Whats In The Glass (commercial)

[Thunderlips]

Not too bad on evil bay, less than Aus$10, add postage though from the UK. Probably not as nice as Tonys at a guess.

I asked him a couple of weeks back about postage to Oz.

22 pounds air mail for 4 glasses.

13 pounds for surface.

I do prefer the wording on Tony's though.

 

[hefevice]

The Italian Odyssey continues...Toccalmatto Jadis:

Apparently this is a "double blanche" made with Fontana grape musk. Didn't really leave any strong impressions, but was gone before I knew it, so I guess it was quite drinkable.

 

[Muggus]

and im enjoying this now.

and i will type the word ENJOY in capitals!

A colaboration between Brew dog and stone brewing cant be bad and the first sip had me stop and think. I swished........ collected thoughts....... swished again........... god damn! this is like 3 differnt beers at once. MASSIVE.

On the nose it smells like hardcore IPA..... big hops, citrusy and earthy, some aromas from a dark beer in there too but the hops hold them up well. It all makes an interesting aroma.
Taste is very complex. First bitter hops and rich malty sweet kind of combined. then roast malts but very subtle..... not like a stout and not chocolate. its just smooth roast. cant pick any real yeast character but i woult be suprised if its there. There is soooooo much going on it hard to catch everytnhing.

THis beer has inspired me to brew something VERY out there. Black AIPA made with a belgian yeast.......... sounds fun!

Money well spent!

Couldn't have said it better myself. Truely an awesome, and somewhat inspiration beer. :icon_cheers:

 

[hefevice]

Baladin Wayan Saison:

Bringing it weak on this one in terms of the review, I followed it up with a 750 of Maltus Faber Extra Brune (10%) and obliterated most of the memory. Don't think it was a particularly memorable beer anyway, competent Saison with a bit of a hole mid palate. Easy quaffer, but nothing to write home about.

 

[bum]

No pics for the following because they just aren't worth the battery usage. Infact I'm not even going to review them separately, such is my disdain.

Chinese beers so far: Tsingtao, Pearl River Draught and Anchor Red Crown - Anchor tastes like boiled vegetables, this makes it far and away the stand out beer of the three as it tastes of something at least. Been seeking out something different and seems impossible here. Food has been awesome though.

 

[bum]

Do you ever find yourself hankering for a beer that tastes like one part BUL Guinness, one part sarsparilla and one part water? Well! Have I got a beer for you? No, seriously, you can have it - I don't want it. Stoutbeer is the name it goes by but the World Beer Police should crack down on these ******* for at least two misuses of brewing nomenclature. It is 4.5% though which has the next closest beer I can find beat by 25%.

All the beers have deg Plato on them. Weird. Handy though - it'll help me develop my clones (which I'm assuming I'll need for my planned vaccines against them).

 

[hefevice]

Birra del Borgo RePorter (5.5%ABV):

The Italians know how to make a good looking bottle and label! Apparently this is an "homage to the traditional porter beer of London". Dark chocolate, coffee, very slight vanilla aromas with a little yeasty funk. Noticeable alcohol sweetness in the flavour with some hop presence and a dry finish with balanced bitterness. Firm alcohol warning noticeable in the mouthfeel, which was unexpected at this ABV. Came across to me as more of a Robust Porter. Website can be found here.

 

[Barley Belly]

Good photos and info Tony ^_^

 

[Muggus]

Finally made a trip to Warners at Bay. What an awesome bottleshop.

The first of the spoils of my trip...

Southern Tier Hoppe
Yet to try a beer from these blokes, started off with a cracker!
Certainly not what I was expecting from the name...HOPPE...you expect lots of hops right?
Not necessarily the case; very sweet upfront, really nice biscuity pale malt flavour followed by peppery, citrusy American hops that seem to provide just the right about of bitterness to balance this.
Really enjoyed it...not over the top, i'd almost go as far as to call it a sensible AIPA...who knew there could be such a thing!?

 

[manticle]

No pictures.

Saltram pepperjack ale. Posted about it in the relevant review thread but basically a beer I enjoyed and would try again. Supposedly contains some grape juice which I didn't know prior and didn't pick up. Good balanced beer - both malt and hops present, reminded me of my memory of MG hightail ale.

Brasserie de saint sylvestre: Gavroche

Fizzed up and over when I opened the bottle and gushy every time I pour it.

Slightly murky, pours with a big head that fizzles away quickly to about half but half of what's there is still a reasonable size. Diminishes reasonably quickly but laces well. I know next to nothing about this beer but was assuming it was a flanders red when I bought it and expected a touch of sourness.

first taste (actually just trying to stop the glass from frothing) was a bit metallic.

