Archive for the tag “4-5 Toasts”

30 Apr 2013

La Gold – Birra San Martino

lagold_bttl7.6% ABV
 Purchased through The Rare Beer Club (around $23/25.4 oz. bottle) and poured into globe glasses. 

This “strong honey bock” from up-and-coming Swiss brewers Birra San Martino pours a murky raisin brown with a mid-sized, dirty white head.  The distinctive and fairly promising nose of La Gold offers chestnuts, raw flour, twigs and leaves, and some dark fruits.  Nuts and grains appear first on the tongue, fading nicely into richer flavors like caramel, flowered honey, and plum-y chocolate.  La Gold has a unique flavor that is earthy and contemplative, and yet still quite drinkable, with complex waves of roasted nuts, cereal grains, and hints of honey, plums, and raisins washing across the palette.  La Gold gets more flower-y as it warms, with wild berry notes coming on and less of those richer caramel flavors.  With a little more sediment in the glass, some barrel root beer and sarsaparilla enters the frame.  What a beer!

toasts-4.5   4.5 Toasts

LaGold

toasts-4.5   4.5 Toasts

Posted in Beer Review, Bock and tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment
22 Jan 2013

Grand Cru – Green Flash Brewing Company

GrandCru_bttl9.1% ABV

Purchased at Davis Bottle Shoppe ($7.99/22 oz. bottle) and poured into Green Flash tulip glasses.

This “mysterious dark ale” from Green Flash pours a dark plum-y brown with a mid-sized, dust-colored head.  There are lots of dusky – and indeed, mysterious – farmhouse spices on the nose, along with herbs, some woodiness, fruit tree leaves, and brown sugar, while still suggesting very little sweetness.  Green Flash Grand Cru presents little sweetness on the tongue either, offering instead spices, wood, dust, and cracker-like notes, with the brown sugar complementing the savory flavor in the same way that it would pork chops.  It makes a very pleasurable impression on the taste buds (with the spices and wood lingering on the tongue), changing character a number of times while remaining balanced throughout.

 

toasts-4.5    4.5 Toasts

GrandCru

 

 toasts-4.5   4.5 Toasts

 
Posted in Beer Review, Belgian, Dark Ale and tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment
22 Nov 2012

Biere de L’Amitie – Brasserie St. Feuillien/Green Flash Collaboration

9.5% ABV
Purchased at Pangaea Bottle Shoppe ($13.49/25.4 oz. bottle) and poured into tulip glasses.

This Belgian Strong Pale Ale is a collaboration of San Diego’s Green Flash and Belgium’s Brasserie St. Feuillien, the opposite number of their more recent partnership Friendship Brew, a black saison.  It pours a pale orange with an expansive bone-white head, and a gorgeous array of farmhouse aromas in the nose – citrus, hay, and funk are there, along with some banana-coconut tropical notes.   Biere de L’Amitie is unbelievably light and effervescent on the first swallow, with some champagne and funk flavors entering on the finish.  There is some citrus present, but nothing juicy or cloying, just a perfect accent to the crisp mouthfeel and floral, tea-like spices.  In the spirit of cross-cultural collaboration, the resulting tasty brew is both old-world understated and brimming with new-world personality.

    4.5 Toasts

    4.5 Toasts

Posted in Beer Review, Belgian, Strong Pale Ale and tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment
22 Oct 2012
1 Comment

Audition Double IPA – Sierra Nevada

8.5% ABV
Purchased at Sierra Nevada Brewery Gift Shop ($9.99/25.4 oz. bottle) and poured into tulip glasses.

Sierra Nevada’s Audition began as a one-off product of their Beer Camp program, briefly appeared on draft at their Chico taproom, and finally was bottled in limited release for sale at the brewery.  It didn’t even receive the benefit of a legitimate Sierra Nevada label, just plain text on a green background.  Audition pours a clear, bright gold with a pillow-y and persistent white head – check out the copious bubbles lazily floating to the surface while you wait for the foam to subside – and a mountain-pine nose of resinous needles and fresh fruit zest.  A brutalizing West Coast-style Double IPA, Audition delivers a mouthful of piney, palette-busting hops on the first swallow, backed up by lemon rind bitterness and a cracker/spice quality indicative of Simcoe hop use.  This beer is a real treat for hop-bomb freaks, but it’s also strangely balanced between the citrus, pine, and spice notes endemic to super IPAs.

    4.5 Toasts

  4.5 Toasts

Posted in Beer Review, Double IPA and tagged , , , , ,
10 Oct 2012

Westoek XX

8% ABV
Purchased at Pangaea Bottle Shoppe ($4.99/11.2 oz. bottle) and poured into Orval glasses

This fantastic Belgian tripel from Brouwerij Deca Services (besides the lighter sister beer Westoek X, they also brew the Vleteren series) pours a murky copper with a light and marshmallow-y off-white head.  Westoek XX has an intriguing tropical nose of guava, berries, some grapes, and healthy doses of spice and funk.  There is a neat depth of fruity flavors on the first swallow, with kiwi the most prominent but strawberry and bananas also present, along with lots of chewy spice on the finish.  Upon subsequent swallows, the barnyard flavors become more and more dominant, along with warm apple and some more muted and textured tropical notes.

