Tasting Notes:Bear Republic: Hop Rod Rye

Bear Republic: Hop Rod Rye (USA: IIPA:8% ABV)

Visual: A dark clear reddish brown. Bubbly brown mounds for a head.

Nose: Sweet and rye filled. Grapefruit. Vanilla toffee that becomes caramel as it warms.  Malt drinks with a light chocolate touch.

Body: Rye crackers. Bitter. Pineapple freshness. Vanilla. Pulped kiwi. Toffee. Drying even as you drink it. Nettle hop feel. Peach and apricot juice. Strawberry jam occasionally.

Finish: Solidly bitter. Hoppy and also very dry rye crackers. Kiwi again. Almost salty dryness. Apricot.

Conclusion:  This is one I have been keeping an eye out for since it was recommended to me. Rye based drinks intrigue me anyway. They always seem to bring so much to the aroma. Usually massive sweetness, with toffee, vanilla and caramel all in play. The style is utterly distinctive.  However so far in my experience, the drinks themselves never seem to live up to the bold promises of the aroma.

So far anyway. That is about to change.

With a base beer not unlike the Racer 5 IPA you get a huge amount of fruitiness going on before you even introduce the rye which brings its usual sweetness and a surprising dryness.  The face that you get rye cracker like flavour is hardly shocking, the fact that it feels salted on the other hand is. Even main body you feel it, but on the finish the tongue drying effect is remarkable.  This makes each future sip all the more welcome, even if it is still crisply dry.

There Is a great range of flavour brought with it. The rye and IPA elements have full impact without treading on each others toes.  The only problem I have is trying to decide when is the best time to have a drink such as this.  The competing sweet and fruit elements demand attention, but the dryness encourages quicker drinking early on, then discourages at the end as it becomes heavier. The abv however definitely discourage against the quick consumption. It is a delicious contradiction and the beer definitely deserves your attention. It is not an every day beer, about half way through drinking you get a tickling feeling at the back of the throat to remind you exactly what you are drinking.

A delicious beer to examine exactly what can be gained from merging the distinct styles. A beer of experimentation and contemplation on the beer styles themselves and the flavours they entail. Oh and a fine beer.

Background: Recommended by the booze dancers in response to my enjoyment of “Racer 5”. I had found this before in London at “The Rake” but didn’t get the chance to review it then.  Since I had enjoyed it I took full advantage of finding it at Beers of Europe and ordered myself some for enjoyment and review. This is made with 20% rye malt, and apart from that I would guess it is pretty close to racer 5 in build.

Tasting Notes: Pappy Van Winkle: Family Reserve: 15 Year

Pappy Van Winkle: Family Reserve: 15 Year (American Bourbon: 15 Years: 53.5% ABV)

Visual: A very dark rich amber.

Viscosity: Quite a loose mix of streaks.

Nose: Wheat and rye crackers. Quite a tingle at this point. Dry granite. Orange rind, possible liqueur like in style.  Slight sourness with water.

Body: Smooth. Spicy red grapes. Alcohol fire builds up after a while but is not immediately evident.  Vanilla toffee and glacier cherries. Water makes smoother and adds custard touches.

Finish: Milk chocolate and vanilla toffee. Orange liqueur again. With water becomes more bitter chocolate like.

Conclusion: I’m always unsure with higher abv bourbon on if I should add water or not.  The extra alcohol tends to make the drink more fiery which can hide the flavour, but most bourbons I’ve tinkered with don’t seem to react particularly well to water. Well in my experience anyway, would be interesting to get others views on this.

This is a pretty good case in point. It is significantly smoother and more easy going than the twelve year, which does it credit considering the abv, even better it plays with similar spice and red grape flavour that made the twelve year enjoyable.

However even with this smoother version, if you hold it on your tongue for a while to enjoy the sensation you find that the alcohol presence is soon made felt. At that point the smooth vanilla toffee and spice are pretty much concealed to the finish.

