Ok, I've not posted in a long time partly due to fatherhood but also as Google decided to discontinue their blogger app (did they ever replace it?). Anyways, in June I went to Toronto for a family wedding and picked up  Bu Woo at Bellwoods Hafis Rd location and then when I was at Burdock I saw they had their own version in 375ml bottles. I'm a sucked for collaborations so I had to pick both up.

I brought them to Japan and shared them with a fellow Beer Lover in Kyoto.

Burdock x Buwoo 6.1%

A cloudy peach juice milky color with a sour tart Riesling grape and plum aroma. Full bodied with a round carbonation and tart flavor but it goes down smoothly.

Bellwoods x Burdock Buwoo 6.4%

Green Tea & Mango BA Sour Ale

It has an incredible mango aroma that is like freshly diced/cubes mango or purée. Very round soft prickly carbonation with lots acidity and tartness plus tons of mango. Very drinkable though I don’t see any sign of the aforementioned green tea. 

Those Bu Woo were good but not stellar, burdocks had more going on but didn’t stand out while the Bellwoods tasted better but was mostly mango. 

Tuesday Tasting: Baeren Monthly Set for September 2016

Baeren beers sell some of the best priced craft beers in Japan, make consistently good German Style beers plus they have a nice range of ciders as well. 

I signed up for a 3 month beer of the month club that will feature beers made to celebrate 500 years of the Rheinheitsgebot. Apparently, they do this every Fall starting in September and the theme changes each year.

September 2016 featured: 

On to the beers.

Wiesenbier 6%

I was expecting a straw gold but it poured a dark orange with a thick beige head. Unexpected but I think it suits Fall just fine. 

The aroma is super bready, cotton candy spice with cloves - pleasingly sweet aroma. Medium to full bodied, smooth mouthfeel and the taste is bready, spicy cloves and white pepper, tangy citrus and caramel fudge covered spongecake. I'd say this is on it's way to being halfway to dunkelweizen territory though ratebeer has it listed as an Oktoberfest/Marzen. Solid brew for Fall.

Having it again in a dimpled mug it is definitely a malt-forward Oktoberfest beer (apparently Wiesen is the field where Oktoberfest is held). Malty, sweet nutty caramel and some sharp hoppiness. It remains a nice Fall beer the second time around.

Now let's look at the two Alts which I've heard should be drunk side by side.

Baeren Herbst Alt 4.5%

A deep ruddy brown with a thin beige head. The aroma is of a sharp caramel with nuts. Medium to light bodied, it's got a bone dry finish. It goes down very smooth with a bitter caramel, brief hit of sweetness and a biting lightly bitter finish. Very crisp and well done.

Baeren Herbst Alt Celler 4.5%

A slightly lighter brown than the regular Herbst Alt with a thicker more resilient head of foam. A softer, nuttier caramel aroma greats you while the body is fuller (Med-full) and sweeter. The carbonation is a touch less aggressive and the flavor is nutty, roasty, caramel, chocolate with a herbal hop bite. The hops are definitely more pronounced in this version. 

On it's own I think I prefer the Herbst Alt but when you have them side by side it brings out an earthy bitter caramel in the Alt Celler and the semi-dry finish is quite quaffable making the Celler version go down a touch smoother and it seems a touch closer to my expectations when I think of Alt. Both are very solid brews.

Tuesday Tasting: Tête d'Allumette

Today's Tuesday Tasting will feature 3 brews from Quebec. Last July buddy's group, Boucan Sound System,  was hired to play a gig at the 3rd year Anniversary bash of Tete d'Allumette (Match Head) Brewery out in the wilds of Eastern Quebec in Kamouraska. Here's a clip of my buddy's music:

As I was going to visit him shortly after, I asked him to try and pick up some of their brews for me to try. They kindly hooked him up with three 1-liter growlers of:

Tête Carrée a 4% English Style Bitter that's in Ratebeer's Top 50 for the Style, Apache a 5.5% Smoked Ale 5.5% and Pioche a 5.5% Saison.

