Monthly Archives: June 2017

3 - Indifferent (might buy, probably drink), American Double IPA, Beer Reviews, Green Flash Brewing Co., USA

Green Flash Palate Wrecker

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Brewery: Green Flash Brewing Co.
Country: USA
ABV: 9.5%
Style: American Double IPA
Other Notes: 100+ IBUs. 6lbs of hops per barrel. Hops – Centennial, Columbus and Simcoe

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Our heavy hitter. Weighing in at six pounds of hops per barrel, Palate Wrecker stands up to the hoppiest heavyweight in the ring. A complex double-brewing process of mashing and sparging with hopped wort and special hop layering techniques used during a hop crisis define this champion. An abundance of Centennial, Columbus and Simcoe hops challenge and stun hop heads with an aggressive hop-forward attack. Your palate will recover, but you will remember that last round forever.

My rating: 3
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.82
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.7

Intro: A 12 fl oz bottle with a best before date of 8th August 2017. Poured into a Lost Abbey teku glass.
Appearance: A very nice clear copper amber colour with a two finger off white head that had great retention and left lots of nice sticky lacing.
Aroma: Earthy, piney with citrus mandarin, sweet candied orange and hints of caramel malt.
Taste: Strong bitterness, lots of citrus rind, and whenever they can get through the bitterness, there’s some pine, orange, grapefruit, citrus peel with hints of bready malt and caramel.
Mouthfeel: Medium to full bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: It was nice but this definitely was a palate wrecker. A whole lot of bitterness, which I can certainly enjoy every now and then, but not too often.

3 - Indifferent (might buy, probably drink), American IPA, Beer Reviews, Boston Beer Company, USA

Samuel Adams Rebel IPA

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Brewery: Boston Beer Company
Country: USA
ABV: 6.5%
Style: American IPA

Brewer Description: Didn’t try too hard to find, but the official description for the Rebel IPA was already replaced by the newer 2017 version, of which this was not.

My rating: 3
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.47
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.3

Intro: A 355ml bottle with a notched best before date of March 2018. Poured into a Lost Abbey teku glass.
Appearance: A nice and clear dark orange copper colour with an almost two finger white head with good retention while leaving lots of nice lacing.
Aroma: Sweet caramel and biscuit malt with hints of grapefruit and pine.
Taste: Very malty caramel and biscuit, with light pine and grapefruit and some lasting bitterness on the finish.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate carbonation and a dry-ish finish.
Overall: Not bad, but too malty an IPA for my liking. Apparently the new version of the Rebel IPA they made in 2017 is more tropical fruity and I feel that may be more my thing.

4 - Good (buy), American Pale Ale, Beer Reviews, Cloudwater Brew Co., England

Cloudwater DDH Simcoe Vic Secret Pale

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Brewery: Cloudwater Brew Co.
Country: England
ABV: 5.5%
Style: American Pale Ale
Other Notes: Spring-Summer 2017. Specialising in modern, seasonal beer. Malts – Golden Promise, Wheat, Dextrin Malt and Carapils. Yeast – WLP001. Hops – Simcoe, Vic Secret, Chinook and Pilgrim Alpha CO2 Extract

Brewer Description: (from can) Our second mid strength Pale, double dry hopped with Simcoe, Vic Secret and Chinook. We increased the Carapils and Dextrin malt for a richer mouthfeel and fermented with WLP001 for a neutral yeast profile.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.35
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.1

Intro: A 440ml can, canned on 28th April 2017 and with a best before date of end of August 2017. Poured into a Lost Abbey teku glass.
Appearance: A cloudy golden orange colour with a one finger white head that had decent retention and left some lacing.
Aroma: Mango and passionfruit with hints of peach, orange and grapefruit.
Taste: Tastes similar to the aroma with mango, peach, apricot, mandarin and orange with a nice finish of bitter zesty citrus rind.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: A nice juicy Pale Ale that’s great to drink.

3 - Indifferent (might buy, probably drink), American IPA, Beer Reviews, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, USA

Sierra Nevada Beer Camp (2017): Golden IPA

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Brewery: Sierra Nevada Brewing Company
Country: USA
ABV: 6.5%
Style: American IPA
Other Notes: Spring seasonal. A new beer every year

Brewer Description: (from bottle) At Beer Camp, no beer style is off limits, so we jumped at the idea of doing a Golden IPA using wheat malt for a light, dry body and bold American and experimental hops for intense citrus flavor. The perfect spring seasonal, we invite you to enjoy this year’s Beer Camp encore.

My rating: 3
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.79
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.7

Intro: A 12 fl oz bottle with a packaged on date of 10th February 2017. Poured into a Lost Abbey teku glass.
Appearance: A lightly hazy golden straw yellow colour with a two finger white head that had good retention and left nice lacing.
Aroma: Bready, wheaty and pineapple with hints of sweet citrusy mandarin.
Taste: Candied pineapple, sweet candy lemon, lots of floralness with some light bitterness on the end.
Mouthfeel: Crisp, dry-ish, medium to light bodied with moderate to high carbonation.
Overall: Easy to drink but a bit too much floral characters for me to fully enjoy.

4 - Good (buy), American Double IPA, Beer Reviews, Hong Kong, Young Master Brewery

Young Master Yat Cheen

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Brewery: Young Master Brewery
Country: Hong Kong
ABV: 10%
Style: American Double IPA
Other Notes: 100 IBUs. Malts – All Malt (five variety blend). Hops – Citra and Mosaic

Brewer Description: (from website) When life (or your hop supplier) gives you €1,000 of free hops, you do the obvious. Make a single 1,000L batch with all the hops thrown in the same batch and of course you make it a punchy 10.00% DIPA. We genuinely thought this was going to be a one-off. Having (extensively) tasted it now though…

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.83
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.7

Intro: Young Master released 100 specially bottled versions of Yat Cheen on 24th May 2017. I am unsure of their reasons to hold back the release of these bottles though as I would definitely prefer this as fresh as possible, but it is what it is, and I was just glad to be able to try it as I missed the earlier opportunities. It was a 750ml corked and caged bottle, bottle number 46 of 100, and poured into a Lost Abbey teku glass.
Appearance: A slightly cloudy golden orange colour with a two finger white head that had good retention and left lots of nice sticky lacing.
Aroma: Lots of citrusy grapefruit, grapefruit rind, pine and pineapple with hints of mango on the backend.
Taste: Grapefruit rind and peel with hints of pine, light malt sweetness and a nice long bitter finish.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate to light carbonation.
Overall: It was nice and easy to drink with the 10% ABV well hidden. From the description, it appears that YM have reconsidered the one-off decision and will brew this again, and I am excited as I definitely want to try this fresh.