    4.5 Toasts

   4.5 Toasts

Posted in Beer Review, Belgian, Tripel and tagged , , , , | Leave a comment
06 Aug 2012

Seizoen Bretta – Logsdon Farmhouse Ales

8.0% ABV
Purchased at Pangaea Bottle Shoppe ($11.49/25.4 oz. bottle) and poured into pint glasses.

His Notes:

Logsdon of Hood River, Oregon produces this saison, which pours a clear, bubbly platinum with a voluminous and persistent white head.  It offers an inviting tropical nose of guava, banana, green grass, and candy, but the first swallow offers more spice and depth of flavor than indicated by the aroma. There are tropical notes present, but they’re tempered and given complexity by that rustic spice flavor.  Farmhouse funk adds some tangy bite to the long and dusky finish, with pineapple also eventually entering the profile.  Seizoen Bretta is impressive on the palette but neutral enough to pair with a variety of dishes, offering lots of balanced complexity inside of a refreshing, summer-y farmhouse brew.

  4.5 Toasts

Her Notes:

  4.5 Toasts

Posted in Beer Review, Saison and tagged , , , , | Leave a comment
21 May 2012

Horny Devil – AleSmith Brewing

11% ABV
Purchased at Pangaea Bottle Shoppe ($12.99/25.4 oz. bottle) and poured into tulip glasses.

His Notes:

San Diego-based AleSmith’s Horny Devil pours a clean, pale gold with a sizable white head.  It has the nuanced, tropical nose of a real Belgian tripel, with some cracked wheat and hot pepper on the periphery.  Fiery pepper sizzles the palette, but it mixes surprisingly well with the flavor profile of a Belgian ale, as the hot spice is cooled by the coconut notes and dry texture.  Candi sugar and Belgian yeast are also present, as well as a double-digit alcohol burn in the long, warming finish – it’s an excellent mix of the savory, the spicy, and the sweet.  Despite the ambitiously extreme flavors (including the addition of coriander seeds), it’s all very balanced and never overwhelms the palette.

  4.5 Toasts

Her Notes:

  4.5 Toasts


Posted in Beer Review, Strong Pale Ale and tagged , , , | Leave a comment
04 Apr 2012

Asylum (Left Coast Brewing)

11.8 ABV
Purchased at Taylor’s Market ($6.99/22 oz. bottle) and poured into goblet glasses.

His Notes:

Asylum is an especially high-alcohol Belgian tripel from San Clemente-based Left Coast Brewing, and it pours a pale gold with an immense, frothy white head and extremely agitated bubbles similar to champagne (it took 10-15 minutes for the head to dissipate). There are lovely tropical fruits on the nose (especially pineapple, coconut shavings, and guava), but it’s the muscular grains that dominate the first swallow, alongside juicy pineapple, coconut, and a unique pepper spice flavor.  Hard alcohol comes in on the finish, along with chewy hops and a dry, cracker-like texture.  This brew offers some really nice complexity and a few unexpected twists and turns.

  4.5 Toasts

Her Notes:

  4.5 Toasts


Posted in Beer Review, Tripel and tagged , , , | Leave a comment
26 Mar 2012

Pliny the Younger (Russian River Brewing)

11% ABV
Purchased at Pangaea and poured into miniature wine glasses.

His Notes:

The legendary limited release Imperial IPA from Russian River pours a clear, pale, hay yellow with a minimal white head.  It smells of citrus trees, melons, freshly cut pine, and a little bit of bubblegum.  Pliny the Younger offers a very complex mix of bitter and sweet notes on the palette, but it’s subtle and nuanced on both sides of the equation.  The pine bitterness is so fresh it’s practically zesty, with more pine needles than palette-wrecking pine resin in the long and lingering aftertaste.  There is a dry, cakelike texture to the sweetness, as well as a mixture of melons and citrus fruits, but it’s the oily bitterness that dominates the tongue as those other flavors fade.

  4.5 Toasts

Her Notes:

  4.5 Toasts


Posted in Beer Review, Imperial IPA and tagged , , , | Leave a comment
02 Mar 2012
2 Comments

Hazelnut Brown Nectar (Rogue Ales)

6.2% ABV, 33 IBUs
Purchased at Davis Bottle Shoppe ($6.99/22 oz. bottle) and poured into pint glasses.

His Notes:

This popular beer from Rogue pours walnut brown with a thin, desert sand-colored head, and gives off the subtle and smoky smell of ripe nuts, tobacco smoke, and dried leaves.  With the deep and rich flavor of brown nuts, cigar ash, and a soothing dollop of honey, Hazelnut Brown Nectar is a great fall beer that could also be a great winter beer.  Hazelnut extract has been added to the brew, but it doesn’t taste gimmicky or fake, and doesn’t overwhelm your palette like Sierra Nevada’s similar autumnal offering Tumbler (it should pair well with hearty meat dishes and stews).  It finishes beautifully, with the smoke and leaf flavors rounding out into a smoky and smooth retreat.

  4.5 Toasts

Her Notes:

    4.5 Toasts


Posted in Beer Review, Brown and tagged , ,

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