Cool looking 1L growlers

 And now on to the beers!

 Tête Carée

Bitter Anglaise Minerale 4.2% 28 IBU 

A cloudy matte gold with a crazy  aroma  of grains that honestly made me think it smells like the countryside when the malts are ripe for harvesting. 
The taste is malt forward, lightly nutty but with a herbaciously bitter edge. Cool stuff, drinks dead easy.

Apache 5.6% 39 IBU

A nice looking brown with reddish highlights. Cracking the growler released a huge aroma of citrus and apricot, in my mug I got more of a flavor profile that features malty caramel with a touch of smoke.

The taste is surprisingly smokey with bitter nutty chocolate and floral hops. Good. 

La Pioche Saison 6% 

We shared this bottle with the good folks at Beau's. 
A golden orange color with s filmy head and a bready Orange and wheat aroma. 

The taste is cloves, wheat, soda bread, a slight hit of acidity but quite smooth. Tasty stuff.

If you ever find yourself out in that part of rural Quebec pop in and  treat yourself to some solid suds.

Tuesday Tasting: New Belgium

I'm planning on  visiting New Belgium during my trip to Colorado this month so I figured I'd do a small Tuesday Tasting featuring a few of their brews: 1554 Black Lager & Trippel

1554 Black Lager 5.6%

Served in a lager glass it is a deep brown with red accents that verges on black and an impressively thick beige head. The aroma is soft cocoa, chewy breadiness  and an enticing semi-spicy quality. Medium to full bodied with a chewy texture but a raspy carbonation.

The taste is very quaffable with a balanced roast edge merged with chewy chocolate buns. Malt forward, tasty and interesting. A surprise hit with me.

New Belgium Tripel 7.8%

A beautiful bright clear gold with a foamy white head. The aroma is vineous, plum, figs, a bit tart but a very nice example of the style. Medium to full mouthfeel with a dry finish. The taste is crackery pale malts and big luscious candied fruits, figs, plums, raisins and while it has some boozy heat it is quite well balanced. 

I like it, it's a good example of a Belgian Style Trippel, but being in Japan we can get Belgian original versions for less. So if I was in the US I'd go for this in a heartbeat but being in Japan I think I'd get an belgian original instead. Really really nice though.

I didn't realize I had a third New Belgium brew in my fridge:

New Belgium Snapshot 5%

It is listed as a tart wheat beer with a cloudy light gold color that possesses a filmy eggshell white head.

A tart wheat aroma that is very reminiscent of a Gose. 

The taste is wheat, soda bread, some lemon and a mild tartness. It feels to me it is midway between a Gose and a wheat ale. That tartness is very mild in the finish. It's ok but isn't as good as the previous two bottles.

Tuesday Tasting: Usami Brewery

I ordered a 4 beer Tameshi-kurabe Set(try & compare set) directly from the brewery and got it less than a week after placing my order.

It included 4 beers: an Alt, a Golden Ale, a Kölsch & a Stout.

Usami Brewery is from the Izu Peninsula in Shizuoka home of many breweries taking advantage of clean water and plentiful land. The best known brewery in the area is Baird Beer.

Donau Pale Lager 3.5%

It pours a light cloudy gold with a fizzy white quickly dissipating head of foam. The aroma is a green herbal/grassy hoppiness and a light pilsner malt character. The taste is really green hops, grassy and a flatbread breadiness from the malts. Light bodied but with an ultra-dry finish. A nice clean Japanese table beer.

Rhein Alt 5% 

It pours a very clear reddish-brown with minimal beige foam. The aroma is malt-forward giving you notes of caramel & dried figs/dates. Chocolate, tart caramel, a bit of smoke. Light bodied but a fairly tasty beer though I feel that sour/tart flavor doesn't really seem appropriate for an alt. After awhile that sourness fades and I get maple/tobacco notes. Pretty good.

