Disclaimer: This beer was sent to me by the brewery as a promotional sample
The nice folks at Magic Hat Brewing Company sent me another sampler of beers, this time for their summer line-up. Later this week I will review the other beer they sent me, but today’s beer is Pistil. Pistil is a beer brewed with dandelions, that’s right dandelions. They have always been a strange beer ingredient to me, but my buddy Pete has brewed a few beers with dandelions with varying degrees of success. According to Magic Hat’s website, there are a number of other ingredients that are used in this beer that make it a bit strange.
Pistil pours a light golden color and it is super cloudy. A thick white head comes out of the beer but quickly fades back into it leaving just a trace on top of the liquid. The nose is sweet with hints on honey. I got a light toasted smell on my second whiff. There were no hops to speak over and nothing that would alert the drinker that they were about to try something brewed with dandelions.
On the front end of the beer you get some light malt flavor; raw and grainy. It then carries into a light fruity flavor. A slight spicy hop kicks in right at the end to help finish out the beer. I found the end of this one to be slightly grassy. Along with the all of the other flavors, this beer is slightly sour which really works well with everything else going on. I don’t know what dandelions taste like in beer, but I’m not sure if I could detect them even if I did.
This beer isn’t bad and would make an excellent light summer beer. It’s a bit different than your typical summer beer which is nice. I would give this one another one a try when the summer decides to turn the outside thermostat up a few degrees. Generally these types of beers I find to be a bit “gimmicky” but this one was actually very drinkable. This is a perfect transition beer for someone just getting into craft beer or someone who has never had a craft beer before. read more…
If you were not aware, today was the start of American Craft Beer Week. This is the seventh year of the week and there are thousands of events in all 50 states scheduled. Check out CraftBeer.com for all of the events.
Speaking of CraftBeer.com they have a great craft beer quiz to take in celebration of this week. I scored an 80% FYI. Are you doing anything for the week? Personally, I don’t have any big plans but I am hoping to brew at some points. I kind of wish that they week had a bit more of the weekend, i.e Sunday. I know that I have been slacking on review these past two weeks but I will rectify that situation later this week with a bunch of new reviews. Thanks as always for visiting the site and let me know if you have anything fun planned for ACBW.
I found this while browsing the web today and I thought that I should share it. The file size to too big to put on the main page but you can click here to view it.
I’ve reviewed a few different beers from the Widmer Brothers Brewing Company of Portland, Oregon in the past with mixed reviews. My father-in-law bought me this beer for Christmas among a few other beers. This is a review that has been sitting on the back burner for some time as I drank and wrote this review shortly after New Years. I’m finally getting caught up with beer reviews and I’m getting these old reviews flush out more quickly now. Now back to the beer. Nelson Imperial IPA is clearly an Imperial IPA, or IIPA for those of you who like abbreviations, and rocks in at an impressive 8.6%. O yeah, it comes in 22′s as well. Needless to say, this is a “you’re staying home tonight” kind of beer.
Nelson Imperial IPA pours a nice clear orange color and comes with a medium white head. The nose is full of bright hops that are a good mix of citrus and pine. Behind the hops you can really smell the malt sweetness on this beer. Higher ABV beers tend to be a bit thicker and generally smell the same. This beer has that type of feeling.
On my first taste my thoughts about this being a thick beer were correct. This beer has a chewy quality to it. The malt, while thick feeling, is very nice and has some light caramels. Just as the malt is getting overly sweet as good solid kick of hops come in to clean this one up. The hops have a grapefruit and pine flavor which interact well with the malt base. I would love to say more about this beer, but it is pretty straightforward.
This beer tastes exactly like what you would expect from an Imperial IPA. If you have had an Imperial IPA before, I don’t think this one will blow you way. That is not to say that this is a bad beer by any means, but I feel like this has more of a “standard” taste to it. I would put this beer down for the benchmark of what an Imperial IPA should be. read more…
Today’s beer review is our first from the Green Flashing Brewing Company based out of San Diego, Ca. They have really opened up their distribution recently as I have seen their stuff all over the MD, and PA beer markets. One of my coworkers loves their IPA and constantly encourages me to brew something similar to it. It’s a damn good beer, and when I saw that my local beer store was carrying something other then just the Green Flash IPA I quickly picked it up. According to the bottle Rayon Vert is a Belgian-style pale ale. Green Flash’s website has this to say about the beer,
If Green Flash were founded in historical Belgium, Rayon Vert would have been our flagship brew. A bold layering of hops finds balance from traditional malts. Bottle conditioning with fresh ale yeast and Brettanomyces finishes the beer, adding a delightful effervescence, dryness and continuously evolving character. Rayon Vert is Green Flash.
Rayon Vert pours a hazy orange with an incredibly fluffy white head. I actually had to stop halfway though my pour, and let the head settle for a few minutes before I could finalize the remainder of the pour. The nose has lots of citrus hops that hit you right off the bat. I was surprised by how tangy this beer smells and there is even some orange mixed in there. One odor that I wasn’t sure of was a slight plastic smell towards the end. I’m not sure if that was the Brett, or something else, but it was the only thing that took away from the nose on this beer.
Upfront, Rayon Vert as a really nice sweetness which is followed by a weak hop component. The hops don’t bit the way that I expected from the nose, but just fade in and slightly dry the beer out. Towards the end this beer was a bit grassy, which wasn’t a bad thing. There was also a tangy flavor to this beer, which I am going to attribute to the Brett. There is not a ton happening in this beer, but there are some bold flavors that lead to a well balanced beer.
There are a ton of good flavors in this beer. While the tangy flavor might not be for everyone, I enjoyed it. I want to go back and try this beer again at some point so that I can get another chance to experience it. I feel like this might be a beer that you have to experience multiple times to fully understand. read more…
