Monthly Archives: December 2019

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Hong Kong, Wild Ale, Young Master Brewery

Young Master The Grand Master

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Brewery: Young Master Brewery
Country: Hong Kong
ABV: 7.3%
Style: American Wild Ale
Other Notes: 5 IBUs. Bottle 74 of 204. Chardonnay BA Méthode Traditionnelle

Brewer Description: (from website) A blend of foeder and chardonnay barrel aged sours different vintages grand master is a delightfully complex yet very drinkable sour. Initial lemony brightness with hints orange blossom gives way to fuller texture from ageing coconut vanilla notes coating the palate. Its balanced acidity gradually becomes more apparent light acetic bite adding complexity. Its vinuous throughout has satisfying medium dry finish. Happy 40th birthday, Grand Master (Rohit)!

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.02
My ratebeer.com rating: 4

Intro: A 750ml bottle, with no clear bottled on or best before date. Bottle 74 of 204. Poured into a 3 Fonteinen stemmed glass.
Appearance: A hazy golden straw yellow colour with a one finger white head that had decent retention while leaving some nice lacing.
Aroma: Lemon, peach, tart, coconut, vanilla, oak, white wine.
Taste: Sweet, Chardonnay, white wine, oak, vanilla, coconut, light tartness, lemon, lime, vinous, grape, with an oaky vanilla finish.
Mouthfeel: Creamy, medium to light bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: Easy to drink. Very Chardonnay like, quite creamy, lots of oak and vanilla, and vinous. If that’s your thing, you’d enjoy this.

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4 - Good (buy), American Brut IPA, Beer Reviews, Heroes Beer Co. x Young Master Brewery, Hong Kong

Heroes x Young Master Dom Houblon French 75

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Brewery: Heroes Beer Co. x Young Master Brewery
Country: Hong Kong
ABV: 7%
Style: American Brut IPA

Brewer Description: (from can) Bière issue d’une collaboration entre les pantalons rouges et les saucisses.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.12
My ratebeer.com rating: 4

Intro: A 330ml can, canned on 11th October 2019 and with a best before date of 11th July 2020. Poured into a Lost Abbey teku glass.
Appearance: A very lightly hazy golden colour with a one finger white head that dissipated fairly quickly but left some nice lacing.
Aroma: Fruity, peach, apricot, grape, sweet white wine with hints of citrus zest.
Taste: Tropical and citrus fruitiness, peach, apricot, sweet malts, citrus zest, light bitterness, grape, sweet-ish white wine (but not dessert wine sweet).
Mouthfeel: Crisp, light bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: Not sure it’s really Brut IPA like, but I preferred this over the pêche version and the original version. I was never really a fan of the Brut IPA, but this was pretty interesting.

2 - Maybe (likely wouldn't buy, might drink), Beer Reviews, Belgium, Brouwerij Timmermans-John Martin N.V., Lambic - Fruit Sweetened

Timmermans Sloe Lambicus

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Brewery: Brouwerij Timmermans-John Martin N.V.
Country: Belgium
ABV: 3.5%
Style: Belgian Lambic (Fruit Sweetened)
Other Notes: Canned Lambic, sweetened with sugar

Brewer Description: (from website) From its entrance in the glass, we already reveal the maturity of its basic fruit. Its dark ruby color announces many tasty satisfactions reminding that its base is the blackthorn, the fruit which exposes in maturity. Associated for the first time with a brewing fermentation, and married to a young lambic, thus acid, this beer ends in a rich taste browsing 3 delicious stages, from its introduction in mouth. It reveals successively its freshness by a powerful nose, a fruity flavor moderately spreaded with an acidity become modest and conjugated with a conclusion reminding its unpublished basic fruit.

My rating: 2
My beeradvocate.com rating: 2.94
My ratebeer.com rating: 2.8

Intro: A 330ml can with a best before date of 15th February 2020. Poured into a 3 Fonteinen stemmed glass.
Appearance: A purplish ruby red colour with a two finger pinkish head that had decent retention and left some nice lacing.
Aroma: Sweet, candy, dessert, blueberry, vanilla, berry soda.
Taste: Sweet, hard candy, blueberry, vanilla, blueberry milkshake, berry soda, jammy, syrupy, way too sweet.
Mouthfeel: Light bodied, moderate carbonation, way too sweet such that it was uncomfortable.
Overall: Sweetened Lambic with sugar added, which is not my thing, as its generally too sweet for my palate, and this one was definitely way too sweet… so sweet that it was uncomfortable on my palate. Found out that sloe is blackthorn, but I haven’t tried the fruit before. In this case it seems to have resembled blueberry in aroma and taste. Very uncomplex for a fruit lambic, but it was the over sweetness that was the main downfall.

