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

3 - Indifferent (might buy, probably drink), Beer Reviews, Belgium, Brouwerij De Troch, Lambic - Fruit Sweetened

De Troch Chapeau Framboise

Friday, 3 March 2017 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: Brouwerij De Troch
Country: Belgium
ABV: 3.5%
Style: Belgian Lambic (Fruit Sweetened)
Other Notes: 20% raspberries. Also known as De Troch Framboise Lambic

Brewer Description: (from lambic.info) Chapeau Framboise is a sweetened lambic with natural raspberry juice flavor added and natural sweeteners.

My rating: 3
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.44
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.3

Intro: A 375ml bottle with a best before date of 30th December 2017. Poured into a Cantillon ballon glass.
Appearance: A clear brownish colour with a slight red tint and a just less than one finger white head that dissipated fairly quickly while leaving some sparse lacing.
Aroma: Sweet raspberry jam and grape juice.
Taste: Similar to the aroma, it was very sweet, on the verge of being too sweet for me. Lots of raspberry jam, with hints of grape juice and apple.
Mouthfeel: Light bodied with moderate to light carbonation.
Overall: The aromas are nice, but its taste is on the verge of being too sweet in my opinion. Don’t think I can drink more than one small bottle in a single sitting.

3 - Indifferent (might buy, probably drink), 8 Wired Brewing Co., Beer Reviews, New Zealand, Wild Ale

8 Wired Wild Feijoa Sour Ale 2013

Wednesday, 1 March 2017 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: 8 Wired Brewing Co.
Country: New Zealand
ABV: 9.5%
Style: American Wild Ale
Other Notes: 2013 vintage. Aged in wine barrels. Refermented in bottle, please decant carefully of the sediment

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Ale brewed with feijoas & aged in wine barrels.

My rating: 3
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.77
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.6

Intro: First thing first… so what is a feijoa? After reading wiki, I’m still not really sure how to answer this correctly, other than that it is a fruit which is supposed to taste like pineapple, apple and mint. Anyway, this was a 500ml bottle with no clear bottled on or best by date other than that it was a 2013 version. Poured into a Lost Abbey teku glass.
Appearance: A hazy copper dark orange colour with pretty much no head and no lacing. Sounded like I was pouring a bottle of soda into the glass with all the fizzing sounds.
Aroma: Sour, fruity, grape, white wine, apple and wood.
Taste: It’s what you’d expect from the aroma. Sour, white grape, vinegar, wood, apple juice and hints of citrus.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with low carbonation (which was unexpected considering the soda like pour I heard).
Overall: At 9.5% ABV, the alcohol is well hidden. I still don’t really know what feijoa really is, but this sour ale is quite nice. The wine barrel aging also really comes through and adds nice woodiness, wine and grape flavours to the beer (unless it actually comes from the feijoa’s… lol…).

3 - Indifferent (might buy, probably drink), Amager Bryghus x Prairie Artisan Ales, Beer Reviews, Denmark, Farmhouse Saison

Amager x Prairie Tulsa Twister

Monday, 20 February 2017 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: Amager Bryghus x Prairie Artisan Ales
Country: Denmark
ABV: 7.5%
Style: Belgian Saison
Other Notes: Batch no. 865

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Hopefully we don’t insult anybody by claiming that Oklahoma was quite a beer wasteland until just recently. Then, along came the brothers Healey, Colin and Chase, with guts, stamina and an awful lot of talent. And well, the rest is history… Prairie – originally a gypsy operation – soon became one of the most buzzed about craft breweries, not only in Oklahoma, not only in the US, but in the world. So when these dudes were invited to the Copenhagen Beer Celebration it was only natural for us to invite them to Amager also. And naturally the style chosen for our collaboration had to be a Farmhouse Saison, a style that Prairie has very much excelled at brewing. One of the Amager crew is still terribly ashamed of sleeping through a tornado warning at a motel room somewhere in Oklahoma years ago, so out of respect for the powers from above we named the beer “Tulsa Twister”. As loud and frightening as a twister is, as cool and laid back are the dudes from Prairie. We had a great day of brewing and friendship – we hope it shows in the beer.

My rating: 3
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.66
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.6

Intro: A 500ml bottle, batch no. 865 with a best before date of September 2017. Poured into a d’Achouffe tulip glass.
Appearance: A cloudy golden yellow orange colour with a big fluffy three finger white head that has great retention and left some thick lacing.
Aroma: Funky, tropical mango plus citrus orange and lemon.
Taste: Funky, grassy, hay, orange, lemon, floral and pepper spice.
Mouthfeel: Dry, light bodied with high carbonation.
Overall: An enjoyable collaboration between two great breweries. The pepper was perhaps a touch too overpowering, but its still a nice Saison to drink.

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

Founders Azacca India Pale Ale

Friday, 17 February 2017 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: Founders Brewing Company
Country: USA
ABV: 7%
Style: American IPA
Other Notes: 70 IBUs

Brewer Description: (from packaging) Named after the Haitian God of Agriculture. The Azacca hop has an intense tropical aroma with hints of citrus and mango. A touch of caramel malt gives a sweet backbone to support the righteous fruit character of this beer. Pouring a burnt orange color and registering at 7.0% ABV. Your taste buds will worship this heavenly, hopped delight.

My rating: 3
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.77
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.6

Intro: A 12 fl oz bottle with a best by date of 10th May 2017. Poured into a Spiegelau IPA glass.
Appearance: A clear copper orange colour with a big three finger off white head that had great retention and lacing.
Aroma: Mango, pineapple, orange and pine with lingering citrus rind and zest.
Taste: Sweet caramel malts with tropical mango and pineapple, followed by pine and bitter citrus rind and zest. There’s also a touch of herbal and floral element on the finish.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate to light carbonation.
Overall: This was a decent IPA, but a touch on the sweet side for me as I prefer nice long lasting bitterness.

3 - Indifferent (might buy, probably drink), Beer Reviews, Founders Brewing Company, Stout - Imperial, USA

Founders Lizard of Koz

Thursday, 16 February 2017 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: Founders Brewing Company
Country: USA
ABV: 10.5%
Style: American Imperial Stout
Other Notes: 40 IBUs

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Imperial Stout brewed with blueberries, chocolate and vanilla. Aged in bourbon barrels.

My rating: 3
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.53
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.4

Intro: A 750ml bottle with no visible bottled on or best by date. Poured into a snifter.
Appearance: Black in colour with a one finger tanned head that dissipated fairly quickly while leaving some spotty lacing.
Aroma: Roasted malts, milk chocolate, vanilla and sour blueberries. It sounds good, but this combination in this form was a bit of a disappointment for me.
Taste: Overwhelming sweet blueberries and chocolate with only a touch of vanilla. I feel the bourbon is actually there too, kind of creeps in here and there, but is just completely covered by the blueberries.
Mouthfeel: Full bodied with low carbonation.
Overall: This seems to be a love or hate beer for a lot of people, even though I appear to be kind of in the middle. I shared this with my girlfriend who had about 200ml, while I finished the other 550ml. The first few sips were actually pretty good, but towards the end, due to the sweetness, it was slow going trying to finish it. I felt this would have been better in a 12 fl oz bottle. This way, one person could enjoy it and you could just open another bottle if you needed more. Perhaps aging this would make it better by toning down the blueberries, but as always, there’s no guarantees.

words of another dreamy traveller