I'd describe it more as mildly sweet, a bit of malt and almost a slight cherry characteristic. No detectable sourness, slight warm alcohol on the nose with a touch of hop aroma and some toffee.

Nice and refreshing, would definitely have another go. Not the most complex beer in the world but makes me feel like I could make out with a french peasant girl in the autumn after eating a dish made from freshly picked fungus cooked in a rough farmhouse kitchen.

Leffe Veille Cuvee:

Aroma is like poached stone fruits, beer is bright with a perfect head, deep amber colour. Slight touch of yeastiness and spice on the nose.

Flavour is hard to pick. Slight sweetness with bits of vanilla and fruit. Something almost marzipanish (very sublte and associated with the spice/yeast aroma). Touch peppery. Just tried to swirl some in my mouth and it entered my sinuses the wrong way so now all I can smell is yeast. Guessing that yeast phenolics play a big part in this beer.

I'm a fan of all leffes I've tried. This one is no exception but the brun is still top of my list. Definitely up for another bottle or six of this though. Lovely finish but just that subtle hint of yeastiness in the middle that I could do without.

 

[Muggus]

Epic Mayhem
This beer is sort of what you'd come to expect from these guys; lots of big resiny, fruity, spicy NZ hops without being overbearingly bitter or boozy.
Quite easy drinking as far as i'm concerned.

 

[Shed101]

Rogues Shakespeare Stout.

Got all excited about this one ... for no bloody reason. Served warm as is my way to get the most of the flavour it was all mouthfeel and no flavour, way too one-dimensional for my liking.

Velvet smoot in the mouth, belying its relatively tame and short-lasting head, I just didn't get much from it.

"Sut-all" can be good, but I like a stout that is exactly that - strong, robust, solid and tenacious - not too dry and not too sweet. But this was a little too dry for my liking, and at $14 for a 640ml bottle, i'd rather have two Cooper's Extra Stout tallies and a packet of nuts (mmm, nuts and stout... )

No picture ... i'm sure you can imagine what it looks like or have seen it before.

 

[bum]

Pliny the Elder - After an entirely miserable beer week in China I decided I'd burn one of my two bottles of Pliny in celebration of the round-eye's brewing prowess (I had been meaning to keep one for clone formulation and one for comparison once brewed). I have to admit that this is a lot more like the beer I expected before I tried it on tap - it is grassy, resiny and the bitterness is somewhat rough about the edges. The surprisingly delicate aroma is still there but in a less pronounced way. It is still a good beer but if I'd only had it in the bottle I'd be a little lost as to what all the fuss was about. For the benefit of the brewer (who shall remain nameless) whose bottle I lost, the bottle is not a patch on the tap version. The difference is almost worth the airfare alone.

 

[O'Henry]

So Beer Week in Perth was a little crazy with beer related activities everyday. Here is a pic from the Mikkeller single hop tasting held at Carlisle Celebrations yesterday. There were 20 people there and it went for just on two hours. Really informal, just chatting about the beers and what was going on (in them).

I took brief notes on a few of my favs, but they are pretty crap notes.

The Single hop beers are all brewed with the same malts, so the profile was quite sweet and fudgey across the board. It was interesting how some of the hops worked with the malt though. For me, Simcoe had a real sweetness to it, while Tomahawk was an unbalanced bitter punch in the face.

My top three were Centennial, Nugget and Warrior. It was tough to leave Simcoe out, but Nugget and Warrior were just so surprising. Most disappointing was probably Amarillo. It just lacked the real fruity sweetness I was expecting.

As well as the 10 single hop beers, we tried Mikkel and Menno (Weizenbock), Mikkeller Stateside (IPA) and Oatgoop (Barley/Oatwine).

These were all awesome, with the Oatgoop standing out. So smooth and almost like coconut. It was a very strange one to finish on.

Great day! Shame about the spend in the shop afterwards h34r: ...

 

[WSC]

Rogues Shakespeare Stout.

Got all excited about this one ... for no bloody reason. Served warm as is my way to get the most of the flavour it was all mouthfeel and no flavour, way too one-dimensional for my liking.

Velvet smoot in the mouth, belying its relatively tame and short-lasting head, I just didn't get much from it.

"Sut-all" can be good, but I like a stout that is exactly that - strong, robust, solid and tenacious - not too dry and not too sweet. But this was a little too dry for my liking, and at $14 for a 640ml bottle, i'd rather have two Cooper's Extra Stout tallies and a packet of nuts (mmm, nuts and stout... )

No picture ... i'm sure you can imagine what it looks like or have seen it before.