Gold Kolsch 4.5%


Served in my kolsch glass at home, it impressed with it's vivid gold and thick dense head of foam that left big soapy lacing behind. The aroma is floral then a hayloft type of graininess with subtle hits of a tangy fruitiness around the edges. I was pleasantly surprised as I wasn't expecting all that much from this beer. 

Aqueously light bodied with a silky mouthfeel as the beer glides down my throat. The taste is extremely mild hop fruit notes but predominately the hops come through as herbal/spicy - light but deftly done. Sweet grainy breadiness like a dense loaf of good stuff with a semi-dry finish. Maybe after a long day I just needed a beer or something but this really hit the spot.

Usami Thames Stout 5%

I cracked out my stout glass for this one. It pours a deep brown with a thick beige head that alas leaves no lacing behind. The stout glass concentrates the aroma which gives me a bready cinnamon type yeastiness, sugar plums and chocolate buns. Not bad just not at all what I'd expect from a stout. Light bodied edging towards watery.

The taste is sweet roasty chocolate and light spiciness. This is an odd stout, call it a Christmas beer and you'd have a winner. It definitely grew on me as it warmed up but I'd like more body on a dark beer.

Surprisingly enough, not long after my order I took another look at their homepage and they'd added three more beers: Usami Golden Ale (which I believe is the same as the Gold/Kolsch), Curry Amber Ale (different from the Alt?) and a Saison. 

Judging from the fact that there had been only 4 entries on Ratebeer for this brewery for years and suddenly they're brewing new recipes I am guess they've decided to change directions and take brewing more seriously. If so, good for them and I wish them all the best. This was a decent little tasting set.

Tuesday Tasting: Punk'in Drublic

From time to time I get my hands on a pair of beers that is just begging to be drunk side by side. This is one such pair:

Coronado made a pumpkin beer called Punk'in Drublic  which they then Barrel Aged. Both of these beauties made it to Japan where the regular retailed for 691 ¥ and the BA Variant went for a hefty 1944¥ for 375ml. Surprisingly, both are the same 8% ABV.

So this begs the question, is the barrel aging worth the premium price? Does it enhance the beer?

Let's start with the regular:

Coronado Punk'in Drublic 8%

Pouring a an orange-amber-brown that brings to mind a luscious barleywine.

The aroma is sweet pumpkin flesh, cinnamon & nutmeg - it smells very sweet and inviting.

Medium bodied with a slightly scratchy carbonation that announces to your tastebuds: beer is here.

The taste gives you a sweet hit that is reminiscent of molasses which I am guessing comes from the brown sugar & honey. Mixed in with that are cinnamon & nutmeg as well as nutty pumpkin flesh.

A solid all around pumpkin beer but I find the heat & ABV makes it a bit boozy. I preferred the Great Pumpkin as far as Imperial Pumpkin Ales go.

Coronado Collection Barrel-Aged Punk'in Drublic 8% 

It may be infinitesimally darker than the regular Punk'in Drublic but to my eye is virtually indistinguishable. It's the same orange-amber-brown. Nice looking. 

The aroma is oak, brandy & malt(or is that the honey/sugar?) sweetness. I don't get any of the pumpkin spicing you'd expect but I do get a plum-like character from the brandy. 

Medium bodied but the carbonation has smooth out somewhat making for a mildly more pleasant mouthfeel.

The taste remains boozy but it is complemented by oak, brandy, vanilla. That booziness fits a barrel-aged beer like a glove. After that you get sweetness, fruitiness and just hints of spicing in the finish. The barrel completely overpowered anything really pumpkin like.

It's a beautiful barrel-aged beer, very well balanced barrel character but it is a shame you don't really get anything pumpkin from it. 

As a beer I prefer the BA but as a pumpkin beer I prefer the regular Punk'in Drublic.

I'd buy the BA again but for a pumpkin beer is from Nagano Trading Co., Ltd I'd probably choose the New Belgium Pumpkick next time.

