Category Archives: Beer Reviews

3 - Indifferent (might buy, probably drink), Beer Reviews, Equilibrium Brewery, IPA - New England / Hazy, USA

Equilibrium Fractal Riwaka

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Brewery: Equilibrium Brewery
Country: USA
ABV: 6.8%
Style: New England / Hazy IPA

Brewer Description: (from untappd) We are excited to bring you Fractal Riwaka. This is the first beer in Equilibrium’s history using our own hand selected Riwaka. Fractal Riwaka investigates the interplay between our newest Riwaka lot, our revised hopping processes, and simple pale malt base. Fractal Riwaka pours a resinous-hazy-straw yellow releasing aromas of tropical fruit, grasslands, and dank honey dew with complex flavors of passionfruit, assertive grapefruit, earthy grass blades, lime marmalade, and a hint of pink peppercorn packed in a flowable mouthfeel with a firm but rounded bitterness.

My rating: 3
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.96
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.8

Intro: A 1 pint can, canned on 12th January 2022, poured into a winebar glass.
Appearance: A hazy, slightly murky orange colour, with a one finger white head that had pretty good retention while leaving some nice lacing.
Aroma: Mango, grapefruit, lime, with notes of diesel, burning rubber, and roasted sesame at times (but not in a bad way).
Taste: Fruity mango, passionfruit, grapefruit and lime are there, but it’s not as juicy as it would suggest. Grassy, forest leafy, and somewhat dank.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: While not as juicy as I hoped it would be, it was still qood and worth a try.

3 - Indifferent (might buy, probably drink), Beer Reviews, Equilibrium Brewery, IPA - New England / Hazy Double, USA

Equilibrium Vulgar Display of Flowers

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Brewery: Equilibrium Brewery
Country: USA
ABV: 8.5%
Style: New England / Hazy Double IPA
Other Notes: Hoppy · Bitter · DIPA

Brewer Description: Vulgar Display of Flower is a tribute to an aggressive yet balanced assault on the senses. It blends East-meets-West coast DIPA with our own Equilibrium twist. It is dry, bitter, piny, resinous, yet remains smooth, juicy, and drinkable. This concoction displays the hop flower’s assertive yet delicious nature with an #EQjuice finish.

My rating: 3
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.88
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.7

Intro: A 1 pint can, canned on 6th January 2022, poured into a winebar glass.
Appearance: A hazy deep orange colour, with a just over one finger white head that dissipates fairly quickly, but left some nice lacing.
Aroma: Juicy, orange juice, grapefruit rind, resinous, piney, with some tropical fruity apricot notes.
Taste: Lightly bitter, citrus peel and rind, orange, grapefruit, grass, resinous, piney, and a tropical starfruit, papaya finish.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate to soft carbonation.
Overall: It’s not one of my favourites from Equilibrium, but it’s definitely good and worth a try.

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.