Strange Brew Tasting 12-04-2015

1) Bombshell Blond- good calibration beer, american hops in background, light fruitiness of apricot and pear fruit, low sweet maltiness.

2) Boddingtons Pub Ale- Standard British Bitter - Underlying firm bitterness, English hops, caramel notes, clean fermentation for an ale, low fruitiness.

3)  Wasatch Evolution Amber -American Amber Ale, resiny citrusy hops, caramel

4) Wasatch Ghostrider White IPA- citrusy hops, no caramel flavors, lots of wheat in the recipe gives a fluffy, creamy mouth feel

5) Crown Valley Sour Ale- Trade citrusy bitter for sour pallet sensation-different location on the tongue.

6) Erdinger Weissbier- introduce phenols, introduce esters

7) Malheur Golden- Belgian Golden Strong-Flowery, Fruity, Alcohol Notes 10%

8) Sam Smith Rasberry Ale- different kind of fruitiness, steeped rasberries

9) Green Flash Green Bullet Triple IPA- Imperial IPA-complex, New Zealand Hops-Pacific Gem and Green Bullet, Tropical Fruit notes from hops pleasing fruity aroma of blackberries with a woodsy flavor

10) Tin Roof Xingu Black Lager- schwartz beer, introduce roasty notes, bitter chocolate, clean fermentation, dark fruitiness from the grain bill, what is missing?

11) Tin Roof Parade Ground-Coffee Porter, enhanced roasty notes, now become full blown coffee flavor, adding back fruity notes.

12) Delirium Noel- Belgian Dark Strong, Bready and bread crust malt notes, dark fruity esters, more complexity, spices to suggest the Christmas Holiday Season, 10% alcohol also warms and adds a spiciness character.

13)  Ommegang Abbey- Rich maltiness, Bready and Breadcrust malt notes, Dark fruity esters not only from fermentation, but also from the use of munich specialty malt, prune, plum, raisin notes. caramel malt notes, complexity level 8 out of 10.

14) Bourbon County- Imperial Stout- Very complex 10 out of 10, charred oak, chocolate, vanilla, caramel, dark fruit, american hops from the willamette valley in Oregon, flowers, fruit, earth and spice.

15) New Belgium Blackberry Barley Wine- Aged character, sherry notes, caramels, steeped blackberries, English style also with toffee notes, dark fruity esters.

Tasting Notes for Strange Brew January 8, 2016

1) Crooked Letter Stabbello lager

Sweet grainy graham cracker like flavor and aroma from malt bill, caramel like aromas and flavor from the brewing process (kettle caramels) Otherwise clean lager, no fruity esters. Low floral saaz hop bittering and aroma.

 2) Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier

Light grainy wheat aroma with banana esters and low clove like fermentation character (phenolics from the yeast type used). Low malty sweetness and prominent banana fermentation character in flavor as well as low clove like phenolics

3) Hitachino White Ale

5.5% Alcohol by volume, light orange, corriander, nutmeg aroma and flavor, low clove like phenolics from yeast used.  Grainy wheat character in flavor.

4) Clown Shoes Galactica

American double-imperial IPA 8% alcohol by volume PH 4.89 Piney, orangy aroma, moderately sweet maltiness with fruity esters (fermentation character) of apricot and orange medium piney bitterness. Fruitiness also enhanced by the hop flavor.

5)  Amager Shadow Pictures Double IPA

Imperial IPA  8% alcohol by volume Complex aroma and flavor of piney, resiny and citrous notes along with a firm resiny hop bitterness. Complex peach mango fruitiness from fermentation as well as hop variety

6) Insanely Bad Elf Imperial Red Ale

English Strong Ale 11.20% ABV Strong alcohol aromas enhance the dark fruity aroma and

toffee notes. Flavor of toffee, caramel, dark fruit (raisin, plum) from a combination of fermentation character and grain bill.  Aged like an English barley wine with oxidized sherry like notes

7) Wasatch Devastator Double Bock

8.00% ABV Lager beer, clean fermentation. Simple breadcrust like aroma, no fruity esters in the aroma or flavor. Sweet melanoidin maltiness (like bread crusts) Malt forward low hop bittering and flavor. Fruit flavors (figs) are derived from the heavy usage of Munich specialty malt. Notice the higher body in the mouthfeel.

8) Guinness  Draught Stout

4.2% alcohol by volume Dry Stout, coffee flavor, low chocolate notes, light body, light fruitines of figs, low sour notes PH 3.84. feel slight sourness near edges of tongue, historically, the brewery would mix old soured Guiness with the young Guiness to give that tart edge and crispness.

9) Destihl Wild Sour Flanders Red

6.1% alcohol by volume Tart red cherry fruit aroma and flavor, sour, acetic like flavor and aroma PH 3.08, very dry finish. hop bitterness not present, sourness detected near edges of tongue, low grainy flavor.

10) Goose Island Lollita Belgian Wild Ale

Alcohol 8.7% by volume Belgian style pale ale fermented with wild yeast and aged on raspberries in wine barrels. Aromas of fresh rasberries. Low sour notes in flavor support the fruitiness of steeped rasberries as in framboise which is made by steeping fruit in lambic beer.

11) Wasatch Apricot Hefe

Dominant apricot, low banana esters and low clove notes from fermentation caracter Alcohol 4% by Volume

12) Sea Dog Wild Blueberry

Maine Blueberries, aroma is very strong blueberry with some wheat. The taste is very sweet blueberry with hints of bread and grain

13) Horney Goat Watermelon Wheat

American Pale Wheat Ale 5.60% ABV, wheaty, grainy, grassy, with tart flavor like watermelon Jolly Rancher, some low sour notes help tartness

14) De Dolle Stout

Aromas of dark fruit, espresso, and chocolate lead to a similar flavor profile that also includes notes of caramel, toffee, raspberry and licorice. The finish is tart and dry.