Tuesday Tasting: Weizens & Witbiers

I recently got my hands on a bunch of beers made with a hearty dose of wheat malt, specifically 3 weizens and a witbier. 

What's the difference between these two styles you ask? Well, weizen means white in German and it is short for Hefeweizen(meaning Yeast-Weizen) so it is a German style wheat beer made with a yeast strain that gives strong banana/cloves/bubblegum aromatics and is usually cloudy with suspended yeast as they are unfiltered.

Witbiers are a bit different, it is a wheat ale from Belgium that is usually made using a spice such as coriander as well as orange peel. The most familiar example to most North Americans would be Blue Moon. A witbier yeast is usually less aromatic with the fruit & spice notes coming from actual fruits & spices. Now, onto the beers~!

Fujizakura Kogen Height Weizen

First up is my favorite weizen in Japan,  5.5% it is a slightly opaque straw gold with a big fluffy head that is blessed with fantastic staying power that leaves huge gobs of lacing - terrific. 

The nose is wheaty cloves and tangy bananas - yummy. The mouthfeel is a bit more abrasive carbonation-wise than I remember. I get a good chewy wheat with banana and clove flavor. Nice but not as great as I remember it being... ah the bottle is a few weeks past date. It was a freebie so no big deal but when you get this beer in good form it's something really special. Here's my original review:

Bottle. Probably my favorite weizen in Japan, actually all of Fujizakura’s beers are very well made. It has a nice aroma with hints of grass & spice. It poured with a nice head of white foam over a milky gold effervescent body. The foam left a generous amount of lacing on the glass. The flavor is a great balance between spicy & fruity. Overall, an excellent Japanese hefeweizen.

Baeren Winter Weizen

Next up is the winter version of Baeren's Weizen which has a more robust and malty character than it's Summer Weizen. It pours a malty looking amber gold with a thick fluffy off-white head that lasts a long time and has very nice looking lacing. 

The nose is  bready malts and spicy cloves. Medium to full bodied with a pleasing goku goku chewy body. The taste has a slight candyish quality to it but you get chewy bready malts, cloves and bready banana. Quite nice, Baeren is keeping up their streak of good quality German-style brews. It hits the spot with a solid full malt body and nice spicy weizen quality. The thicker richer malt body does give it a more cold temperature feel to it.

Hidetakayama Weizen 

5% a souvenir from my friend Mickey Blue Eyes. It pours a lovely cloudy straw gold with a fizzy white head that leaves a slapdash soapy looking lacing. 

The nose is of chewy wheat/light malts, a fine clove spiciness but with an unfortunate buttery off-flavor lurking in the background. The taste is crackery wheat, mild buttery popcorn diacetyl off-flaver & some light spices. Overall, it is OK but could be much better starting with getting rid of that diacetyl character.

Revolution's Bottom Up Wit 

The only witbier of the day comes out of Chicago's Revolution Brewey and pours a great looking cloudy straw gold with a picture perfect head of dense white foam that leaves generous lacing clinging to the sides of the weizen glass. 

The nose is wheat & spices with lots of cloves and hints of cinnamon/coriander. It has a very nice flavor profile featuring coriander, chewy wheat, a hint of orange peal and a hefty handful of spicy cloves. The mouthfeel is silky smooth but has a crisp finish that has your mouth watering for more. One of the bests of the day. 

  

If I had to place them in order for these 4 bottles I'd go:

Baeren Winter Weizen

Revolution Bottom Up Wit

Fujizakura Weizen

Hidatakayama Weizen

But with a fresh Fujizakura Weizen it'd probably jump to the top of the list. What're you drinking today?

Tuesday Tasting: Tainai Kogen Beer

Continuing my quest to try as many Japanese breweries, this week I'll be looking at Tainai Kogen Beer. I ordered a sampler 3 pack of their beers via Rakuten. They're a german style brewery located in the mountains of Niigata near the Tainai Ski area. Traditionally, they made 3 styles of beer: a Pilsner, a Weizen and an Alt but they've recently added a 4th style, a Rauch.

