Category Archives: Style

3 - Indifferent (might buy, probably drink), Beer Reviews, Belgium, Brouwerij De Troch, Lambic - Fruit Sweetened

De Troch Chapeau Framboise

Friday, 3 March 2017 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: Brouwerij De Troch
Country: Belgium
ABV: 3.5%
Style: Belgian Lambic (Fruit Sweetened)
Other Notes: 20% raspberries. Also known as De Troch Framboise Lambic

Brewer Description: (from lambic.info) Chapeau Framboise is a sweetened lambic with natural raspberry juice flavor added and natural sweeteners.

My rating: 3
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.44
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.3

Intro: A 375ml bottle with a best before date of 30th December 2017. Poured into a Cantillon ballon glass.
Appearance: A clear brownish colour with a slight red tint and a just less than one finger white head that dissipated fairly quickly while leaving some sparse lacing.
Aroma: Sweet raspberry jam and grape juice.
Taste: Similar to the aroma, it was very sweet, on the verge of being too sweet for me. Lots of raspberry jam, with hints of grape juice and apple.
Mouthfeel: Light bodied with moderate to light carbonation.
Overall: The aromas are nice, but its taste is on the verge of being too sweet in my opinion. Don’t think I can drink more than one small bottle in a single sitting.

5 - Excellent (must buy), Beer Reviews, Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project, USA, Wild Ale

Crooked Stave Silly Cybies

Wednesday, 1 March 2017 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project
Country: USA
ABV: 9%
Style: American Wild Ale

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Belgian Style Dark Ale aged in oak barrels with raspberries.

My rating: 5
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.71
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.5

Intro: A 375ml bottle, bottled in November 2015. Poured into a Lost Abbey teku glass.
Appearance: A clear and extremely dark red colour with a two fingered tan-ish red head that had decent retention and left some nice lacing.
Aroma: Intense freshly crushed raspberries and raspberry jam.
Taste: Sour and tart with a combination of mixed berries; raspberry, blackberry and blueberry. It is also very jammy but the sweet only lightly shows through the tartness.
Mouthfeel: Dry, medium bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: This is amazing. I don’t get any of the 9% ABV which is great, but I’m also not getting much of the oak barrels that it was supposedly aged in, which while disappointing, actually meant that it was very raspberry jammy and tasty. Crooked Stave have done it again with Silly Cybies, which is a must buy for me.

3 - Indifferent (might buy, probably drink), 8 Wired Brewing Co., Beer Reviews, New Zealand, Wild Ale

8 Wired Wild Feijoa Sour Ale 2013

Wednesday, 1 March 2017 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: 8 Wired Brewing Co.
Country: New Zealand
ABV: 9.5%
Style: American Wild Ale
Other Notes: 2013 vintage. Aged in wine barrels. Refermented in bottle, please decant carefully of the sediment

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Ale brewed with feijoas & aged in wine barrels.

My rating: 3
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.77
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.6

Intro: First thing first… so what is a feijoa? After reading wiki, I’m still not really sure how to answer this correctly, other than that it is a fruit which is supposed to taste like pineapple, apple and mint. Anyway, this was a 500ml bottle with no clear bottled on or best by date other than that it was a 2013 version. Poured into a Lost Abbey teku glass.
Appearance: A hazy copper dark orange colour with pretty much no head and no lacing. Sounded like I was pouring a bottle of soda into the glass with all the fizzing sounds.
Aroma: Sour, fruity, grape, white wine, apple and wood.
Taste: It’s what you’d expect from the aroma. Sour, white grape, vinegar, wood, apple juice and hints of citrus.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with low carbonation (which was unexpected considering the soda like pour I heard).
Overall: At 9.5% ABV, the alcohol is well hidden. I still don’t really know what feijoa really is, but this sour ale is quite nice. The wine barrel aging also really comes through and adds nice woodiness, wine and grape flavours to the beer (unless it actually comes from the feijoa’s… lol…).

5 - Excellent (must buy), American IPA, Beer Reviews, Stigbergets Bryggeri, Sweden

Stigbergets GBG Beer Week 2016

Tuesday, 28 February 2017 kitch Leave a comment

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.

2 - Maybe (likely wouldn't buy, might drink), Beer Reviews, Belgian Tripel, Boston Beer Company, USA

Samuel Adams (Barrel Room Collection) New World Tripel

Monday, 27 February 2017 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: Boston Beer Company
Country: USA
ABV: 10%
Style: Belgian Tripel
Other Notes: A Golden Tripel with notes of spice and tropical fruit

Brewer Description: (from bottle) This Tripel was born from the Old World Belgian technique of barrel aging and the New World of craft brewing innovation. With its pale golden color and uniquely refreshing taste, this big flavorful, and complex brew has a subtle herbal hop character combined with the tropical fruit and spice notes of its special Belgian yeast. One of our brewers’ favorite places to experiment is in the barrel room at our Boston Brewery. It’s here that each of our Samuel Adams Barrel Room Collection brews was born.

My rating: 2
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.43
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.2

Intro: A 1pt 9.4 fl oz corked and caged bottle with a best before date of 1st February 2018. Poured into a Chimay goblet glass.
Appearance: A clear dark copper orange colour with a slightly less than two finger off white head that had great retention, eventually settling down to a nice creamy layer, while leaving great curtain like lacing.
Aroma: Belgian yeast, banana, clove, honey and pear with hints of spice.
Taste: Some light banana and clove at the beginning, followed by spice, candi sugar, orange and pineapple with quite a strong hit of alcohol on the finish.
Mouthfeel: Creamy, full bodied with moderate to high carbonation.
Overall: It looks great, and smells nice, but the strong alcohol on the finish was quite harsh in my opinion.

words of another dreamy traveller