Category Archives: 4 – Good (buy)

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Equilibrium Brewery x The Eighth State Brewing Company, IPA - New England / Hazy Triple, USA

Equilibrium x The Eighth State Super Fractal Phoenix Set

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Brewery: Equilibrium Brewery x The Eighth State Brewing Company
Country: USA
ABV: 10.5%
Style: New England / Hazy Triple IPA

Brewer Description: Super Fractal Phoenix Set uses a simple grain bill of 2row and our specific fractal fermentation profile. For Phoenix Set we used our hand selected Citra and Idaho 7 in the whirlpool and a dry hop of hand selected Citra and Galaxy along with Sabro and Strata at an even higher hopping rate than Batch 1. Super Fractal Phoenix Set pours an opaque yellow tangerine and has a big citrus nose. The flavors are a unique blend of tropical fruits, big peach, citrus, “our melon thing”, passionfruit, coconut and an underlying dankness. This beer is extremely aromatic, crushable and smooth with an BIG #EQjuice profile that might just leave you seeing beautiful shapes and spirals.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.33
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.1

Intro: A 1 pint can, canned on 20th January 2022, poured into a winebar glass.
Appearance: A hazy murky slightly dark orange colour, with a one finger white head that had good retention, and left lots of nice lacing.
Aroma: Citrus pithy, candied orange, mandarin, melon, with light mango notes.
Taste: Juicy, citrus, zesty, pithy, tangy, lightly bitter, orange juice, melon, mango.
Mouthfeel: Creamy, smooth, full bodied with moderate to soft carbonation.
Overall: Very easy to drink with wonderful aroma and flavours, and the alcohol is well hidden that it does not seem like 10.5% ABV at all. Also love that it’s not too sweet and has good balance.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Equilibrium Brewery, IPA - New England / Hazy, USA

Equilibrium Wavelength

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Brewery: Equilibrium Brewery
Country: USA
ABV: 6.5%
Style: New England / Hazy IPA

Brewer Description: A wavelength is the distance between identical points in the adjacent cycles of a waveform signal propagated in space and describes the flow of Photons. We started with oats and white wheat for a base before adding Simcoe and Mosaic to the whirlpool. To get some berry medley notes going we dry hopped with Mosaic and Citra at a 2:1 ratio. Wavelength pours bright yellow with aromas of citrus and stone fruit with crushable flavors of mango and berry with a light refreshing finish.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.13
My ratebeer.com rating: 4

Intro: A 1 pint can, canned on 18th January 2022, poured into a winebar glass.
Appearance: A hazy bright orange colour with a one finger white head that had good retention while leaving some nice lacing.
Aroma: Citrus pithy, orange, grapefruit, melon, green mango, with notes of underripe pineapple.
Taste: Lightly bitter and similar to the aroma, citrus pithy, orange, grapefruit, melon, mango, and a touch of grass and pine.
Mouthfeel: Medium to light bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: A very easy drinking and enjoyable IPA. Always happy to have good IPA’s freshly flown cold chained to Hong Kong, despite the price.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Belgium, De Struise Brouwers, Stout - Russian Imperial

De Struise Black Damnation XVII – Ben

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Brewery: De Struise Brouwers
Country: Belgium
ABV: 13%
Style: Russian Imperial Stout
Other Notes: Bottle 39/2000, 2012 vintage

Brewer Description: (from bottle) A massive stout from Flanders, matured in Benriach barrel.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.02
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.8

Intro: A 750ml bottle, number 39/2000. 2012 vintage, bottled on 29th March 2017. Poured into a snifter glass.
Appearance: Black in colour with a very thin brown head that settled quickly to a ring around the glass and no lacing.
Aroma: Chocolate, dried dark fruits, raisin, prunes, caramel, with some boozy whisky notes.
Taste: Roasted malts, chocolate, coffee, liquorice, boozy, whisky, dried dark fruit, prunes, raisin.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with soft to no carbonation.
Overall: It’s a good enjoyable sipper, but not among my favourites of the Black Damnation variants.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Belgium, Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen, Lambic - Fruit

3 Fonteinen Speling van het Lot IX.iv: Aardbeiiteraties: Aardbei + Kriek – Blended & Alive @3 gr/l dosage

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Brewery: Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen
Country: Belgium
ABV: 5.9%
Style: Lambic – Fruit
Other Notes: Blend°4, Season 18/19. Number of bottles – 1299

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen “Speling van het Lot” (Twist of Fate) is a series of small batch experimental brews, barrel maturations, fruit macerations and/or blends. This 9th version features a range of strawberry maceration iterations aiming at balancing the intense fruitiness of strawberries with the subtleties of traditional lambic while minimising the unpleasant phenolic characteristics of the small pits. For this fruit lambic we barrel macerated sour cherries on a previous barrel macerated strawberry lambic (featured in the ToF IX.i). The proportion is 65% strawberries to 35% sour cherries, while the final intensity is 260 grams of fruit per liter of finished fruit lambic. The ToF’s IX.iv to IX.vii follow the same principal except we played around with the sugar priming dosage, which is in this case 3 grams per liter.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.29
My ratebeer.com rating: 4

Intro: A 750ml corked and caged bottle, blend°4, season 18/19, bottled on 22nd November 2018, and with a best before date of 26th October 2038. Poured into a 3 Fonteinen stemmed glass.
Appearance: A slightly hazy amber orange colour with a very thin white head that dissipated quickly, and no lacing.
Aroma: Very nice strawberry jammy, with light cherry notes. Lightly funky, wood, hay, straw.
Taste: Fruit forward, strawberry, cherry, sour, lemon juice, wood, light funk.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with soft carbonation.
Overall: Good fruit forward and balance of strawberry and cherries. I actually tried the 3F Aardbei/Kriek just before this bottle and I preferred that bottle even though there was slightly more acidity, because there was a more appropriate amount of carbonation for my taste.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Belgium, Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen, Lambic - Fruit

3 Fonteinen Aardbei/Kriek

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Brewery: Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen
Country: Belgium
ABV: 6%
Style: Lambic – Fruit
Other Notes: Blend°7, Season 20/21

Brewer Description: (from bottle) For this Aardbei/Kriek, we blended three quarters of a foeder-matured strawberry lambik (the one we bottled straight away for the 6th blend of this season) and one quarter of a kriekenlambik that macerated for 10 months. The weighted average maceration period is almost four months. The final fruit intensity is at 600 grams of red fruits per litre of Aardbei/Kriek. We bottled it without adding any additional lambik.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.36
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.2

Intro: A 750ml corked and caged bottle, blend°7, season 20/21, bottled on 5th January 2021, with a best before date of 26th October 2041. Poured into a 3 Fonteinen stemmed glass.
Appearance: A hazy orange, amber, pinkish colour with a thin white head that settled fairly quickly to a ring around the glass while leaving some sparse lacing.
Aroma: Strawberries dominate, funk, straw, hay, with light cherry and acetone notes on the finish.
Taste: A little sharp, but unlike the aroma, cherry is stronger here, although the strawberry is still noticeable. Funky, oak, hay, lemon juice.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: Another example of 3 Fonteinen doing well with strawberries in beer. The balance between strawberry and cherry was good, and resulted in something very enjoyable.