Brewery: Young Master Brewery Country: Hong Kong ABV: 6.4% Style: American IPA Other Notes: 64 IBUs
Brewer Description: (from bottle) (my summary) Brewed in collaboration with 18 Grams Specialty Coffee using Panamanian Finca Ziska.
My rating: 3 My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.4 My ratebeer.com rating: 3.3
Intro: A 330ml bottle with a best before date of 30th September 2017. Poured into a Lost Abbey teku glass. Appearance: A clear copper colour with a nice two finger white head that had great retention and lots of sticky lacing. Aroma: Ground coffee beans with some kind of nuttiness I can’t quite work out as the grapefruit and light floral aromas keep trying to push through. Doesn’t seem to quite mix together here. Taste: Sweet-ish malt to begin, followed by freshly shelled peanuts and a lightly bitter grapefruit and pine finish. Mouthfeel: Light to medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Overall: I’d be interested to try freshly ground Panama Finca Ziska coffee to see what it tastes like as I’m a little perplexed as to the peanut aroma and taste, which I can only assume comes from the coffee and I’m guessing, unintentional. In addition, I feel that the fruitiness is coming from the hops and not the coffee, despite the name. Lately I’ve found that coffee in IPAs seem to change taste pretty fast and are best consumed fresh as soon as possible. Maybe something happened in this case, but I do believe the bottle is quite fresh (less than 3 weeks?). But this is why I prefer bottled on dates instead of best before dates. Anyway, it’s worth a try if you can get it fresh.
Brewery: AleSmith Brewing Company Country: USA ABV: 7.25% Style: American IPA Other Notes: San Diego-style India Pale Ale
Brewer Description: (from can) Our hometown of San Diego is considered the epicenter of its namesake style of India Pale Ale – extremely crisp, highly drinkable beers brimming over with hop aromas and bright yet not overly bitter hop flavors. AleSmith IPA is the progenitor of this rightfully popular style. A bright bouquet of grapefruit and tangerine aromas gives way to an abundance of fresh piney, tropical notes on the taste buds with lingering resinous sensations in the finish for quintessential San Diego IPA experience showcasing the versatility of American hops.
My rating: 4 My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.35 My ratebeer.com rating: 4.2
Intro: A 12 fl oz can, canned on 5th October 2016. Poured into a Lost Abbey teku glass. Appearance: A lightly hazy, light copper orange colour with a nice two finger off white head with good retention and great lacing. Aroma: Tropical pineapple and apricot with citrus orange, pine and sweet biscuit malt. Taste: Citrusy and bitter orange peel, mandarin and grapefruit followed by sweet-ish pineapple, biscuit malt and pine. The finish has a nice long resinous bitterness. Mouthfeel: Crisp, dry-ish, medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Overall: A wonderfully tasty and balanced West Coast IPA. Also loving the cans!
Brewery: Stigbergets Bryggeri Country: Sweden ABV: 6.5% Style: American IPA
Brewer Description: Could not find any information on this beer in English on their website or on the bottle.
My rating: 4 My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.26 My ratebeer.com rating: 4
Intro: A 330ml bottle, batch 579, with a best before date of 10th July 2017. Poured into a Spiegelau IPA glass. Appearance: A hazy darkish orange colour with a one finger white head that had pretty good retention and left nice lacing. Aroma: Strong pineapple and papaya with hints of mango, grapefruit and pine here and there. Taste: Pineapple and mango tropical fruit starts and ends quickly, followed by a long lemon peel, lemon tea, pine and grapefruit bitterness. Mouthfeel: Light to medium bodied with moderate to low carbonation. Overall: What I liked about GBG and Amazing Haze was the tropical fruit flavours. With this West Coast IPA, the tropical flavours were there, but only for a second; they disappeared too fast. Having said that, it is still a very nice and enjoyable IPA.
My rating: 5 My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.65 My ratebeer.com rating: 4.4
Intro: A 330ml bottle, batch 583, with a best before date of 17th July 2017. Poured into a Lost Abbey teku glass. Appearance: A hazy darkish orange colour with a just over one finger white head with great retention and nice lacing. Aroma: Strong tropical and citrus fruits. Mango, pineapple, apricot, grapefruit and orange rind. Taste: Blast of mango and pineapple sweetness balanced with grapefruit and orange rind bitterness, for some bittersweet goodness. A dry and long bitter finish. Mouthfeel: Dry, medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Overall: In my opinion, although not quite as good as GBG Beer Week 2016, this was another home run by Stigbergets. It’s got the stunning aromas, and the wonderful juicy tropical and citrus flavours that I enjoy, on top of the nice lasting bitterness. Brilliant stuff.
Brewery: Stigbergets Bryggeri Country: Sweden ABV: 6.5% Style: American IPA
Brewer Description: (from bottle) GBG Beer Week, 17-25 mars 2017.
My rating: 5 My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.88 My ratebeer.com rating: 4.7
Intro: A 330ml bottle, batch 573, with a best before date of 30th June 2017. Poured into a Lost Abbey teku glass. Appearance: A hazy golden straw yellow colour with a two finger white head that had pretty good retention and left nice lacing. Aroma: Sweet tropical and citrus fruits. So juicy, full of mango, apricot, pineapple, grapefruit rind, lemon peel and a touch of pine. Taste: Sweet and juicy fruits to begin. Passion fruit, pineapple and grapefruit zest with hints of orange and mango. Light to moderate lasting hop bitterness on the finish. Mouthfeel: Light bodied with moderate carbonation. Overall: Wow, this was the best IPA I’ve had in the last few months. Extremely juicy and extremely drinkable. I could easily crush a few bottles of this. I’ve heard that this is close to the last batch that they will produce, which if true, is definitely a disappointment. This IPA is a must buy and try in my book if you can still find it.
words of another dreamy traveller 