Category Archives: 4 – Good (buy)

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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4 - Good (buy), Australia, Beer Reviews, Farmhouse Saison, La Sirène Brewing

La Sirène Saison

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Brewery: La Sirène Brewing
Country: Australia
ABV: 6.5%
Style: Saison

Brewer Description: (from La Sirène website) La Sirène Saison is a beer that is special to our hearts and is a tribute to the style born in the Wallonia region of Southern Belgium where these Farmhouse styles were brewed to quench the thirst of field workers. Our classic award-winning Saison pours a deep golden ornage with aromas of wild fruits. Complex rustic flavours of spice and a little funk (courtesy of our yeast) combine deliciously to finally deliver a dry crisp finish. Santé!

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.3
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.2

Intro: Don’t really like it when a beer doesn’t have a bottled date or even a best before date, and there were none here. Poured from a 375ml bottle into a tulip glass.
Appearance: The beer poured a very hazy golden orange colour with a thick fluffy two and half finger head that had pretty good retention leaving a quite thick lace ring. There was also quite a bit of sediment at the bottom of the bottle.
Aroma: Crisp funk with citrus orange, lemon and pear
Taste: Tart sourness, funk, orange, lemon, apple then leaves a lasting pear aftertaste.
Mouthfeel: Crisp, light with good carbonation.
Overall: A nice crisp saison that I would probably buy again. Very refreshing.

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4 - Good (buy), Anderson Valley Brewing Company, Beer Reviews, USA, Winter Warmer

Anderson Valley Winter Solstice Seasonal Ale

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Brewery: Anderson Valley Brewing Company
Country: USA
ABV: 6.9%
Style: Winter Warmer
Other Notes: Only available in winter (September to February)

Brewer Description: (from Anderson Valley website) Winter Solstice® is our take on the classic style of “winter warmer.” Boasting a deep amber hue and rich mouthfeel, its creamy finish will lift your spirits. Hints of toffee, spice, and caramel tease the senses making this the perfect ale to share with friends and family during the cold days and long nights of winter.

(from bottle) Brilliantly clear dark copper color with a dense tan head. Caramelized malty and spicy aromas redolent of cinnamon, allspice, black currant, and black licorice. Pleasantly creamy, with a silky body, sweet caramel flavor, hints of seasonal spices and a clean, malty finish.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.77
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.7

Intro: 12oz bottle which has a best before 10 June 2016 sticker on it (seems a bit long too me…).
Appearance: Poured into a pint glass a slightly hazy deep amber colour. One finger tan head which disappears slowly.
Aroma: Strong vanilla, caramel and malt in that order followed by some light toffee.
Taste: Very much like the nose. Prominent vanilla and toffee followed by caramel. Not too sweet which I like.
Mouthfeel: Full bodied, creamy with some light carbonation.
Overall: This one surprised me in a good way. Although the aroma was a bit weak, the taste was nice as the vanilla, toffee and caramel tastes mixed well together. I would buy this again, but definitely for the winter while its cold and not during the warm spring as it is now.

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4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Birra del Borgo, Country, Fruit Beer, Italy

Birra del Borgo Rubus

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Brewery: Birra del Borgo
Country: Italy
ABV: 5.8%
Style: Fruit Beer
Other Notes: 21 IBU

Brewer Description: (from website) A romantic love story in a shade of pink between raspberries and our Duchessa. A passionate adventure made of spontaneous and controlled fermentation, passion, time. An extraordinary plot, to be sipped until the last drop. Rubus idaeus – raspberry – is the main character, our spelt beer Duchessa is the starting point. 100 grams of fresh fruit are added for every liter of beer; they start a wild fermentation that gives the beer a unique profile with a marked sharpness, well balanced by the berries’ smell. It perfectly substitutes a pink sparkling wine as an aperitif.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.98
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.8

Intro: A unique bottle shape and raspberries practically sold itself to me. A 330ml bottle poured into a La Chouffe tulip glass. Label on the back says best before October 2016.
Appearance: Poured a pinkish copper (rosa according to their own website), small amount of haze and very light head
Aroma: First thought was apple juice, then lots of tart raspberries
Taste: Definitely sour, acidic, tart raspberries and strawberry
Mouthfeel: Very crisp, light body, light carbonation but a bit sticky at the end
Overall: Went down easy like drinking juice. I like the sour tart raspberry flavour but would have preferred more carbonation

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