Category Archives: 4 – Good (buy)

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project, USA, Wild Ale

Crooked Stave Mama Bear’s Sour Cherry Pie

Thursday, 23 February 2017 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project
Country: USA
ABV: 7%
Style: American Wild Ale

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Burgundy sour ale aged in oak barrels with Colorado Montmorency cherries.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.17
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.2

Intro: A 375ml bottle, bottled in September 2015. Poured into a Lost Abbey teku glass.
Appearance: A slightly cloudy dark reddish brown colour, with a just over one finger reddish beige head that dissipated slowly and left some sparse lacing.
Aroma: Tart and sweet cherry, oak and perhaps a light funk.
Taste: Sour, strong lemon juice with some cherry and oak creeping through here and there and hints of almond. Long acidic sour finish.
Mouthfeel: Medium to light bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: While there was some sweetness in the aroma, it was pretty much mostly sour with an acidic bite in the taste. I think you really have to like sour things to enjoy this beer and luckily I do like sour things. Would have preferred it, if more cherries came through though, since cherry pie is in the name, but that is not a deal breaker.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Oskar Blues Brewery, Porter - English, USA

Oskar Blues Death By Coconut

Thursday, 23 February 2017 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: Oskar Blues Brewery
Country: USA
ABV: 6.5%
Style: English Porter
Other Notes: 25 IBUs

Brewer Description: (from website) Intense pure liquid cacao flavors swirl with popping coconut aromas, all supported by a semi-sweet porter made from loads of our dark chocolate and extra dark caramel malt. This limited release specialty comes around once a year to satisfy that sweet tooth, so get ’em while you can before they disappear. At 6.5% ABV and 25 IBUs, this choconut goodness will have you yellin’ “Pass. Dash. Hit.” all winter long.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.08
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.9

Intro: A 12 fl oz can with a canned on date of 6th October 2016. Poured into a Lost Abbey teku glass.
Appearance: Black in colour with a dark brown hue on the edges, a two finger tanned head that had decent retention and nice lacing.
Aroma: Strong coconut and vanilla with chocolate, caramel and biscuit.
Taste: Sweet-ish milk chocolate, coconut and vanilla.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with low carbonation.
Overall: I preferred the taste over the aroma as I felt that the coconut was a bit overpowering in the aroma. This was not the case with the taste which was on the sweet side but still nicely flavoured. An easy drinking Porter.

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

Mountain Goat Rare Breed Pulped Fiction Blood Orange IPA

Tuesday, 21 February 2017 kitch 2 Comments

Brewery: Mountain Goat Beer Pty. Ltd.
Country: Australia
ABV: 7.8%
Style: American Double IPA
Other Notes: Water – Melbourne water. Malt – Vienna, Redback, American Ale, Maris Otter, Pale Crystal and Shepherd’s Delight. Hops – Citra and Mosaic. Adjunct – Blood Orange.

Brewer Description: (from bottle) This is a Double IPA with a blast of real blood orange juice added during secondary fermentation. The tang from the juice combines with the citrus-like characters of Citra and Mosaic hops creating a sensation equal parts bitter and tart. It’s big, clean and thirst quenching.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.97
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.9

Intro: A 640ml bottle with a best before date of 30th November 2017. Poured into a Spiegelau IPA glass.
Appearance: Poured a clear copper colour with a slight orange hue, a one finger off white head that settles to a thin layer with sticky lacing.
Aroma: Pine, citrusy grapefruit and orange rind, pith and peel with hints of tropical mango and caramel malt.
Taste: Citrus orange rind and pith with grapefruit peel bitterness, some resinous pine, with a good touch of sweet caramel malt and blood orange to balance.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate to light carbonation.
Overall: This was nice and easy to drink. A good balance between the hop bitterness and sweet-ish caramel malt. It’s probably on the border of being between an IPA and Double IPA, but overall, I’d say that it’s an enjoyable Double IPA.

4 - Good (buy), American Strong Ale, Beer Reviews, Deschutes Brewery x Hair of the Dog Brewing Company, USA

Deschutes x Hair of the Dog Collage #2 Conflux Series

Friday, 3 February 2017 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: Deschutes Brewery x Hair of the Dog Brewing Company
Country: USA
ABV: 14.3%
Style: American Strong Ale
Other Notes: Blend of Deschutes’ The Abyss and The Stoic with Hair of the Dog’s Fred and Doggie Claws. 19 IBUs

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Deschutes Brewery and Hair of the Dog Brewing Company bring you another artistic collage of cask-aging alchemy. This encore collaboration delivers notes of vanilla, caramel and molasses with roasted accents and complex malt character.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.34
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.2

Intro: A 22 fl oz bottle with a bottled on date of 1st August 2016. Poured into a snifter glass.
Appearance: A clear dark amber brown colour with pretty much no head other than an extremely thin tanned coloured layer that doesn’t even cover it completely and dissipates quickly. Only some sparse lacing.
Aroma: Lots of dark fruits especially raisins, cherry, raspberries, plum and prunes. Following that, there’s roasted malt, caramel, toffee, oak, vanilla, molasses, chocolate and whiskey. The Pinot character seems to come out more as it warms.
Taste: Chocolate and cocoa at the beginning followed by some dark fruit, mainly raisin, cherry and prunes. In the middle there is some red wine coming through before finishing with caramel, toffee, vanilla, oak, molasses and whiskey.
Mouthfeel: Full bodied with light but prickly carbonation and light alcohol warmth.
Overall: This wonderful sipper has complex aromas and taste. It is very well blended as the result is well balanced. Good fruit, malt and barrel character. I already have another bottle to age.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Denmark, Fruit Beer, To Øl

To Øl Berry White

Saturday, 28 January 2017 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: To Øl
Country: Denmark
ABV: 5%
Style: Fruit Beer
Other Notes: White Ale brewed with blueberries and blackberries. Brewed and bottled by To Øl at De Proef Brouwerij

Brewer Description: (from bottle) We did our best to create a tempting, romantic white ale brewed with blackberries and blueberries. It’ll make you feel this way, like a first morning dew on a brand new day.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.98
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.9

Intro: A 330ml bottle with a best before date of 3rd February 2019. Poured into a Lost Abbey teku glass.
Appearance: A hazy dark reddish purple colour with a two finger pink head that had good retention and left great lacing.
Aroma: Mixed berries juice. Blackberries, blueberries, raspberries and grape.
Taste: Lightly tart, with blackberries, blueberries, grape and lemon.
Mouthfeel: Light bodied with moderate to high carbonation.
Overall: Very juicy and nice to drink. Not much of the White Ale base really seems to come through, if at all. But that doesn’t take away from it, and its refreshing, fruity character.

words of another dreamy traveller