Now with tinkering it seems that water in moderation does quite well, allowing easier appreciation of the almost liqueur styling running through it, and also seems to bring out a custard sweetness.

The burn does still come in quicker than I would like, limiting your time to enjoy it. Enough  play with water smoothes even that out, but that point a lot of the vibrant spicy richness is also lost.

Looking back at the twelve year review to compare I am reminder of how much these two share in their main flavours and styles. This reacts better to water and is significantly smoother. While they have similar play to them, the 15 year doesn’t have quite the instant wow of the twelve year, instead pacing itself more over the entire drink. The spice and orange is more restrained, but similarly doesn’t burn out as quick.

This I would say this is the better bourbon, while it does not impress as instantly I found myself enjoying its charm to the end.

Now just to try the twenty year version.

Background: An odd thing I noticed on this one. It describes itself as a younger version of the 20 year old pappy van winkle.  Which I guess means they consider the 20 year version the default. Bloody hell that’s old for bourbon, I will have to get round to trying it at some point.  Drunk during the day at the Rummer Hotel. It was a relaxing day, and I enjoyed talking with the friendly and knowledgeable bar staff. A pleasant way to pass time I must say.

Tasting Notes: Weyerbacher: Double Simcoe IPA

Weyerbacher: Double Simcoe IPA (USA: IIPA: 9% ABV)

Visual: Dark browned amber and quite hazy. Large frothy head of solid tight bubbles. A medium amount of small bubbled carbonation.

Nose: Malt and digestive biscuits. Toffee. Apricot. Vanilla. Heavier mango notes as it warms.

Body: Solidly bitter, Liquorice sticks. Caramel. Honey. Lots of malt. Dried apricot. Passion fruit in the depths. Slightly green.

Finish: Bitter hops. Liquorice sticks again. Honey.  Pineapple. Cucumber. Hop oil.

Conclusion: What we have here is a brutally sweet and brutally bitter Imperial IPA. The sweetness cannot be contained with caramel and honey mixed with dried apricot all working against the massive bitter kick.  It then adds interesting twists top and tail with a very biscuit heavy aroma and strange cucumber like green vibe to the finish.

It feels indulgent to drink, smooth to slip down but you soon realise it has left clinging hop trails on the way down that build up to impressive levels on your tongue.

If there are complaints to bring to bare it would be that the massive malt sweetness sometimes doesn’t quite give the simcoe hop room to roam – it can dominate the conversation somewhat. The hop does always find its way back out again though, bringing out fruity yet green touched flavour. That along with the thick texture bringing hop oil touches to the finish give a distinct fingerprint of the hop character on this beer when it rides back out once more.  The malt may dominate at times, but the hop is what gives it character.

An excellent beer, one of a few minor quirks, but heavy set on flavour and a delicious bitter sweet balance.

Background: Simcoe. A hop with a copyright marker. I was going to make sarcastic remarks about copyrighting nature, but apparently this was a very carefully bred hop to get high alpha acids without increasing (double checks “1001 beers you must try before you die”) cohumulone levels which apparently not good for a beer. It has a harsher bitterness or something like that. Anyway, what I know is Simcoe fricking rules, it is up there with Nelson Sauvin, Sorachi Ace and the like on hops I keep an eye out for. Therefore I bought this beer. That is all.

Tasting Notes: Alesmith: Grand Cru

Alesmith: Grand Cru (USA: Belgium Strong Ale: 10% ABV)

Visual:Dark bronzed red. Massive off white head made of a mix of small bubbles.

Nose: Wheat. Slightly vinous sour grapes. Malt drink. Raisins.

Body: Red grapes. Malt loaf and sultanas. Dry malt drinks. Very vinous. Slight sour white grapes. Light aniseed. Malt chocolate.

Finish: Bitter. Wheat. Dry. White wine and sour grapes. Cinnamon. Soy sauce. Liquorice.

Conclusion: Bit of a disappointment this one. Maybe I built it up too much in my mind as I was looking forwards to it. Not a bad beer, but compared to similar beers with similar reputations it just doesn’t quite match up.

