3 - Indifferent (might buy, probably drink), Beer Reviews, English IPA, Goose Island Beer Co., USA

Goose Island Goose IPA

Wednesday, 8 March 2017 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: Goose Island Beer Co.
Country: USA
ABV: 5.9%
Style: English IPA
Other Notes: 55 IBUs

Brewer Description: (from bottle neck tag) Fruity aroma, set off by a dry malt middle and long hop finish.

My rating: 3
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.31
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.3

Intro: A 12 fl oz bottle, bottled on 18th November 2016 and best before 18th November 2017. Poured into a Spiegelau IPA glass.
Appearance: A clear golden copper colour with a close to three finger white head that had good retention and left great lacing.
Aroma: Piney with citrus lemon and lime followed by a light sweet malt background.
Taste: I’m not getting much in the taste. Some sweet and grassy malt and something along the lines of a bitter lemon tea.
Mouthfeel: Light to medium bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: It looks great and its aromas were quite nice. Taste was a little too light and one dimensional with just a combination of sweet and long lasting bitterness.

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.

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…).

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.

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.

words of another dreamy traveller