Category Archives: Style

2 - Maybe (likely wouldn't buy, might drink), American IPA, Beer Reviews, Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project, USA

Crooked Stave Hop Savant (Citra)

Monday, 27 February 2017 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project
Country: USA
ABV: 7%
Style: American IPA

Brewer Description: (from bottle) American brettanomyces India Pale Ale with Citra.

My rating: 2
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.22
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.1

Intro: A 375ml bottle, bottled in May 2015. Poured into a Lost Abbey teku glass.
Appearance: A clear golden yellow colour (as there’s still a lot left in the bottle) with a huge rather uncontrollable frothy white head that dissipates slowly while leaving a fair bit of soapy lacing.
Aroma: Band-aid, barnyard, brett, citrus lemon and apricot plus hints of pineapple.
Taste: Lots of brett, band-aid, leather, pepper spiciness, orange peel and apricot.
Mouthfeel: Dry, medium to light bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: There’s just a lot of funky brett with some light fruit sweetness towards the end. For me, it just seemed to be missing some tart and sour fruit to help balance out the flavours a bit.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project, USA, Wild Ale

Crooked Stave Mama Bear’s Sour Cherry Pie

Thursday, 23 February 2017 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project
Country: USA
ABV: 7%
Style: American Wild Ale

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Burgundy sour ale aged in oak barrels with Colorado Montmorency cherries.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.17
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.2

Intro: A 375ml bottle, bottled in September 2015. Poured into a Lost Abbey teku glass.
Appearance: A slightly cloudy dark reddish brown colour, with a just over one finger reddish beige head that dissipated slowly and left some sparse lacing.
Aroma: Tart and sweet cherry, oak and perhaps a light funk.
Taste: Sour, strong lemon juice with some cherry and oak creeping through here and there and hints of almond. Long acidic sour finish.
Mouthfeel: Medium to light bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: While there was some sweetness in the aroma, it was pretty much mostly sour with an acidic bite in the taste. I think you really have to like sour things to enjoy this beer and luckily I do like sour things. Would have preferred it, if more cherries came through though, since cherry pie is in the name, but that is not a deal breaker.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Oskar Blues Brewery, Porter - English, USA

Oskar Blues Death By Coconut

Thursday, 23 February 2017 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: Oskar Blues Brewery
Country: USA
ABV: 6.5%
Style: English Porter
Other Notes: 25 IBUs

Brewer Description: (from website) Intense pure liquid cacao flavors swirl with popping coconut aromas, all supported by a semi-sweet porter made from loads of our dark chocolate and extra dark caramel malt. This limited release specialty comes around once a year to satisfy that sweet tooth, so get ’em while you can before they disappear. At 6.5% ABV and 25 IBUs, this choconut goodness will have you yellin’ “Pass. Dash. Hit.” all winter long.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.08
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.9

Intro: A 12 fl oz can with a canned on date of 6th October 2016. Poured into a Lost Abbey teku glass.
Appearance: Black in colour with a dark brown hue on the edges, a two finger tanned head that had decent retention and nice lacing.
Aroma: Strong coconut and vanilla with chocolate, caramel and biscuit.
Taste: Sweet-ish milk chocolate, coconut and vanilla.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with low carbonation.
Overall: I preferred the taste over the aroma as I felt that the coconut was a bit overpowering in the aroma. This was not the case with the taste which was on the sweet side but still nicely flavoured. An easy drinking Porter.

2 - Maybe (likely wouldn't buy, might drink), Beer Reviews, Belgian Witbier, Cigar City Brewing, USA

Cigar City Florida Cracker Belgian-style White Ale

Wednesday, 22 February 2017 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: Cigar City Brewing
Country: USA
ABV: 5.5%
Style: Belgian Witbier
Other Notes: White Ale brewed with curacao peel and coriander

Brewer Description: (from can) The Cracker Cowboys of Florida were colonial-era settlers, often of Scots-Irish descent, who arrived in Florida when Spain traded their territory of La Florida to the English. The term Cracker in Florida usage relates to the whip these “cow hunters” used to herd cattle in Florida’s Palmetto Prairies. Called Quaqueros by the Spanish, these hardy and hard working Cracker Cowboys helped to shape the history of Florida, the nation’s oldest cattle raising state. We brew Florida Cracker White Ale with unmalted wheat, orange peel and coriander and then ferment it with a French Saison yeast strain to give it a spicy and dry finish. Perfect for a warm day on the Palmetto Prairie.

My rating: 2
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.39
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.1

Intro: A 12 fl oz can with a canned on date of 7th September 2016. Poured into a Spiegelau Wheat Ale glass.
Appearance: A slightly hazy golden straw yellow colour with a one finger white head that dissipated fairly quickly and left some sparse spotty lacing.
Aroma: Wheat, coriander, clove and overripe banana sweetness with a hint of citrus peel.
Taste: Coriander and wheat upfront with a touch of lemon citrusness. However after that, the taste just suddenly falls off to almost nothing.
Mouthfeel: Dry-ish, light bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: It was certainly refreshing and quite nice when it first hits your mouth, but after that, I felt that its main problem appeared which was that the taste just falls off really quickly to nothing after the initial hit.

4 - Good (buy), American Double IPA, Australia, Beer Reviews, Mountain Goat Beer Pty. Ltd.

Mountain Goat Rare Breed Pulped Fiction Blood Orange IPA

Tuesday, 21 February 2017 kitch 2 Comments

Brewery: Mountain Goat Beer Pty. Ltd.
Country: Australia
ABV: 7.8%
Style: American Double IPA
Other Notes: Water – Melbourne water. Malt – Vienna, Redback, American Ale, Maris Otter, Pale Crystal and Shepherd’s Delight. Hops – Citra and Mosaic. Adjunct – Blood Orange.

Brewer Description: (from bottle) This is a Double IPA with a blast of real blood orange juice added during secondary fermentation. The tang from the juice combines with the citrus-like characters of Citra and Mosaic hops creating a sensation equal parts bitter and tart. It’s big, clean and thirst quenching.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.97
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.9

Intro: A 640ml bottle with a best before date of 30th November 2017. Poured into a Spiegelau IPA glass.
Appearance: Poured a clear copper colour with a slight orange hue, a one finger off white head that settles to a thin layer with sticky lacing.
Aroma: Pine, citrusy grapefruit and orange rind, pith and peel with hints of tropical mango and caramel malt.
Taste: Citrus orange rind and pith with grapefruit peel bitterness, some resinous pine, with a good touch of sweet caramel malt and blood orange to balance.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate to light carbonation.
Overall: This was nice and easy to drink. A good balance between the hop bitterness and sweet-ish caramel malt. It’s probably on the border of being between an IPA and Double IPA, but overall, I’d say that it’s an enjoyable Double IPA.

words of another dreamy traveller