Category Archives: Brewer

5 - Excellent (must buy), 8 Wired Brewing Co., American IPA, Beer Reviews, New Zealand

8 Wired Hopwired IPA

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Brewery: 8 Wired Brewing Co.
Country: New Zealand
ABV: 7.3%
Style: IPA
Other Notes: Brewed at Renaissance Brewing for 8 Wired Brewing Co.

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Hopwired was one of the first, true new world IPAs made exclusively with unique NZ hops. In its short life time it has become a modern classic among Kiwi craft beers. Since then, many other IPAs have emerged but we dare say this is still somewhat the benchmark.
Although there is plenty of malt sweetness, this beer is all about the hops. Punchy, aggressive, New Zealand hops that all add up to create wonderful, tropical flavours and aromas. Wine people would talk about waves of passionfruit, limes, tangelos & gooseberries. Luckily we don’t have to go to such detail, so you can just enjoy it without further complication.
Cheers – Soren Eriksen – Brewer

My rating: 5
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.65
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.5

Intro: A 500ml bottle dated best before 1st October 2015 was poured into a pint glass.
Appearance: The beer poured a hazy copper amber colour with a one and a half finger head with good retention leaving nice stringy lacing.
Aroma: Immediate aroma was of pine, grapefruit and lime followed by lots of tropical fruits like mango and pineapple.
Taste: Taste was malt caramel sweetness followed by tropical fruit flavours especially mango, pineapple and orange finishing with a nice bitter pine and grapefruit.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied, medium carbonation, and a slight sticky feeling.
Overall: A very nice balanced IPA. The sweet malts and tropical fruit flavours make it a must buy for me.

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4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Evil Twin Brewing, Stout - Imperial, USA

Evil Twin I Love You With My Stout

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Brewery: Evil Twin Brewing
Country: USA
ABV: 12%
Style: American Imperial Stout
Other Notes: Brewed at Two Roads Brewing Company, Stratford, CT, USA for Evil Twin

Brewer Description: (from bottle) When I copied the famous Even More Jesus, I had to ask myself as an artist, why am I doing this? I didn’t honestly know. It was just an instinct about beer as pure form… in a sense this stout is like a metaphor for freedom – the sum of all the beauty that surrounds me and my perfect contemporary existence.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.35
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.3

Intro: A 12 fl oz bottle with bottle date code of 287:14 (which assuming the 287th day of 2014 means a bottled date of 14 October 2014).
Appearance: The beer poured jet black into a snifter with a nice one finger tan head with good retention leaving spotty lacing.
Aroma: Smells sweet, dark cherry, vanilla, dark chocolate, raisin and there’s definitely alcohol, but nice smelling alcohol like brandy mixed with chocolate.
Taste: Like the nose, sweet lightly burnt sugar, fruit cake, dark cherry, plum, raisins with some dark chocolate in the background and slight bitter finish.
Mouthfeel: Full bodied with light to medium carbonation, slightly creamy.
Overall: I was pleasantly surprised with this beer. It was a more fruity stout than I expected and although sweet, it wasn’t overly done. The chocolate and dark fruit flavours worked together and even though it was boozy, it worked with this style and taste.

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4 - Good (buy), American IPA, Australia, Beer Reviews, Mountain Goat Beer Pty. Ltd.

Mountain Goat In-Breed The Delmont

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Featured image was taken from http://www.brewsnews.com.au.

Brewery: Mountain Goat Beer Pty. Ltd.
Country: Australia
ABV: 6.8%
Style: IPA
Other Notes: In-Breed – This is the brewing expression of one of our goats, who we let off the leash in the brewery. He created this exclusive brew for you drinking pleasure.

Brewer Description: (from bottle) If Tom were a beer he wouldn’t be a mid-strength Australian lager, he wouldn’t be a pale ale or even a session IPA. He’d be a full-blown IPA. Tommy’s magnetically drawn to hops. So when it came his turn to brew an In-Breed it had to be a US style, West Coast IPA.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.25
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.2

Intro: This was a 640ml bottle dated best before 3 May 2015 and poured into a Hoegaarden pint glass.
Appearance: The beer poured a clear copper amber colour with a one finger white head with good retention.
Aroma: The aroma is easily pineapple, grapefruit and pine with light caramel malts in the background.
Taste: Grapefruit is most prominent at the beginning, then pine followed by a caramel malt finish. It has a medium bitterness throughout that is nice.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with medium carbonation.
Overall: A nice IPA overall. The bitterness and light caramel malt in the background is well balanced and enjoyable to drink. I would buy this again.

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4 - Good (buy), American Pale Ale, Australia, Beer Reviews, Stone & Wood Brewing Company

Stone & Wood Pacific Ale

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Brewery: Stone & Wood Brewing Company
Country: Australia
ABV: 4.4%
Style: American Pale Ale

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Born and raised in Byron Bay, Stone & Wood take a fresh approach to brewing handcrafted beer in the Northern Rivers of NSW, one of the greatest places on earth. Inspired by our home on the edge of the Pacific Ocean and brewed using all Australian barley, wheat and Galaxy hops, Pacific Ale is cloudy and golden with a big fruity aroma and a refreshing finish.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.48
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.3

Intro: This 330ml bottle was dated best before 7 October 2015 and was poured into a Hoegaarden pint glass.
Appearance: The beer poured a hazy pale yellow with a one finger big bubble head that disappears fairly quickly.
Aroma: Excellent aromas! Very tropical fruit forward especially mango, pineapple, orange, peach and apricot.
Taste: Like the nose, the taste is of tropical fruits. Mainly mango and peach with a slight bitter lemon finish.
Mouthfeel: Light bodied, crisp, medium carbonation, refreshing.
Overall: This was a good beer, very easy to drink and great for a hot summers day. The one thing stopping me from giving it a must buy 5, is that I would have preferred a higher ABV maybe up to around 6 or 7%.

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4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Bell’s Brewery Inc., Stout - Russian Imperial, USA

Bell’s Expedition Stout

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A friend helped me bring back two 12oz bottles of this to Hong Kong for me from the US. They were packaged on 9 October 2014, so around 6 months now.

Brewery: Bell’s Brewery, Inc.
Country: USA
ABV: 10.5%
Style: Russian Imperial Stout
Other Notes: Available in winter. Brewery states unlimited shelf life.

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Here’s a beer that thirsts for travel, holding up impressively under the rigors of any journey. At the same time, it’s perfectly content to sit quietly in your cellar, aging and improving while you wait for the moment that seems perfectly appropriate for its consumption.

(from brewery website) One of the earliest examples of the Russian Imperial Stout in the United States, Expedition Stout offers immensely complex flavors crafted specifically with vintage aging in mind, as its profile will continue to mature and develop over the years. A huge malt body is matched to a heady blend of chocolate, dark fruits, and other aromas. Intensely bitter in its early months, the flavors will slowly meld and grow in depth as the beer ages.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.16
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.2

Appearance: Poured pitch black into a snifter with a one finger brown head that dissipates in less than a minute leaving some spotty lacing.
Aroma: Strong chocolate smells first followed by sherry, malt and pine. The alcohol also does come through at times.
Taste: Begins sweet with chocolate and malt, then turns bitter dark chocolate, pine, herbal-ey lasting finish. Like the nose, the alcohol is there but leaves a warm feeling.
Mouthfeel: Full bodied, light to medium carbonation, warm, sticky.
Overall: I only got 2 bottles of this… and this was the second bottle. As per the description on the bottle and brewery website, I wish I had more so that I could age it and compare the differences it would make. Having said that, 6 months in, and this was nice.

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