I chose to order the Rauch, Alt and Weizen.

One thing I like about this brewery are their clean modern labels. Their core range is a classy black with brass colored katakana type and scenes from their mountain home. The Rauch has a big bold but clean label. Looks good!

I started off with the newest beer in their line up, the Rauch.

Rauch

5.5% It was a bit of a gusher when opened and had a HUGE head of beige-orange tinged foam. The head was very long lasting with decent lacing, nice. 

The color's a clear dark amber brown with ruby highlights - a truly beautiful looking beer. The nose is sweet, tangy & smokey though milder than Schlenkerla or Fujizakura's Rauch.

The beer's medium bodied with a silky mouthfeel. The taste is surprisingly earthy, malts then a hit of that smokey flavor. An interesting take on a rauch, more subtle than in your face but well done - I like it. 

I then moved onto their Alt which I chose to order over their Pilsner. Both are styles that I'm not terribly interested in but I find altbiers slightly more interesting.

Alt

5% It pours a dark reddish brown that is similar to the Rauch but the head while beige/brown & fizzy vanished quickly leaving no lacing behind unlike the thick head the Rauch gave, still a nice looking beer though. 

The aroma is toffee, caramel, a hint of anise and some grainy maltiness. It is medium bodied with a cola like somewhat heavy and rough carbonation giving it a fairly aggressive mouthfeel. 

The taste is again surprisingly cola like, some fudge, caramel, a bit of grains and a truly dry sharp finish. This beer isn't that smooth or balanced it's kind of an in-your-face altbier if that makes any sense. 

Last up is one style I usually enjoy, their hefeweizen. What I look for in a weizen is a good dose of cloves, a cloudy straw gold color, thick head of white foam and possibly some fruity banana or bubblegum notes with a soft body. Let's how it measures up.

Weizen

Served in a weizen glass as it should be! Tainan Kogen’s Weizen pours a slightly deeper gold than I am used to in a weizen but has an impressive thick fluffy head of foam that gives it good lacing and decent staying power. The aroma is an enticing fruity clove scent with bubblegum notes - oishisou! 

Medium to light bodied the mouthfeel is fairly smooth with a spritzy carbonation. The taste is a bit more average, cloves, spices, some fruity esters but also a bit of a watery quality taste-wise. A pretty good weizen. 

My favorite of the three was the Rauch, then the Weizen, then the Alt. Looks like these guys are a pretty decent little brewery.

Tuesday Tasting: Myoko Kogen Brewery

Last week I looked at Gotemba Kogen's beers this week I am taking a look at another resort brewery: Myoko Kogen Brewery which is located in the Alpen Blick (ski) Resort in Niigata Prefecture. Once again, I ordered a trial tasting set featuring three beers(as far as I know they only make three): a weizen, a dark lager and a pilsner. Apparently, their recipes were formulated with the help of a brewer from the Czech Brewery, U Fleck.

Myoko Kogen Weizen 5%

This time I started with the weizen.It pours a beautiful cloudy straw gold with a thick foamy head in my weizen glass. Big yeasty aroma of cloves & banana bread or plantains - makes me hungry! Light zesty effervescent carbonation on a thin body which is possibly a touch too watery. The taste is quite good, clove spiciness, wheat notes & a bit of banana sweetness. Tasty much better than that Gotemba Kogen Weizen I had last week.

Myoko Kogen Dark Lager 5%

Cola brown pour with a beige beige head of fluffy foam that dissipated fast leaving behind dabs of soapy lacing. The aroma is mild straight from the fridge, roast malts & soft chocolate notes. A smooth medium body gives it a pleasant mouthfeel. The taste is sweet, roasted barley, bran flakes & cocoa powder with an exceptional roasted grains + mild raisins flavor. This beer makes me think of the breakfast cereal raisin bran but in a very good way. An interesting dark lager! As good as or maybe even better than the weizen, my only critique is the aroma is too subtle at first but once it warmed up a bit I got a touch of molasses added to the bran.

