My tasting comments

Ma2brew's tasting thread made me decide that I should start a thread of my own. He does an awesome job with his descriptions, and I don't think that I can come nearly as close to matching the great descriptions that he has, but I think if nothing else this thread will serve as notes to myself as to what I do and don't like, and what I do and don't like about it. I'd love to post pictures of it all like he does, but frankly I'm too lazy. So my descriptions will have to do it.

I stopped by the liquor store earlier tonight and picked up 9 bottles of a wide variety of beer. I had to go to work right afterwards, so obviously I wasn't able to taste anything. So when I got off work (at 2 am) I was happy to get some sampling done. I started the sampling session off with Fraoch from Heather Ale Ltd in Scotland. When I was at the Liquor store I was actually looking for a Wee Heavy, however they were out, and so I decided to settle on something else from Scotland, and the description of this intrigued me. It is apparantly brewed with the leaves of the heather flower.

I poured this into a pint glass. It poured a dark but transparent straw colored yellow color, with a nice bit of head. The head actually lasted throughout much of the beer, although by the time the beer was 3/4 of the way gone so was the head. My first impression upon smelling it was wow!!! This is definatly brewed with flowers, and that is the predominate scent. There was a slight malt smell in the background, but the flowers definately stood out. Then I took a sip. The taste had definate floral flavor to it, but also something that I would have not expected. A nice mild spiciness. Definately not overpowering, but present nonetheless. I had a snack of smoked havardi cheese, summer sausage, and crackers that I was eating a bit of here and there. I took a bit of the smoked havardi then took a sip of the beer and it was fabulous. The two went so well together it was amazing. Every sip I took I was pleasently surprised by the perfect mixture of flowers, spicieness, and an ever so slight malt backbone, and I thoroughly enjoyed this beer. As a matter of fact as soon as I was done I googled a recipe for it, and sure enought BYO does have a clone recipe that I would love to brew someday if I could find some heather flowers. And if I can't brew it, this is a beer I would buy again without a doubt.

Beer #2 for the evening was Franzsikaner Dunkel Hefe-weisse. I really wanted to try a dunkel just based upon a thread I read here on HBT recently.

I poured this one as well into a pint glass. I realize that probably wasn't the most appropriate glass for this style of beer, but my pint glasses are what I have available, and they will most likely be my tasting glass for all of my beer tastings in the near future (although I am very tempted to spend the $30 + shipping to get a set of 4 of those beautiful new Sam Adams beer glasses). This beer poured a medium caramelly color. Actually the color reminded me most of the color of light LME. It gave a nice thick head, but that quickly disipated. The smell was a sweet, lightly fruity smell, but there was something else there that I recognized, but I couldn't quite put my finger on. I thought about it for a minute or two, but couldn't place it so I went ahead and tasted. There was a light sweet malty flavor, but the taste also offered that same smell that I couldn't identify. It was bugging the heck out of me, so I looked up the BJCP guidelines for dunkel and one of the first things it listed was a clove scent/flavor. This was it exactly!! But, this flavor really didn't appeal to me very much. There was definately a fruity/sort of bannana flavor, and a light malty flavor, but to me this clove flavor overpowered it too much, and I really didn't enjoy it. I might try other examples of this style again, but I don't think that I will be drinking this particular beer again any time soon.

The third, and final tasting for tonight is a Samuel Smith Taddy Porter. I love dark beers, so I was pretty sure this one would be a no brainer for me.

It poured black, with an almond colored head that stayed present for most of the drinking, although did finally dissipate at the end. It didn't appear super heavily carbonated, which I have occasionally scene (and didn't like) in this style of beer. The smell was wonderful. It was very complex: sweet and malty, with hints of figs, brandy, cherries, raisins, and just a tiny tiny hint of chocolate. Then I tasted it. I have to say the first taste wasn't nearly as good as I was expecting. In fact it was rather bland. But I had poured it straight from the fridge, so I thought maybe as it increased in temperature it would develop a bit more character. And it did. The more I drank, and the more it warmed up, the more the flavors really started to come through. Everything that I smelled in the beer I could taste, along with a very slight roasted flavor. I'm not sure if they used a little bit of roasted barley in this recipe, but it kind of tastes like it. The roasted flavor comes out after everything else. Just when you think you have grasped the full taste of the beer you get this slight roasted flavor, and that is the last thing that sticks with you. The carbonation was perfect, just a very light bubbly feeling, but not overly so. I definately enjoy this beer, and would drink it again, but it seems really sweet, and I think it would make a wonderful desert beer, perhaps with a nice slice of cherry pie, and I'm not sure that I would drink more then one, maybe two in a sitting.

Alrighty, another brew is in my glass. Rouge Brutal Bitter. I was a bit hesitant about this one, because I didn't think that I would really like a super bitter beer. It poured a nice copper color, with some head, but the head was gone almost before I took the first sip. The scent was pleasently floral with a slight hint of hops. When I took the first big sip the first thing I though was "yep, this is bitter, I don't really like it" But then I took a few more sips and it really started to grow on me. This definately has a strong hop profile, but it's not overpowering. The more I drank it the more it reminded me of a cup of earl grey tea. And that really kind of stuck with me. I could see myself sitting on a porch on a hot summer day and drinking some of these nice and cold.