Category: Beer

Beer – 17/9/16

Garage Project – White Trash. This is a bit more of an amped up wheat beer than usual re:The last few I have had. Its nice, in an awesome can, in a can as well so…cans rock. Has that almost peppery thing wheat beers do, light but good mouthfeel. Some kind of colab with some clothing/design label. Great label/can print.

Brains – SA Smooth. A nice easy bitter beer. Its definitely smooth, not much else to say. An easy sessional beer.

St Bernardus – Pater 6 and Tripel Abbey Ale . Both great and reviewed probably a few times elsewhere on here.

 

Beers 16/9/16

Gage Roads – Little Dove New World Pale Ale. This is really nice.Very fruity, a nice bitterness at the end of each sip. Very fresh and rather refreshing, no sweetness from the malt, rather dry. So much in the nose and less on the palate.

Samuel Smith – India Ale. A light but nice maltyness, a rather blunt bitterness. Says drink at 11C, so I let it warm up and I guess the bitterness became more pronounced. It’s not bad but it’s rather one dimensional, and old style so you can’t really blame it for being what it is.

Weihenstephaner – Original Helle. This is good, I drank it , nice, easy, nothing too special. I didnt even think to rate it while drinking it because its was so easy. Lager, little bit funky on the hops and on the taste, wheaty? Its all a little bit. Nothing big. For a lager its good on flavour, but its not amazing, its good.

Weihenstephaner – Korbinian. A Doppelbock. Malty and nice, light to medium carbonation, more than guiness carb but not too much. The dark malt is whats going on here. Smells beer, tastes dark but with a nice sweetness, thats then taken over from the dark malt bitterness. Not idea what or where the hops are, theres a end note of maybe hops? but the grain is far more prominent.

Weihenstephaner – Vitus. Wheaty, this isnt bad but doesnt stand out in any way. Reminds me of the Helle, its a wheat beer. Its good but nothing special.

 

Beers – 14/9/16

Oskar Blues – Hotbox Coffee Porter. This was good but may have to get another as I dont remember too much about it [writing this weeks later…]. I do remember it was dark, malty, coffee in a very raw way.

Mornington Peninsula – Nitro Sacchariferous Stout. This is Tinnage 006. A really nice milk stout with that great nitro carbonation.Little bit sweet, nice malt bitterness and a dark thick head.

Nail – Huge Dunn Imperial Brown Ale. Good and probably reviewed elsewhere on here.

Beer 3/9/16

Schofferhofer- Grapefruit Wheat Beer Radler

Petrus – Blond Belgian Pale Ale

Petrus – Dubbel Bruin

Sierra Nevada – Hop Hunter IPA

Sierra Nevada – Torpedo Extra IPA

The Grapefruit Radler was almost lollywater. 2.5 percent , extremely easy drinking, a light grapefruit bitterness and smell. Its a weird one, its not bad but…yeah. If you want a session grapefruit “drink” this may be it.

The Petrus Blond is a weird one, I was expecting something lighter. Its more amber, with a good caramel malty taste, a bit of alcohol present too. Candy malt/syrup I think is what does it? Nice moderate bitterness from hops. Smells “Belgian” if thats a thing, a good malty citrus aroma.

Petrus Dubbel Bruin has a lighter alcohol/candy thing taste than the Blond, and far less smell, still has a light nice fig, dried date, slightly spiced smell thing going on though. The taste is so so, though. Its there, then its gone. Malty, a short sharp hope of what you smell, but thats it.

The Hop Hunter, no idea when this was bottled, cant find a date stamp. I’ve had this before, its Hoppy, but unless its super fresh as hell can I really say how this is much better than many big IPA’s?  Still has that weird corner of the lip burn.

Torpedo…nothing to say, the beer that made me go FUCKING HELL and get into craft beer and know the potential of hops. Its still good.

 

Beer – 3/9/16 – Nail – Chocolate Brown Ale

Has a lot of dark malt bitterness, and a sourness to it I sometimes notice with darker beers. It could be considered watery but it is an Ale, not a Stout or something, and this doesnt come across as a problem as I drink this pint. Its very nice, I could have another where many darker beers one would be heavy, too strong, and enough.