Myoko Kogen Pilsner 5%

It pours a clear gold with a foamy white head. The aroma is earthy spicy Saaz with sweet graham cracker likemalts. A bit too sweet in the nose for my taste. The body is ultra soft & light. Incredibly crisp taste, light earthy bitterness & green hay from the malts. Very summery, exceptionally drinkable - really good stuff. 

All in all, this is a very solid brewery that took me by surprise. I'd never heard of them before. If you're looking to enjoy the Japanese mountainside for hiking or skiing I would say head on over to the Alpen Blick Resort for all that plus good beer!

Tuesday Tasting: Gotemba Kogen

For this Tuesday Tasting I'm gonna take a look at Gotemba Kogen Brewery. This is brewery is part of the Gotemba Kogen Resort in Shizuoka Prefecture near Mount Fuji. According to Craft Beer in Japan, the brewery was founded in 1995 and is made up of 2 different breweries: one releasing bottles the other cans. I got my hands on a Tameshi Kurabe Set (Try & Compare Set) via Rakuten. This set included a Pils, Schwarz & Weizen. I had seen this beer online for awhile but hadn't tried it, for some reason I felt it didn't seem so interesting. Probably, due to never seeing it in specialty beer shops or hearing fellow beer geeks talking about this brewery I was under the impression they just made typical omiyage(souvenir) beers with little merit.

The Set

The Gotemba Kogen Pils 5%

The Pils

Can direct from the brewery via Rakuten, just 11 days old. 5.5% served in a pilsner glass. It pours a crystal clear light gold with a thick white fluffy space. Earthy, grassy, light noble hop aroma. Nice smooth moothfeel on a light body. The taste is a refreshing crisp grassy flavor with light bitterness & mild crackery malt notes. A surprisingly nice pilsner that hits all the right notes with a great finish, it’s very refreshing with bang on a proper pils profile without any one thing overshadowing another. An impressive start to this tameshi set! Then again I wasn’t expecting much...

The Gotemba Kogen Schwarz 5%

Served in a glass beer mug. It pours a dark cola brown with a thick tan head. The aroma is roasty dark malts, dark bitter chocolate, soy & has a certain savoury quality to it. Medium-light bodied with a roasty chocolate flavor. Easy to drink with no off-flavors. Another solid beer from Gotemba Kogen.

The Gotemba Kogen Weizen 5%

 A slightly cloudy straw gold pour with a foamy white head leaving behind fairly minimal lacing. The aroma is cloves & a butterscotch yeast quality to it. The taste is sweet, yeasty, light cloves and a mild buttery flavor. That buttery taste is diacetyl an off-flavor in a hefeweizen. It is an ok beer but not as good as the schwarz & pils which beat my expectations whereas this disappointed me.

Oh well, 2 out of 3 beers were quite good. The weizen wasn't bad per se but it was the only one of the three with a production issue causing an off-flavor. The Pils really took me by surprise, the schwarz was incredibly drinkable so they should both be given a shot if you have the chance. Someday I'll head up to the Gotemba Resort and give the all-you-can-drink deal a go at their restaurant!

Tuesday Tasting: Harvest Hill Brewery - Harvest no Oka

Harvest no Oka, Harvest Hill in English, is one of those peculiarly Japanese kind of breweries. Scattered throughout the Land of the Rising Sun you'll find agricultural parks as tourist attractions many of which have their own small breweries on site.

Harvest no Oka is one such place located in the southern Osaka city of Sakai. As it's main focus is as a tourist attraction(see the animals, make pottery, ride the rides, etc.) where people, especially families, can come for a taste of the outdoors and farming life the beer is not a main priority for them. 