Try Brew Boys Ace of Spades Stout.

I had this last night with a Cooper BES. Found the Ace of Spades to have a nice firm maltiness, not as bitter as the BES but seemed more complex. I am a massive fan of BES but as the Ace of Spades warmed it was great, nice mix of malt, oiliness, roast. Cold the BES was better but as it warmed the Ace of Spades won me over.



dodgy phone pic.

 

[joshuahardie]

A few new ones

Abbaye De Forest Blonde - great tasting Belgian blonde,
New Orleans Dixie Lager - Poured with zero head. website says it is an lager, smells quite hoppy but oddly enough tasted of a belgian pale
Grimbergen Dubbel - Another great beer. I will be buying this again

 

[joshuahardie]

cont...

Hunter Beer Co - Cesnock Love bitter. Great English Ale. Has quite low carbonation, which seems to suit it well. really hit its stride when it warmed up a tad, and very sessionable. great balance.

James Squires - Malt Runner. The consensus here seems that this beer is good, but I hated it. winey, and a touch of sourness. it just didn't seem right to me.

La Chouffe - N'ice. Delicious Christmas ale. tasted of dark fruits, caramel, toffee and reminded me of dates and figs. great on a cold night to sip over an hour.

 

[joshuahardie]

cont...

Lindemans Cassis - A blackcurrant lambic, that tastes like grapejuice has been added. tastes are more grape like than currant like. very very sweet, which knocks some of the tartness out of the base beer. I would of preferred it to be bolder, less on the additives and the the lambic stand out. I enjoyed it, but would prefer their geuze.

Monteiths Doppelbock - Not as big as other doppelbocks I have tried, despite the elevated abv, but this was still a worthy purchase smooth and velvety, not too big on any one flavour from memory

Unibroue - Chambly Noire I can't remember too much about this other than I wished I bought more of it, and I had to fight the wife to get the glass bakc after she tried it. It didn't appear to be as strong or 'belgiany' (if that is a word) as some of their other offerings, no where near as thick, but it was still a wonderful beer, that i would put in a dark strong category.

 

[glennheinzel]

St Austell's Tribute - Citrus aroma, thinnish malty body with perhaps a touch of astringency. Didn't really enjoy it.


Grolsch Weizen - Clove was more pronounced than banana. Plenty of carbonation and a not much hop character. I didn't expect much of Grolsch given that they are a reasonably big brand, however this was a great beer.


Hobgoblin Goliath (4.2%) - After a day of trudging the kids around the Tower of London yesterday, I needed a thirst quencher. I got home and looked at the choices in the beer fridge... Hobgoblin (with the label reading "Traditionally craft-brewed with Pale & Crystal Malts for a sturdy ruby colour and rich malty taste. With a hefty wack of English Fuggles and Styrian Goldings hops..."), Cains Raisin Beer or McEwans 7.2% Champion Ale. I was contemplating that none of the beers were really what I needed, although the Hobgoblin would probably be the best option. It wasn't until I cracked the bottle open that I noticed some additional words "With a hefty wack of English Fuggles and Styrian Goldings hops for a classic refreshing bitterness. Slay your thirst." Awesome. Even served cold it had plenty of hop aroma. Tasting revealed it to have a nice malt presence with hop character poking through-out the flavour range. Great beer and perfect for slaying a giant thirst.


Marstons Fever Pitch - Wangled this off my father-in-law as he was hitting his Carlsberg Special Brews. This is brewed to be almost lager like, which they succeded in as it was inoffensive, not much malt character and a hint of hop character. Give me another Hobgoblin Goliath, please?!


10pm at night. Imagine being able to surf up until this time?

 

[WSC]

Try Brew Boys Ace of Spades Stout.

I had this last night with a Cooper BES. Found the Ace of Spades to have a nice firm maltiness, not as bitter as the BES but seemed more complex. I am a massive fan of BES but as the Ace of Spades warmed it was great, nice mix of malt, oiliness, roast. Cold the BES was better but as it warmed the Ace of Spades won me over.


View attachment 38877
dodgy phone pic.

Rogue Shakespeare Stout vs Youngs Double Choc Stout. Youngs has a strange milk choc aroma, not sure I like it.

Not alot of roast and or bitterness. More raost comes through after it warms and becomes more complex.

Rogue was nice malty and oily, roasty and bitter from the start. Head didn't last long and for some strange reason it was better cold than warmer, warm is was a bit flat flavour wise and actually was less complex as it warmed. Rogue wins when cold. Brew Boys was heaps better.