I’ve pretty much started at the end there. Maybe being a bit harsh as well. Lets go back to the start and I shall explain.

The aroma was fairly simple, it calls to the Belgium Saison style with dryness and what characteristics. What it didn’t do was get me excited for the main beer. It did have a slight sourness but not too much is hinted at. Thus I had to move onto the main body for it to stand on it’s own merits alone.

The body definitely showed the influence of Belgium yeast (or if not then a facsimile thereof) in the texture, but the flavours call more to heavily smoothed out version of the British ESB style. Now here it does do some nice tricks with fruit flavour, wine sourness and a dryness mixed in. It did seem a bit light without any push or emphasis initially. This resolves itself as I poured more into the glass. Either the flavour had built up or, at a guess, the extra dislodging of the yeast in the bottle helped the flavour. Its amazing how many times with beers like these the second glass from the bottle is far more flavoursome than the first.

The finish is dry and simple. Maybe it was due to only having a year to age but the beer seemed to fare badly against the three year aged Bush Prestige I had before. They seem to play for the same style butt this beer doesn’t have the same range or craft.

Now I have listed the areas I found disappointing I will say again it isn’t a bad beer, just not in the league it was seemingly aiming for. It is nicely vinous and tart, easy to drink and does have decent flavour to the main body. The mix of styles is interesting, and gives the impression of a malt drink saision with vinous touches. Not as good as that sounds though. It does do a nice mix of raisins and red wine with lots of Belgium character. I guess for all its reputation, and my enjoyment of the similar, Bush Prestige I was just expecting more. Not bad, just not great.

Background: Picked up a while back from Brewdogs guest beer section. There’s no bottled on date, but based on how long it’s been in my cupboard and how long American beers usually take to get here I would guess it’s had about a years ageing. Alesmith is one of these breweries that have a legendary rep, but I’ve yet to try a beer from them that matches their rep. There haven’t been any bad beers, just none so great as to make me go wow. Then again it took me a while to find beers that made me see why Moor had a good rep as well and now I love that brewery, so I’m always willing to give Alesmith another try to see what I’m missing. (odd fact noticed from this write up, I always seem to typo “malt loaf” as “malt load” – I really hope I didn’t miss this elsewhere). Final Note: I have been reading “John Dies At The End” which may explain the sudden appearance of the “Soy Sauce” flavour note in this review.

Tasting Notes: Lost Abbey: Lost and Found

Lost Abbey: Lost and Found (USA: Abbey Dubbel: 8% ABV)

Visual: Clear reddish brown. Large frothy sud like toffee coloured head.

Nose: Candy cane. Raisin. Slight oak. Chocolate dust. Brown sugar. Light cinnamon dusted coffee.

Body: Very smooth. Chocolate drinks. Plums and raisins. Sugar mice. Figs.  Brown sugar. Almonds. Candyfloss and chocolate liqueur.

Finish: Loose chocolate. More figs. Almond. Apricot. Chocolate liqueur. Light apple.

Conclusion:  This is a delicate one. Initially the beers seems weak on the tongue. A few moments with it though allows you to realise that this is just the immense smoothness of the main body. Roll the beer around the mouth for a while and the flavour builds up slowly, layer by layer. Even as each element is added on the abv is nigh completely masked, an impressive feat which I wonder how they achieve.

It is smooth and chocolaty, the dark fruits also call to the heavier interpretations of the abbey style.  The flavours, while taking a while to build up, last long, especially the chocolate. There are lots of lighter flavours as well, candy floss and sugar cane. The smoothness of the delivery is the thing here, from sugar cane to chocolate the delivery makes them seem like delicacies of the type.

I’m not sure if the added ingredients, such as raisin make much difference here. The flavours are close to what you would expect from the style anyway so it is hard to say what came from the beer and what from the raisins. I would imagine from my drinking of it that they enhance the current flavours rather than adding new ones to the beer.

