Category Archives: 3 – Indifferent (might buy, probably drink)

Against The Grain Fruitus The Farmer Beescake

Brewery: Against The Grain Brewery
Country: USA
ABV: 8%
Style: Belgian Saison
Other Notes: All Funked Up Wild Series

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Melon and honey Saison finished with Brettanomyces.

My rating: 3
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.84
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.6

Intro: A 750ml bottle with no bottled on or best before date that I could see. A slow gusher when opened. Poured into a Lost Abbey teku glass.
Appearance: A slightly hazy golden orange colour with a two finger white head that dissipated fairly quickly to a settled thin layer and sparse lacing.
Aroma: Light peppery spice, hints of mustiness, some tropical peach and orange juice with an interesting melon-y honeydew and cantaloupe in the background.
Taste: Quite sweet honey, cantaloupe, honeydew, blood orange with hints of funk and pepper spice.
Mouthfeel: Medium to light bodied with moderate prickly carbonation.
Overall: This was nice and interestingly different with the melon aroma and flavours. It’s actually great for summers, but I would have preferred it in a small bottle as it is quite sweet.

Beerbliotek What’s Better Than Eating A Mandarin?

Brewery: Beerbliotek
Country: Sweden
ABV: 3.5%
Style: German Berliner Weisse
Other Notes: 330ml of 2000L. Mandarin, Mango & Ginger Berliner

Brewer Description: (from can) For answers to riddles like this one and more, please have a look at the joke book on your uncle’s bookshelf or maybe just Ask Jeeves.

My rating: 3
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.55
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.3

Intro: A 330ml can with a best before date of xx October 2017 (xx was rubbed off). Poured into a Lost Abbey teku glass.
Appearance: A hazy straw yellow colour with a one finger white head that dissipated to nothing almost immediately and no lacing.
Aroma: Mango, orange, mandarin with a dash of lemon, lightly tart, but not getting much ginger.
Taste: Sour unripe mango, ginger ale, orange, lemon and wheatiness on the back end.
Mouthfeel: Light bodied with moderate to high carbonation.
Overall: Was not great with my first sip, but I must say that it grew on me and got somewhat better. I think it was the ginger that threw me off at first.

Green Flash Palate Wrecker

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.

Samuel Adams Rebel IPA

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.

Sierra Nevada Beer Camp (2017): Golden IPA

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.