15) Sante Fe Java Stout

American Double Imperial Stout 8.00% ABV "imperial" heavy weight and a body, chocolate bread pudding. A complimentary and complex array of bitter notes comes form potent American hops, earthy British hops, black-roasted malts and, coffee. Organically grown East Timor coffee beans blended with New Guinea coffee beans, locally roasted by O'hori's Coffee House.

 16) Tejesse Reserva 2013 Bourbon Ale

Belgian Strong Ale 10% alcohol by George! Complex! Dark fruit in aroma and flavor, spicy alcohol notes, sweet maltiness of melanoidin character, spicy alcohol notes, peppery phenolic character from yeast in aroma and flavor, did I mention the alcohol? Cane sugar is used in the recipe to raise the level of alcohol. Helps to dry out the flavor and finish.

 17) Schorschbock 20

Eisbock (SUPER concentrated flavors of a doublebock! by fractional distillation) compleXXX, umami*, dark fruit, alcohol 20%
Generally, umami taste is common to foods that contain high levels of L-glutamate, IMP and GMP, most notably in fish, shellfish, cured meats, mushrooms, vegetables (e.g., ripe tomatoes, Chinese cabbage, spinach, celery, etc.) or green tea, and fermented and aged products involving bacterial or yeast cultures, such as cheeses, shrimp pastes, fish sauce, soy sauce, nutritional yeast, and yeast extracts such as Vegemite and Marmite

Strange Brew tasting notes February 5, 2016

Tusker Lager

An American style adjunct lager, that means it has rice added to give it a clean crisp flavor. There are no fruity notes, and the finished is equally balanced with hops and low malty sweetness.

Tin Roof Blonde

Very similar to the Tusker, but the mouth feel becomes silky with the addition of another adjunct, wheat malt. This is an ale, and you will taste low fruity esters like apricots and pears. Hop bittering is very low.

Green Flash Passion Fruit Kicker

The aroma is dominated by the fruity esters of passion fruit and the citrusy hops. You will notice more fermentation character in the low bubblegum like esters. This beer actually has passion fruit juice and tea added to increase the fruitiness. It also has a silky body due to the use of the wheat malt as an adjunct.

Viking Blod

Honey like sweetness dominated by hibiscus notes. This is a recipe from around 1700, and as a Mead (honey wine), the 19% alcohol works very subtly in the background along with the herbal nature of the hibiscus flower. You'll notice there is no hop derived bitterness and the alcohol is very smooth, avoiding spicy alcohol notes.

Boddington's Pub Ale

Caramel and Toffee aromas and flavors are everything in this British style called the Ordinary Bitter. This particular recipe originates from 1778. You'll notice it finishes with a fairly firm earthy bitterness that lingers on the pallet.

Mckellar I Beat U

An Imperial Double IPA, this particular recipe uses a lot of toasted malts and malts that impart more of a bread crust and caramely character.  Oily mouth feel due to flaked oats, and hop complexity encompassing fruitiness as well as resiny piney hop flavor and bittering.

Timmermans Lambicus Blanche

This beer is a combination of two styles, one of which is the Wit beer with a high percentage of wheat malt, coriander spice and orange peel married to the traditional Lambic sour ale of Belgium. Now you'll notice the sour notes dominating instead of the hop bittering, as in the previous example. It is however, tempered with the spicy coriander and orange peel which tend to add a sweetness and complementary character to the malt. Low clove like phenolics also are to be found.

Desthill, Here Gose Nothing

This is a historic style of a Leipzig sour beer called Gose. You'll notice citrusy esters balanced with lactic sour aromas and the flavor seems to be reminiscent of  Granny Smith apples with their tart fruity flavors. Notice in the background is a low salty mineraly water character.The pH is 3.09.

Straffe Hendrick Wild

Limited Edition. Now we add a wild yeast called Brettanomyces. This adds certain barnyard like aromas and flavors, but in a positive way, reminiscent of hay, wet wool or leather like aromas. The Belgian triple style, with its Orange like aromas and flavors, low phenolic cloviness, firm bittering and spicy alcohol notes is made more complex with the addition of this strain of wild yeast.

Delirium Argentum

Strong bittering IPA characteristics coupled with Belgian yeast, which brings not only orangey fruity esters, but clove like phenols. This beer has 49 IBUs.

Sasquatch Take Out Rye IPA

This Ale has low fruity esters and is less complex than previous beers,  but the use of rye malt adds a special spicy note like pumpernickel bread.

Clown Shoes Hoppy Feet

Black IPA. The aroma and flavor are dominated by chocolate notes and roasted coffee malt balanced with resiny, piney, citrusy American hops. Notice the raisiny fruity esters in the flavor.

Aecht Martzen

Smoky phenolics dominate the underlying bread crust like Munich maltiness. A good beer to have with barbecue. You'll notice hop bitterness is extremely low and replaced by spicy smokiness.

Day of the Dead Necromancer

This beer conjures up the spirits of the dead. Notice the unusually high sweet chocolate aroma that dominates the roasty notes of the stout.  Sweet lactose has been added to move this beer closer to a chocolate milk stout. This beer is all about chocolate.

Schorschbock 20

One of the ultimately complex beers in the world. A Dopple Bock is frozen, then the ice crystals removed, leaving a very high concentration of alcohol and residual dark fruitiness, as well as complex malt character which allows it to transcend into an Umami experience, savory.

Saint Peters Cream Stout

A very tasteful balance of medium chocolate and roasty notes supported by moderately sweet lactose and balanced by medium raisiny fruity esters, in the milk stout style.

 Lacing

 My Saison! Double Decoction