Tag Archives: ba

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Jester King Brewery, Lambic - Fruit, USA

Jester King SPON Peach & Apricot

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Brewery: Jester King Brewery
Country: USA
ABV: 5.4%
Style: Belgian Lambic (Fruit)
Other Notes: 2017 vintage

Brewer Description: (from bottle) 2017 SPON – Peach & Apricot. A blend of one-year and six-month old 100% spontaneously fermented beer refermented with peaches and apricots. For SPON, we make beer inextricably linked to our time, place & people by harnessing the microflora, climate and ecology of the Texas Hill Country. We add Texas-grown grains to the mash, gnarly old hops from our barn to the boil, chill and inoculate the wort with native microflora in our coolship, 100% spontaneously ferment the beer in oak barrels, referment with real fruit, and naturally condition the beer in the bottle.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.45
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.4

Intro: A 12.7 fl. oz. bottle, 2017 vintage, blended on 23rd June 2017. Poured into a 3 Fonteinen stemmed glass.
Appearance: A lightly hazy golden colour (turned hazy light orange near the end) with a one finger white head that dissipated fairly quickly and left only sparse to no lacing.
Aroma: Tart, peach, apricot, light gummy candy, funk, wet hay and a hint of wood.
Taste: Sour, tart, sour peach, apricot, sour gummy candy type sour and sweetness, vinous white grape, funk, orange pith with light vinegar and wood on the finish.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: Nice peach and apricots plus gummy candy coming though. Funkiness seemed a little on the light side, but not a problem at all.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Jester King Brewery, Lambic - Fruit, USA

Jester King SPON Blueberry & Pitaya

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Brewery: Jester King Brewery
Country: USA
ABV: 5.7%
Style: Belgian Lambic (Fruit)
Other Notes: 2017 vintage

Brewer Description: (from bottle) 2017 SPON – Blueberry & Pitaya is a blend of two year old 100% spontaneously fermented beer, refermented with blueberries & pitayas. Jester King SPON is inspired by the Belgian tradition of authentic Lambic and Gueuze. Wort from a turbid mash of well water, Texas malted barley, and Texas raw wheat was boiled with aged hops from our barn, cooled overnight in our coolship, spontaneously fermented in oak barrels for two years, and refermented for months in bottles resting on their side.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.22
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.1

Intro: A 12.7 fl. oz. bottle, 2017 vintage, blended on 2nd February 2017. Poured into a 3 Fonteinen stemmed glass.
Appearance: A ruby red colour with a purple hue, and a two finger pinkish head that dissipated fairly quickly and left only sparse to no lacing.
Aroma: Strong oak, moderate funk, light vanilla, tart, sour, blueberry.
Taste: Sour, tart, oak, funk, blueberry and grape with some interesting spice at the end.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate carbonation and a dry finish.
Overall: Nice aroma and flavours. I learnt today that pitaya is actually dragon fruit. But the aroma and flavours of dragon fruit are not really coming through, which really isn’t too much of a surprise as it is quite a subtle fruit. Fruitier aroma than taste, but still very enjoyable on the whole.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, The Ale Apothecary, USA, Wild Ale

The Ale Apothecary Sahalie – Fresh Hop

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Brewery: The Ale Apothecary
Country: USA
ABV: 9.45%
Style: American Wild Ale
Other Notes: Fresh hop. Mixed fermentation ale brewed with honey, aged in wine barrels

Brewer Description: (from tag on bottle) our infamous shield maiden. (* wild & open fermented in the woods of OR. * Mecca Grade Estate Malt + wheat + Goschie Farms hops. * barrel-aged over a year & dry-hopped in oak. * OR honey + sour wort + our yeast = 100% natural carbonation from bottle fermentation.)

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.42
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.3

Intro: A 750ml corked bottle, batch bottled on 13th November 2017. Poured into a 3 Fonteinen stemmed glass.
Appearance: A lightly hazy golden orange colour with a two finger white head that had decent retention and left some nice lacing.
Aroma: Funk, brett, oak, pineapple, lightly tart, grapefruit zest and hints of apricot.
Taste: Lightly tart, lightly sour, oak, apricot, stone fruit, a touch herbal and a hint of pineapple.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: Very nice. I liked this even more than the original base version.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, The Ale Apothecary, USA, Wild Ale

The Ale Apothecary Sahalie

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Brewery: The Ale Apothecary
Country: USA
ABV: 9.32%
Style: American Wild Ale
Other Notes: Mixed fermentation ale aged in wine barrels

Brewer Description: (from tag on bottle) our infamous shield maiden. (* wild & open fermented in the woods of OR. * Mecca Grade Estate Malt + wheat + Goschie Farms hops. * barrel-aged over a year & dry-hopped in oak. * OR honey + sour wort + our yeast = 100% natural carbonation from bottle fermentation.)

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.34
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.2

Intro: A 750ml corked bottle, batch bottled on 7th July 2017. Poured into a 3 Fonteinen stemmed glass.
Appearance: A lightly hazy golden orange colour with a big three finger white head that dissipated fairly quickly but left some nice lacing.
Aroma: Tart, funk, brett, grapefruit zest, lemon zest, orange and pineapple with hints of apricot.
Taste: Tart, sour, pineapple, apricot, grapefruit zest and a touch of oak.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: Very nice aroma and taste. There was a light booze on the finish that was barely noticeable, which I guess shouldn’t be too surprising that it was there, given it was more than 9% ABV, but it’s these little things that knocked it down a fraction or two.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Belgium, Brouwerij ‘t Verzet, Flanders Oud Bruin

Verzet Whole Lotta Bluebs

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Brewery: Brouwerij ‘t Verzet
Country: Belgium
ABV: 6%
Style: Belgian Flanders Oud Bruin
Other Notes: Oud Bruin with Wild Maine Blueberries. Oud Bluebs. Ale brewed for Novare Res Bier Café’s 10th Anniversary

Brewer Description: (from bottle) This beer is a collaboration with Novare Res, a revolutionary and one of the most imPortland beer bars of the New World. On a hectic, snowy day we gathered in our barrel room to carefully select the blend for the collaboration. We added dried blueberries from Maine and let them ferment in the chosen barrels for 2 months. The result is a red-brown, purplish sour beer with a very fruity taste and woody nose. Be our guest and enjoy the Maine offerings from Verzet and Novare Res.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.05
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.8

Intro: A 375ml bottle, Bluebs ’18, with a best before date of 14th February xxxx (the rest was smudged off). Poured into a 3 Fonteinen stemmed glass.
Appearance: A dark brown colour with a reddish orange hue and a one finger off white head that disappeared almost immediately and left no lacing.
Aroma: Light funk, barrel, tart and mixed dark berries.
Taste: Lightly sour, tart, oak, blueberry skin, blueberries, mixed berries, with light funk and vinegar.
Mouthfeel: Light to medium bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: Nice and enjoyable. The aroma while not bad, came through a little weak at times, especially the fruit. No such problems with the taste, which was a good balance of sour and blueberries.