few years I feel I need to check this local hard cider and see if it had improved. But no, it's still as boring and tasteless as its color (it's the cup on the right hand side!). I do not understand why someone can not make Breton-style cider with our great local Julian apples. I guess it must be a cultural thing, or I was just spoiled with the cider when I lived in France.

No complaints on the Stone Pale Ale, as good as always and even better in draft form.

Edited February 8, 2014 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I was very eager to try the latest batch of Enjoy By IPA from Stone (02.14.14). Disappointment - very little fizz. The taste was right but the beer was practically flat.

Here is the October release, but on draft, for reference (in the front).

My first post in the beer forum! Tonight I opened a bottle of 02.14.14, and you know, it was flat. Lovely flavor, but flat. I wonder if this is intentional? I might write to Stone (once I am sober) to find out. (Also the first time I finished a 22 ounce bottle of Stone in one sitting.)

Even so, the 02.14.14 was (for me) the perfect accompaniment to a spit roasted chicken mechoui, served with cumin and malha heena (coarse Moroccan red salt). With which I ate two thirds of a baguette. The poolish for which I started last night.

The color of 02.14.14 is most beautiful, and looks just like Moroccan tea. Except Moroccan tea is foamy with a head on it, and 02.14.14 is flat.

[la.april]

corona!!! Love it, got a lot of memories including this beer:D

[FrogPrincesse]

I was very eager to try the latest batch of Enjoy By IPA from Stone (02.14.14). Disappointment - very little fizz. The taste was right but the beer was practically flat.

Here is the October release, but on draft, for reference (in the front).

My first post in the beer forum! Tonight I opened a bottle of 02.14.14, and you know, it was flat. Lovely flavor, but flat. I wonder if this is intentional? I might write to Stone (once I am sober) to find out. (Also the first time I finished a 22 ounce bottle of Stone in one sitting.)

I don't believe it's intentional. If it is, then why would the draft be so different from the bottled beer?

Anyway, Greg just left for a well-deserved sabbatical, so maybe we should cut him some slack...

Yesterday I tried Anchor's O.B.A. (Our Barrel Ale) on tap at Fathom Bistro, Bait & Tackle. It's a whiskey barrel-aged American strong ale (the same barrels used for their Old Potrero rye whiskey). This one too had little fizz (a bit more than the Stone). Tastewise, very mellow and super drinkable while showing complexity - malts, caramel, nuts. They had some issues in the kitchen, and my food (a simple sausage sandwich) showed up well after I had finished my beer, but between the view and the great beer it was not so bad really.

[FrogPrincesse]

I forgot to post this - here was the beer menu that day.

[FrogPrincesse]

There will be blood...

 

Finally opened AleSmith's My Bloody Valentine, their Valentine's day release. Dark amber in the glass. Good hop aroma. Not a ton of carbonation. Hoppy and malty/caramel at the same time.

 

It was nice with a Delmonico steak cooked rare and some red carrots (it looks like there was a theme there, although it was completely unintentional!).

 

 

 

The bottle had notes in the back similar to Stone. I don't believe they were doing that in the past.

 

 

Edited March 4, 2014 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[FrogPrincesse]

After finishing MBV I opened a bottle of Shegöat from the Bruery, a "German-style ale". I was not expecting what followed. Beautiful aromas with the most distinctive ester flavors (mostly banana). Also good maltiness. It has flavor and depth. What a fabulous beer. I wish I could find more.

 

From the Bruery:

Shegöat is a brand new beer to our lineup, based on one of Patrick’s original, multiple award winning homebrew recipes. Based primarily on the traditional weizenbock style of Germany, brewed with both malted barley and wheat, the beer is rich in the flavors of bananas, cloves and caramel with a notes of cake spice hovering in the background. Just like the banana bread that großmutter used to make.

 

 

 

[FrogPrincesse]

From the backlog, a classic. Samuel Smith Nut Brown Ale. Nutty/malty with a nice dose of bitterness. Dry finish.

 

 

 

 

[FrogPrincesse]

Fat Tire amber ale (New Belgium). I hadn't had that one in ages. It's ok. Malt/petit beurre biscuit flavor. But it's very thin and watery, and does not have much body. I would not buy it again.

 

 

 

 

[FrogPrincesse]

From this weekend, an old friend (on the left) - Lost Abbey's Avant Garde ale (which is, as its name suggests, a bière de garde), and a Triple IPA "Hop Way to the Danger Zone" from local brewery Acoustic Ales.

 

 

 

The triple IPA had a good IPA flavor profile; hoppy and floral with some depth. Relatively low carbonation and thin body were minuses. But on the plus side, a fantastic passion fruit aroma, and it's super drinkable. Oh, and as I realized after a few sips, it packs a punch at 10% ABV...

 

Additional tasting notes from the brewery:

This aggressively hopped Triple IPA is surprisingly smooth! Aromas of pineapple and grapefruit marmalade notes tantalize the nose of this medium bodied Triple IPA. Pine essence and floral bitterness hit the palate right away while orange rind and malt evidence lingers on the tongue.

 

[ChrisTaylor]

Sierra Nevada's Summerfest lager. First time I've had this one I think. Maybe. Possibly. Anyway, it's okay. Probably the least interesting Nevada I've tried. I mean, I've had mixed opinions of their beers thus far--some are overrated, some are very good--but while this one is very drinkable (summer beer on a warm autumn night) it's not hardly inspiring. But whatever. It's pleasant. That'll do, pig. That'll do.

 

Went on a bit of an American kick, actually. Decided I'd try Sam Adams. Grabbed a pilsner and ... something else. Will report back.

[ChrisTaylor]

My first two Sam Adams experiences:

 

* Noble Pilsner. This was okay. Maybe a little better than the Summerfest, 

* Boston Lager. I like this one. Malty good.