You won't really find them outside of Harvest no Oka except at local festivals like Namba's Craft Beer Live. That being said if you want to try their beer you can always do like me and order a 6 pack from their webstore for 2200 yen plus shipping.

the 3 varieties in the 6 pack

 This 6 pack includes 2 bottles of each of their main varieties of beer: a dunkel, a pilsner & a rye lager. Here are my reviews:

Harvest no Oka Pilsner (Suki ya Sakai)

5% served in the appropriate pilsner glass. It pours a straw gold with a thick fizzy white head - classic pils/lager look. It has a soft grassy nose followed by a sweet sugary graininess. I don't dig this beers general sweetness. 

Smooth almost slick mouthfeel. The taste is pretty good, the first thing is that sugary sweetness which is a turn off for me but it is followed by earthy lightly bitter hops, some mint & a solid but light cracker malt backbone. Crisp & refreshing, OK.


Harvest no Oka Munchner (Honma mon ya Sakai)


I served this 5% dunkel in a beer mug. It pours a reddish-copper with a thick foamy light beige head. Nice nutty notes, weak caramel & some grains almost to the point of being bready. 

Thin to medium bodied... somewhat watery. The taste is pretty good, roasty grains, nuttiness finishing on a smooth caramel before giving you a tangy sweet malt finish. 

It reveals a bit of nutty caramel in the aftertaste. I like this more than the pilsner, I think it's better balanced. Good aroma, nice taste but the light body is a hair too thin. Overall, a decent dunkel.

Harvest no Oka Rye Lager (Kodawari ya sakai)

Served in a pilsner glass, it poured gold with an orange tint to it & very opaque. A thick head of foam formed but it dissipated fast & left behind virtually zero lacing. Not too surprising as I've heard rye inhibits the formation & retention of heads of foam. 

A malty aroma rose from the glass composed of sweet grains with a slightly bready character to it plus some rye & a bit of fruitiness. It has a hint of sourness lurking in the back of the aroma. 

Light bodied the taste is sugary, lightly bitter with bready rye or cracker notes... I feel a certain sourdough vibe from this beer. Fruity in the finish, with just the slightest hint of cardboard in the finish/aftertaste. Quite crisp. I find this beer to be a bit too thin bodied & sweet for me but is generally within the style guidelines of the BJCP. An alright rye lager but for a better Japanese Rye Beer seek out the Baeren Rye seasonal.

If I had to rank these I'd probably go Munchner, Rye Lager then pilsner though the differences between the rye lager/pilsner is minimal... Definitely the dunkel was the most satisfying of the three though all were decent examples of their respective styles.

Tuesday Tasting: Brewdog's Unleash the Yeast Comparative Tasting

On the heels of my vertical tasting I am doing a tasting of the Brewdog Unleash the Yeast Series. These beers were made using the same malt recipe, the same IBU was reached using Cascade & Amarillo BUT using 4 different yeasts: Bavarian Weizen, Pilsner, American Ale & Belgian Trappist.

Considering the malt bill & hops don't really match any style but the American Ale I feel this series is somewhat gimmicky but it still does what it set out to do which was highlight the yeast. If you try this or any other yeast series' beers (like Mikkeller's) I recommend tasting them side by side or at the minimum 2 by 2.

I started off on Saturday with the Bavarian Weizen as it is a style my wife enjoys and the Pilsner Lager as I had a new pilsner glass to try out.

Brewdog Yeast Series - Pilsner Lager

Bottle from Asahiya. Served in a IKEA pilsner glass. Drunk side by side with the Weizen of the yeast series. 6.3% ABV I don't get that, other than for the Trappist Ale that is way too high for any style of beer in this series!

A dark gold pour, I guess they choose a malt bill that would be mid-range for all styles. Crystal clear with some effervescent carbonation rising through the beer to a thick head with little staying power that leaves behind nice lacing.

The aroma is sweet clean light malts with a certain floralness lurking in the background. After sniffing the weizen I don't get much from the pilsner I suppose the aroma is too subtle. Medium bodied, somewhat slick mouthfeel. The taste is floral with biscuity malts, a hint of bitter grass & a clean finish. The malt profile & color is all wrong for a pilsner but the taste is decent. I think the Centennial & Amarillo make it somewhat fruitier/more citrusy than your average pils but it isn't bad actually it is quite tasty just not really pils like more like a pale ale.

