Beers 30/9/16


Cheeky Monkey – Southern Wailer Hop Flinger West Coat IPA. Supposedly canned on the 28/9 or abouts, and I’d believe that, the hops have the sting on the lips of eating a hop pellet. Very fresh, great smell and great tasting, strong bitterness. The smell of passionfruit and other lovely fruits are really strong all the way through. The taste is bitterness and hops before malt, what malt there is is a lightly sweet hint before being devoured by the hops. Nice, very nice.

Gage Roads – Back Yard Brew ESB. Limited release and a colab with Grant Smith, winner of a competition they ran. MALTY, this is hella malty, roasty, nutty, brown, and English hops. That initial malt hit is really nice, then it balances out and is just a good drink. This was a good beer.

Red Hook – ESB. Sweet smelling carmel malt smell, crushed malt grain smell, light lacing for a head. Tastes malty grain, like eating some malt grains, bready, bitter orange? A malt sweetness that ends quickly in a nice bitterness. Has a good mouthfeel as well, not light or watery and a slightly dry finish. This very nice, a solid ESB with a bit more nice and enjoyable range/depth in flavour than many, but not at all out of character.

Anchor – Porter. Still good, reviewed previously.

Brauerei Heller-Trum / Schlenkerla – Aecht Schlenkerla Eiche  Doppelbock. Good, but not as good as their others I have had. The doppelbock doesnt do it for me as much as say the Rauchbier Urbock or Märzen.

Beers 24/9/16

Innate Brewing – Donald Grump – It’s a brown ale and I think I can taste actual brown malt. Not much mouthfeel and a big head on pour that died down . Smell is light coffee but mainly malt, darker malts, very malty and not any noticeable hops or hops bitterness.

Mash Brewing – Copycat IPA – A Good American style IPA.

Brasserie Belle-Vue – Belle-Vue Kriek – Nice, a good cherry taste without the artifical flavour that comes with many cherry krieks and cherry beers in general.

Beer – 21/9/16

Two Birds – Taco Beer. A Wheat Ale. This was…like a less…less something Saison? It was easy drinking, maybe the spicing/flavouring made me think Saison, coriander like a Saison, lime for some sourness, also brewed with some corn for the Mexican/taco thing??. It was nice, not a taco, I was expecting some kind of spicy hotness I guess. Good beer, would drink again.

Newcastle  – Brown Ale. This is nice and once again a UK sessional beer. Malty, nice, nothing too exciting. I just read the word “legacy brew” and I think this is something a lot of normal/standard/sessional UK beers are. Its a style thats for drinking at a pub when you want a beer, not some craft, modern, interesting or over flavoured or whatever…

 

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.