Review – Anderson Valley Brother David’s Double Abbey Style Ale
It’s time for another review of beer from Bier Shop. Another interesting beer that I have wanted to try but haven’t had the opportunity to until now. This time it is Brother David’s Double Abbey Style Ale from Anderson Valley Brewing Company. Everything I have had from Anderson Valley in the past has been sensational so I have been looking forward to trying this one. Anderson Valley is one of the longer standing breweries in the USA craft beer scene. They have been making beer since opening their brew pub in 1987. Since then they have grown into one of the mainstays of craft brewing.
The beer pours with a large fluffy head that drops quickly but leaves some lacing down the sides of the glass. The beer is a redish dark brown with ruby highlights. Despite being very dark you can see through it and it is brilliantly clear and bright. When swirled it produces legs and a oily slick on the sides of the glass that slowly sink back into the beer. It is a very attractive beer and looks great in a nice balloon glass.
The aroma is one of thick chewy malt up front. The malt has a rich caramel and toffee character. This is backed up by warming alcohol aromas that bring sherry, brandy and other fortifieds to mind. The alcohol also gives dark sugar, fig, raisins and other dried fruits. The fermentation characters provides some spiciness with clove and cinnamon evident. This all adds up to give the beer a real fruit cake or Christmas pudding like character. The aroma of this beer just makes me think of Christmas pudding and minced pies. However, there is some tartness that helps to cut the perceived sweetness in the aroma.
The flavour brings much of the same character that is evident in the aroma. The first notable thing on tasting the beer was a lighter body than I had expected and a real smoothness. This is a very malt and fermentation driven beer and is balanced heavily toward sweetness. This is a beer you will probably want to share with someone or sip at over a few hours in the evening. It weighs in at 9% ABV so taking your time with it is not a bad idea anyway. The malt is expressed with the same chewy caramel and and toffee characters as were detected in the aroma. However, there is also some bready characters that come through. There is also great fortified wine and brandy like warming alcohol flavours. These combine with the dark fruit and spiciness to give the beer the same fuit cake and pudding character that was detected in the arom. In the flavour we start to pick up some more of the tartness and spiciness expected from a Belgian style ale. This helps to cut through the sweetness and adds to the drinkability of the beer. This style of beer has very low hopping and bitterness so needs these other flavours to aid drinkability.
Overall this is an interesting and complex beer that is a real treat. It’s not a session beer but something that is worth sipping and savouring it’s complex flavours. If you wanted to match it with some food I think some well cooked pork belly with a rich sause would be an excellent match. If you are looking for a dessert choice something with a rich bitter chocolate character would work well. It is a great example of the style and a really interesting and rewarding beer. Go and get yourself some today.
Adelaide Bier Shop Treasure Hunt #2
Adelaide Bier Shop has a great new promotion about to start. They have a bottle of Mikkeller Stella O, a very limited edition beer, hidden somewhere in Adelaide. This is a very limited edition beer with only 1300 bottles available world wide. They call it a mixture of a barley wine, an IPA and an American strong ale. Your guess is as good as mine as to how that is going to taste. One thing you can be sure of is that there will be a lot of hops in it. On top of this there are also two very limited edition hand signed 750ml bottlrs of the Beard and Brau Red Tail Amber Scottish Ale. This is a great beer from a fantastic local brewery.
To get involved you need to sign up to their Bier Soaked newsletter. Each day from their birthday, December 6th, they will send out a clue to the prizes location. If you are in Adelaide and love good beer make sure you go and sign up now! Should be a fun promotion. I would wish you all good luck but that would be disingenuous as I want to win it for myself. If I win I promise to post taunting photos of me drinking it though. They have tons of good beer on the site too so make sure you check it out while signing up.
Review – Anderson Valley Hop Ottin’ IPA
It’s time for another review from my latest BIER SHOP delivery. This time we have Hop Ottin’ IPA from Anderson Valley. Anderson Valley have been around making beer for over twenty years and that experience shines through in this great example of American style India Pale Ale.
The beer is a cloudy copper colour in the glass with a medium fluffy white head that lasts well. The foam laces nicely down the side of the glass. It’s the classic example of an American IPA.
The aroma of the beer hits you as soon as it is poured and jumps up into your nose. The beer displays a wonderful combination of malt, hops and fermentation character in the nose. The hops are the highlight of the aroma. The most prolific aroma in the nose in a fresh floral aroma that is reminiscent of a garden on a spring morning. This is backed up by complex malt aromas including caramel and toffee characters. Also present in the aroma are dried fruit fermentation characters.
The first thing to come through on drinking is the assertive bitterness in the beer. Though assertive the bitterness is not harsh or overpowering. The hop flavour is similar to the aroma with floral and mandarin peel characters. Great balance is provided by a good malt backbone. The malt is expressed in a mild sweetness with toffee and caramel like flavours. The carbonation is high enough to aid drinkability but still soft with no harsh bite. This is aided by some great fruity fermentation characters that add softness with dried fruit flavours.The finish is clean and dry making the beer very drinkable. All these flavours add up to a great complexity and not just a hop and bitterness bomb that some American style IPA can be.
Seems I have scored again. This beer has great complexity if that is what you are looking for. However, it’s also a very well made and extremely drinkable beer. If you are after something that is an easy drinking 7% IPA or a really complex and interesting beer you can find them both here. This is one of the classic American IPAs. Go and get yourself some.
Review – Hitachino Nest Japanese Classic Ale
I have just received a new order of great beers from Bier Shop and it’s time to get some reviews up. Lots of interesting beers to come from this delivery and first up is a real surprise packet in Hitachino Nest Japanese Classic Ale from Kiuchi Brewery.
The beer pours and light copper colour with a good size creamy head that sticks around. With a typical bottle pour it produces around 4cm of head. The beer is hazy as it is a naturally conditioned ale.