Brewdog Yeast Series - Bavarian Weizen

Bottle from Asahiya. Served in a weizen glass. It initially has the same dark gold pour as the pilsner which is no surprise as they have the same malt bill. This beer is also crystal clear but it has TONS of effervescent carbonation rising through the beer (much much much more than the pilsner) to a thick foamy head with great lacing & staying power. In appearance, it has a much more active carbonation & a thicker more solid head of foam. That's the yeast's effect!

A lightly spicy aroma with a vague hint of banana & bubblegum, sweet but with no malts coming through. It has an interesting zesty flavor and an almost citrusy fruitiness then some spice while the finish is quite dry & ascerbic for a weizen but it does have hints of banana & spice.

I am wondering what the hopping was like for this series... hopped with Centennial & Amarillo hence the citrus and not so weizen like flavor.  Those hops are usually used in IPAs, Pale Ales and other much more bitter beers so they kind of fight against rather than work with the yeast. Overall not bad, not at all to style but it does showcase the yeast which is what it set out to do. The malts & hops are not usually used with a Weizen yeast plus the ABV is too high but you can see quite significant differences in the flavor profiles of the beers.

Actually, I am kind of wondering how they got all the beers to the same 6.3% ABV. Yeast work differently so I would have expected the yeast to stop at different points. I guess Brewdog have great production control to get such a result!

Next up are the Trappist & American Ale yeast beers. These are closer in terms of style to the malt bill that was used, the ABV & hops so I am thinking I may enjoy them more...

Brewdog Yeast Series - American Ale

Bottle from Asahiya. Served in a pint glass & drunk side by side with the Belgian Trappist beer from the series. 

I am now seeing significant variation in terms of color. While the Bavarian Weizen & Pilsner were virtually identical in terms of color these two look quite different.

The American Ale pours a slightly opaque honey brown while the Belgian Trappist pours a clear copper gold. 

The Ale has a thin foamy head which leaves behind nice lacing and a layer of foam lingering on it's surface. 

The nose on this is very floral & citrusy, quite IPA or  Pale Ale like with a solid undercurrent of crackers or biscuits from the malts. 

The mouthfeel is surprisingly velvety but quite light, the body comes across med-light. The taste is mostly bitter citrus with hints of  lime/pine & just a touch of a cracker like flavor from the malts. 

A decent pale ale my only complaint would be the body comes off somewhat light. Probably the best of the bunch by a hair but then again the malts & hops match a US style ale best so it is no surprise.

Brewdog Yeast Series - Belgian Trappist

Bottle from Asahiya. Served in a chalice like St-Feuillien glass. 

This beer poured a clear copper gold with minimal head & virtually no lacing while the ale poured a cloudy honey brown with a decent head. 

The aroma was subtle, fruity, a bit soapy with a more solid malt presence. It has a smooth full-bodied mouthfeel. 

The taste is kind of middle of the road, citrus at first then some malts before ending on a more belgian note with subtle barnyard & a slightly metallic almost brett like character in the finish. Fruity, tasty but tame compared to a true belgian. 

Actually, after having some sips after the American Ale I think the belgian component actually comes off somewhat stronger. I am liking it more & more, probably equally as much as the American Ale. It’s an approachable belgian similar to a belgian blonde dubbel, surprisingly good.

I definitely thought the Belgian Trappist & American Ale were the better realized out of the set but then again the construction of the recipe favored those yeast strains. 

I think this series was a really successful experiment, it definitely highlighted  the different just swapping the yeast can make. None of these beers blew me away but that wasn't what Brewdog was trying to do. They wanted to educate the public of the role yeast plays in making a good beer. In that I think they succeeded admirably & I preferred this set to the Mikkeller 2.0 Yeast Series I had.

These are definitely worth trying out but do try to get the whole set for an educational comparative tasting!