As you can probably tell already the flavours build up well over time, there are new notes that come out over time and with changing temperatures.  I think my only real reservation is a personal one. It’s greatest strength can also be its main weakness. The smoothness seems a great contrast to the Belgium style it emulates. The Belgium beers tend to be much more evident in their flavours, even light abv beers are full flavoured and they never hide the force of the body. You are always well aware of what you are drinking.  The difference in intensity here is enough to almost seem a difference in type.

This smoothing out in the American interpretation could possibly be a call to different drinking cultures of the respective countries and expectations of the beers therefore, but it does cause some separation from the enjoyment of the beer for me as my expectations and the beer at hand clash.  This is however a personal thing as mentioned.

Overall it is very good, very smooth, and personal bias not withstanding it is very well done.

Background:  Lost Abbey (Aka the Belgium beer style producing side of Port Brewing) are widely viewed as one of the best makers of Belgium style ales outside of Belgium.  This bottle, which was shared with friends, is an attempt at the dubbel style which has had a raisin puree added to it for a little extra twist.  Picked up from Brewdogs guest beer section I had high hopes for this.

Tasting Notes: Smuttynose: Murrikan Mild

Smuttynose: Murrikan Mild (USA: Mild: 4.2% ABV)

Visual: Pale gold. Thin white bubbled head.

Nose: Stewed banana and pineapple. Tangerine. Light hops.

Body: Slightly thin front. Tangerine and then sour grape sharpness. Slight peach syrup. Mainly white grapes. Maybe cooking apples.

Finish: White grapes. Light hop feel. Little to no bitterness. Apple.

Conclusion: Ok, aren’t milds usually dark? Like brown to black dark? Bah, next you will be telling me there is such a thing as a black IPA or some madness like that.

This beer seems unfortunately to not only be mild but also slightly thin with an almost watery character at times. A pity as the slightly sour grapes and tangerine character is pretty appealing, just oft lost to obscurity.

Indistinct and thus slightly forgettable. A great pity as smuttynose usually turn out a good mix.  Then again, mild is a surprisingly hard style to do well, doubly so it seems when you flaunt all the prior expectations of how to do the style.

It keeps just enough flavour to not be awful, but doesn’t qualify as good. Ah well.

Background:  A Smuttynose beer brewed just for a UK beer festival. Woo. I would say in your face America, apart from the fact it isn’t very good. Which kind of ruins my gloating. Damnit. Well I may have put USA as the place of origin as that is Smuttynoses home turf, but it seems this beer was actually brewed in the UK, at the Wadworth brewery. Now I had to double check the beer style, as I was convinced it would turn out not to be a mild after all. However general opinion is, despite its light colour, that it is a mild. Go figure. Smuttynose impressed me with their Big A IPA so when I heard they were doing a beer for Weatherspoons beer festival I thought I would check it out. Now I respect Weatherspoons for bringing a reasonable range of ales and bottled beers to a wide audience for a cheap price. I just usually don’t like going there. The atmosphere just isn’t my scene. However they do get some good beers in so I do keep an eye on the place.

Tasting Notes: Cigar City: Jai Alai IPA

Cigar City: Jai Alai IPA (USA: IPA: 7.5% ABV)

Visual: Browned bronze. Massive tight and small bubbled head of lemon colour. Reasonable amounts of carbonation.

Nose: Lemon grass and spritzy fresh. Very lemon like in fact. Coriander. Slightly wit beer in style. Pineapple and syrup below.  Honey. Ginger bread.

Body: Honey. Hops and resin. Bitterness is smooth but still kicks home. Grapefruit. Very thick but smooth texture. Peach.

Finish: Bitter. Resin and dry hops. Grapefruit.

Conclusion: You know, I’ve been trying to get more concise in my flavours listed in the main section of these tasting notes. I have a habit of rambling slightly as I try to get a range that describes the experience I have had.

Well this beer’s aroma just ruined that little attempt. Almost sorachi ace style lemongrass to begin with, it then passes through wit beer styling of lemon and coriander into a ginger bread and honey touch as it warms, All wrapped around the usual expected fruity notes and bitterness.