3 - Indifferent (might buy, probably drink), Beer Reviews, Belgium, Brouwerij Timmermans-John Martin N.V., Lambic - Fruit Sweetened

Timmermans Strawberry Lambicus

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Brewery: Brouwerij Timmermans-John Martin N.V.
Country: Belgium
ABV: 4%
Style: Belgian Lambic (Fruit Sweetened)
Other Notes: Canned Lambic, sweetened with sugar

Brewer Description: (from website) For anyone who finds strawberries irresistible, Timmermans Strawberry evokes the fragrance of long sunny days. Its strawberry flavour will have you wrinkling your nose in delight with each sip. Its luminous colour and its fruity freshness are a treat for taste-buds and eyes alike. A totally juicy experience. Timmermans Strawberry Lambicus is brewed by adding natural juice to lambic beer, a blend that is then fermented in oak barrels. After which it is bottled.

Its aroma evokes the perfumes of a lovely summer’s day. Its strawberry flavour confirms the nose’s impression, without being over-sweet, and is enhanced by a real feeling of freshness, recalling those tiny green granules that are found around ripened strawberries. Its taste is consistent and spreads very quickly throughout the mouth, finishing on a note that is fruity rather than sweet.

My rating: 3
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.64
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.5

Intro: A 330ml can with a best before date of 25th December 2019. Poured into a 3 Fonteinen stemmed glass.
Appearance: It poured a slightly hazy reddish pink orange colour with a one finger white head that dissipated fairly quickly and left only sparse lacing.
Aroma: Strawberry hard candy.
Taste: Sweet, strawberry hard candy, strawberry, syrupy, jammy, strawberry soda, too sweet.
Mouthfeel: Light bodied, moderate carbonation, too sweet.
Overall: Sweetened Lambic with sugar added, which is not my thing, as its generally too sweet for my palate. But the strawberry aroma much resembles that of strawberry hard candies which I love. Taste as I said was too sweet, but the strawberry flavours were ok. Very uncomplex for a fruit lambic.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, IPA - Black, Stone Brewing Co., USA

Stone Stygian Descent

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Brewery: Stone Brewing Co.
Country: USA
ABV: 11.6%
Style: American Black IPA
Other Notes: 90 IBUs. Small Batch Series. 2016 Series, Batch No.02. Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Black IPA Ale aged in Rye Whiskey Barrels & Bourbon Barrels. Brewed May 3, 2016, Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Black IPA practically named itself. The perfect melding of dark malts with a downright indecent amount of hops forges a complex flavor profile of assertive dark roastiness and big, bright hop notes for a singularly sublime experience. Malts – Pale, Caramel and Carafa III. Hops – Chinook, Amarillo and Simcoe. Unfiltered and aged 5 months in American Oak Templeton Rye Whiskey Barrels and Kentucky Bourbon Barrels

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Small Batch Brewer Cecil Menasco thought it would be an ingenious experiment to age our dark and deeply hopped Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Black IPA in rye whiskey barrels…and he was right. This time our small batch crew, never a self-satisfied bunch, added bourbon barrels. The result is transcendent: perfectly balanced dark chocolate, oak, dried fruit and citrus tones. As it warms, the spicy rye and sweet bourbon barrel notes complete this masterful transformation.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.19
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.1

Intro: A 500ml corked and caged bottle, 2016 Series, Batch No.02, bottled in October 2016. Poured into a Lost Abbey teku glass.
Appearance: Dark brown to black in colour with a two finger tanned head that had great retention and left lots of nice lacing.
Aroma: Hoppy with some light roast, pine, chocolate, coffee and a touch boozy.
Taste: Roasty, chocolate, coffee, oak, bourbon, hoppy, pine, orange zest.
Mouthfeel: Medium to full bodied with soft carbonation.
Overall: Despite the high ABV%, this was pretty easy to drink as there was good balance between the roast and hops, and although there was some booziness in the aroma, it was well hidden in the taste.