Served at the Belgian Beer Cafe.

Beers – 1/9/16

Cheeky Monkey – Travelling Monk Session Red Ale

Schofferhofer – Hefeweizen

Badger Brewing – Tangle Foot English Pale Ale

The Cheeky Monkey has a really nice bitterness that I dont think is all hops, and Im guessing the chocolate wheat and golden naked oats somehow add to that. The other maybe the Bravo hops – meant to be spicy – but Im unsure if I have encountered them before.  Low alcohol [3.5 percent] and the nice bitterness make it very drinkable.

The Hefe was  nice, an initial banana smell and taste, a spicyness with a nice refreshing citrus afterwards, not too spicy, but its there. This was well prices and definitely a beer I will buy again for casual drinking.

The Tangle Foot has a very nice sweet malty taste to it, caramel like, reminds me of chewing on some caraamber malt. Light fruity smell. It has a fair amount of  bitterness to it, not too much, which is good with the lower carbonation. Its rather abrupt in taste, you sip it, taste it all and then it ends with a slight bitterness and sweetness left, no real lingering aftertaste. Its not bad.

 

Beers – 31/8/16

Magic Rock – High Wire Grapefruit Pale Ale

Magic Rock – Salty Kiss Gooseberry Gose

Holgate Brewing – Hop Tart Semi-Sour Pale Ale

Two canned beers from a UK Craft brewery, not something I see or drink often. Both interesting beers/styles with some interesting ingredients.
The High Wire Grapefruit Pale Ale was nice and had a good grapefruit bitterness, sitting well with the hop bitterness. The Salty Kiss Gooseberry Gose had a nice [goose]berry tartness along with the saltyness, It also contained Sea Buckthorne – which are a berry that tastes “astringent, sour”, and I think I can notice such a taste and it not being the gooseberries, but its hard to say having never tasted Sea Buckthorne.Both good beer, sessionable, refreshing and interesting.

The Hop Tart was also nice, and another sour pale ale – a good combination, I like sour appearing more. Very enjoyable with a nice big bitter and sour hit. Im not sure how many beers I have had from Holgate in the past but this was both tasty and, again, and interesting beer, so I will keep an eye on that name.

Also at the IBS were Hostess Twinkies. I purchased one and my review walking home eating it was:

“Doughy soft, kinda uncooked sponge. The filling is like Fluff marshmallow spread…Wouldn’t eat more than one. Very sweet.”
 The sponge “cake” was surprising a lot sweeter than the filling.
 And heres a picture or two

 

Beer 24/8/16

2016-08-24 20.38.21

Cheeky Monkey – Belgian IPA

This is nice. The bitterness of an IPA, not a crazy IPA, a moderate one,  with the pepperyness from Rye and that Belgian yeastyness of a Saison. Its a good mix. Has the stink of NZ hops and Belgian Saison yeast.

Malts – Abbey, Rye, Caraaroma, Carahell
Hops – Rakau, Cascade, Motueka, Chinook

Doesnt list what particular yeast but I’d guess a Belgian possibly Saison yeast?

Beers 20/8/16

Tennents – Export Original Larger

Brains – Black Welsh Stout

Both of these were good. The larger has a maltyness I dont want to say sweet but, sweeter than a usual larger. A definite lagered yeast flavour, if thats a thing – not a funk but something like that.

The stout was nice and malty, again it has taste to it that wasnt crazy strange but had a different maltyness for a dark malt than I can pin on other beers of this style.

Beers 18/8/16

 

Founders – Re Dank Ulous Imperial Red IPA

8 Wire – Palate Trip Sour IPA

The Founders IRIPA was not very dank, to be honest, I wanted it to be a real dank stinker, but it was just a good beer. Not much else to say. It was good.

The 8 Wire sour IPA is really damn good. The bitter and the sour collide at the right point and work awesome together. Very tart, bitter, nice stuff. This is a style I would like to drink more of.