How then hell am I meant to sum that up concisely?

Similarly the slick body takes you on quite a run. The hop bitterness and resin elements are the main show, but it still has quite the fruity range within that.  The excellent thick texture is what really makes the body. It allows the bitterness to be subtle without sacrificing force. You find the beer coating your tongue in a lovely sheen before suddenly the hops kick forth to great effect.

The only real criticisms is the finish which doesn’t move much past dry bitterness and resin. It does at least keep the flavours fresh on each sip but other than that does not add much to the experience.

Frankly excellent. It is so easy to drink yet packed with hop character. The abv is will masked and the aforementioned aroma is massive and wide ranging. This is up there with the best in a highly competitive IPA world.

Background: Cigar City. One of those huge reputation brewers I have never reviewed.  I have drunk their beers before, I think. I’m fairly sure that I tried them at The Great British Beer Festival a few years back.  Of course from the “I Think” you can probably guess that I was not in the most fresh of tastebud and liver states by that point so I hesitate to draw any conclusions from the beers I drank then. This beer was picked up from Brewdogs guest beer section and drunk as part of a relaxing fine sunny day.

Tasting Notes: Van Winkle: Special Reserve: 12 Year: Lot B

Van Winkle: Special Reserve: 12 Year: Lot B (American Wheated Bourbon: 12 Years: 45.2% ABV)

Visual: A very dark amber gold.

Viscosity: Comes down thick and as a single sheet.

Nose: Rye bread. Spice. Shelled husks. Faint oil air. Orange peel. Water lightens mainly without adding much.

Body: Very sweet and spiced. Orange liquor. Sherry soaked red grapes. Treacle. Muscat grapes. Chives. Rye bread.

Finish: Red grapes. Mulled spice. A scented candle like oddity that hands around just at the back of the nostrils. Quite dry. Treacle and herbal.

Conclusion: Not for the faint of heart this one. Before drinking it I thought I had worked out the rough range of flavour the Bourbon played with. Then this passed my lips and I realized I was wrong.

Very sweet with this almost liquore touches countered by very herbal mulled wine styling. The more traditional Bourbon flavours expected show them underneath that, but on top it is all dancing spicy flavour.

Unfortunately you acclimatise to this shock too quickly. It is such a pleasant experience that I would like to be surprised anew on each sip, but the eye blinking oddity loses its punch as you get used to it.  That doesn’t mean it becomes bad, just that you can only really have that surprise once.

Also, don’t add water, it doesn’t seem to benefit and water  kills some of the higher elements in it.

So it had wondrous first sips and  then a tingling spiciness that makes for fair decent flavour by itself. Reminds me a bit of Muscat cask ageing and that’s a fair impressive feat.  Overall very impressive without compromising the core elements. I will definitely have to try the even older versions.

Background: Made at the Buffalo Trace distillery, this is apparently a wheated Bourbon. Best I know that means that despite it containing elements that I was convinced was rye bread like, there was actually no rye used to make it. Go figure.  Drunk at the Rummer Hotel. I have been having a lot of Scottish whisky recently and decided to give their Bourbon selection a try for a change. No I don’t know what “Lot B” is.  Twelve years is bloody old for a Bourbon, I didn’t think they survived well aged for more than six. Obviously I was wrong

Tasting Notes: Port Brewing: High Tide: Fresh Hop IPA

Port Brewing: High Tide: Fresh Hop IPA: USA: IPA: 6.5% ABV)

Visual: Pale yellowed hazy body. Massive thick bubbled white head.  Small amount of sediment in the pour.

Nose: Resin. Pine cones. Meringue.  Dried apricots. Vanilla ice cream. As it warms adds toffee and cream.

Body: Good solid bitterness. Apricots. Resin.   Tangerine. Nettles. Light custard cream biscuits at the front. A tingly texture.

Finish:  Growing hop bitterness. Greenery. Still resin elements. Hop oils. Thick, slick texture that hangs on the tongue.