The aroma is wonderful. A great mix of light malt that is just detectable and wonderful citrus hop character. The citrus is more of a English mandarin peel citrus than the over powering grapefruit like citrus from American hops. However, there is another secret here. This beer spends some time in cedar barrels and that is the aroma you are detecting but can’t quite pick. The combination of aromatic hops and smokey cedar character give an almost sandalwood type aroma to the beer. This is also backed up by some good deep malt character from the Munich, Crystal and Marris Otter malts.
The flavour carries on as you would expect from the aroma. However, the malt does play a larger part in the flavour. Using malts like Munich and Marris Otter give you the strong chewy flavours that back up the bitterness and hop character. These malts also provide a great chewiness that balances perfectly with the hops. The hops and cedar characters are really where it is at with this beer. The mandarin peel citrus character from the aroma carries over into the flavour. It mixes well with the cedar character again to produce wonderful flavours. These flavours again combine the smokiness of the cedar and citrus of the hops to give sandalwood and lemongrass like characters. The medium body and balance of the beer makes it incredibly drinkable, you need to get more than one. This is very sessionable for a beer that weighs in at 7%ABV. The carbonation is just high enough to aid the drinkability and is well conditioned.
This is an all round fantastic beer. I would team this with a Thai curry or a really nice piece of pan fried salmon. Do yourself a favour and give this beer a go. Get Some!
Beer Review – Beard and Brau Black Snout Milk Stout
Sadly this is the last of my deliver from BIER SHOP.com.au. It certainly is a good beer though. I had been saving it for a special occasion and finally having a Government sounded like a good one to me. Not normally a style I chase but it is a very tasty drinkable beer from a local, Adelaide, brewery that is making a range of really good beer. This time we have Beard and Brau Black Snout Milk Stout.
The beer is a very dark brown, almost black and completely opaque. It pours with a good size tan head. Doesn’t appear like it will pour with a good head at first as it isn’t very carbonated. However, it very well conditioned, produced a nice size head that really lasts and laces well down the glass.
The aroma upfront is dominated by sweet chocolate and mild coffee. I also pick up some bitter chocolate like aromas but I perceive more of the sweetness. The perception of sweetness also comes across from a maple syrup like aroma. There are some more savory aroma of a light smokiness. To me this smokiness almost gives it a cherry tobacco character. This is a good thing.
The beer has a very light body and low carbonation as is appropriate for the style. It still does good job of covering the pallet. It is predominantly a sweet beer with very little bitterness. There is a light smoke flavour in the beer which helps combat the sweetness. The flavour like the aroma is dominated by sweet chocolate and mild coffee flavours. It does have a low level of roasty flavours from the dark malts used in it’s production. The flavours are extremely well balanced making it an extremely drinkable beer. You could quite easily have a session on this beer and , due to it’s relatively low 5.5%ABV, you could still feel ok in the morning.
This is not a beer that jumps out and smashes you around like a big Imperial stout. This is a well made fantastically balanced sweet stout that hits all the marks. If you want to try a great example of the style and tasty and drinkable beer you would be looking hard to find something much better.
If you want to pair it with food I think it would go down a treat with a toasted cheese and onion sandwich. Use some really good cloth bound English cheddar. I would be careful matching it with something sweet as it could get cloying. I would recommend something like a chocolate tart made with really good quality bitter chocolate. Try it with whatever you like just go and get Get some.
Beer Review – Steam Exchange Truffles
Another review from my recent BIER SHOP.com.au delivery. This time we have Truffles Porter from Steam Exchange. It’s a porter but it’s a double chocolate, vanilla, bourbon porter. It’s a real dessert beer designed to compliment a sticky date pudding. I think it would do that admirably. Not long ago I had it at a Whisky/Beer tasting paired with a heavily peated malt from Isle of Jura. It was an amazing combination and I recommend trying it with something similar if you get the chance.
The beer pours with a nice size tan head that hangs around in the glass. It is a dark copper to brown in colour. It is obviously brilliantly clear despite the dark colour and shows amber and copper highlights. It almost has legs as it’s swirled though I don’t the think the %ABV is quite high enough for that.
The aroma is strong in chocolate and caramel at first with obvious alcohol yet not over powering. A strong, almost milkshake like, vanilla is present presumably from the bourbon added to the beer. This gives me a real anticipation for the sweetness of the beer and works well with the warm alcohol aroma. There is no doubt this is a dessert beer when you get that aroma. Perhaps just from the alcohol and vanilla but I also detect some woody oaky aromas.
The most dominating flavours are a fantastic combination of bitter chocolate and vanilla. Also present are rich dark sugar and dark dried fruit flavours. As the beer warms the chocolate flavour backs off a bit and I start to get more of the dark malt chewy caramel flavours. The beer is certainly on the sweet end but has just a little bitterness to provide balance and make the beer extremely drinkable. As you drink you get a lovely warming from the alcohol but it’s never hot. The flavour just make you think about a rich dark chocolate cake or pudding with some really good vanilla ice cream.
This is a well rounded beer that delivers on what it sets out to be. Unless you have a very sweet tooth I don’t think you are going to find this a session beer but as a dessert beer it hits the spot. I place it up there with the Mocha porter or chocolate stout from Rogue. As mentioned earlier it goes great with a heavily peated whisky and by all reports is sensational with a sticky date pudding. I like the idea of having it with pancakes drenched in maple syrup and butter so I guess it could be a breakfast beer too. If you wanted to try it with something savoury i think it could work with a nice slab of porterhouse and some roast vegetables. That said what doesn’t go well with a good slab of porterhouse and roasted vegetables? However you want to have it Truffles Porter from Steam Exchange is a great beer. Get Some!