Conclusion: This thing froths up easily, if you aren’t careful on the pour it could bring a head bigger than a damn hefeweizen. Ok maybe not the most helpful start to a review but it’s definitely a true one.

The beer is an old school bitter kick. Lots of resin, greenery and hop bitterness. I half expected to find myself munching on leaves and twigs in the midst of the pint. The hop influence is very evident. Anyone who has ever rubbed hop leaves and felt the oils on their skin will recognize the feel this beer leaves in your mouth.  It encapsulates much more of the hop experience than your average beer.

Flavour wise it is surprising simple, predominantly hops, greenery and resin. It is much more about the texture than the flavour. The taste is good with nice apricot and tangerine, but it is the feel in the mouth that keeps me interested. The bitterness is bracing, the hop oils clinging and mouth freshening and the dry finish is thirst inducing.

I think these texture elements put it firmly in the fascinating beer group, if not quite into the fantastic grouping. It’s a very enjoyable experience.  If I compare it to Wipeout IPA it does badly, but that is being unfair to it as Wipeout IPA fricking rules and this is trying to be a very different type of beer.

This is more trying to be a hop experience, as mentioned not as much in flavour but in that it really expresses what a hop is in feel and oils and brings the bitterness in with it. For that I’m very glad I tried it. Not one I will return to frequently but I’m glad I had the chance to drink it.

Background: Port Brewing gained my respect heavily for their Wipeout IPA, so when I got the chance to try another IPA from them I jumped at the chance. This is brewed with fresh Centennial and Simcoe. Port Brewing is the American beer style side of the brewery also known as Lost Abbey. This was picked up from Brewdog’s Guest Beers selection.

Tasting Notes: Roughstock: Montana Whiskey

Roughstock: Montana Whiskey (American Single Malt Whiskey: No Age Statement: 45% ABV)

Visual: Just slightly hazy toffee gold.

Viscosity: A very eclectic mix of thin and thick streaks of equally varied speed.

Nose: Pear, toffee and vanilla.  Toffee pavlova in fact.  Light mint menthol air over that. Slight gooseberry. Rye bread (oddly since it is not a rye whiskey). Water makes for more heather field styling.

Body: Pear drops. Sweet apple in crumble, Toffee. Quite solid flavour. Heather. Water makes sweeter with a syrup and custard touch.

Finish: Pears. Light vanilla. Milk chocolate. Wholemeal crackers. Light oak and alcohol.

Conclusion:  A very unique whiskey here, and one sold to us as being layered with flavours that change each time. A half bourbon half whisky treat.  Well, with a description like that I seem to be pretty much out of a job as that describes it perfectly.

I’d best still give it a go though.

Very much a mix of Speyside fruity flavours with bourbon toffee and vanilla. Somehow still has a rye bread aroma, despite having nothing like that in the ingredients.  It reminds me of the Dutch Millstone Whisky in its intriguing mix of styling. I will say however that this is distinctly the better whiskey. The oak influence gives a very much bourbon style and heavy duty kick but never overpowers the light pear drops that roam.

The main weak point is the finish. The flavours go quite indistinct compared to the main body, and only here does the alcohol become slightly intrusive in the air.

It’s a promising mix of styles though, it allows its raw edges to show, but not overpower the flavour.  It makes sure it keeps enough push to get the lighter flavours out there. It very much takes after bourbon in that I much preferred it without water, the subtleties could be lost very quickly with water.

A fun mix of heritages, very easy sipping in style and tasty in body.

Background: Apparently the first legal whiskey for Montana for a hundred years, and created with pure Montana grown malted barley. Thus actually not a bourbon, but a true American whiskey. One of a small, but growing number. I would like to tell you more but the link on their webpage on exactly what style it is, is sodding broken.  Drunk at the Rummer hotel, which has a fantastic selection of spirits. The person serving us at the bar advised us that it was basically half scotch half bourbon in style and seemed different every time you tried it. With comments like we could hardly not give it a try.  I am far too easy to sell whiskey to.