Beers in Review: Three at random

I didn't have much of an intro for today's post, but that was before Squarespace (my web and blogging platform) deleted the first two beers from my in-progress post. I wrote the first two earlier tonight, and when I came back to write the 3rd, poof! I had already deleted my notes, so the Oasis and the RJ Rockers are both from memory. Please bare with me.

Leading off is the Pale Ale from Oasis Brewing Company. This Pale Ale pours a nearly crystal-clear gold color, and does a great job of malt/hop balance. The first half of the beer is quite malty and has some fruity notes, as well. This leads into a nice, citrus hop profile in the 2nd half of the beer. There is no bitterness from the hops whatsoever. Just citrusy goodness. This Pale Ale was a bit surprising in make-up and brings unique qualities to the style.

Next is the flagship beer from RJ Rockers Brewing Company that is well-made for South Carolina summers. Their Son of a Peach wheat ale pours exactly as advertised: peachy-orange and hazy. Similarly, the flavors overall are on point, with sweet, fruity notes leading the way throughout the sip. The sweet peach note is mild but prominent--they do a nice job of having the fruit notes present without overpowering the beer, as can be common in fruit beers. Additional notes include a hint of graininess as well as something a bit bitter or funky at the very end, though it's not really off-putting.

Finally, Tale of the Shony Scottish Ale from Church Street Brewing Company. I'm sorry to say that this beer was...problematic. It poured a pretty brown color with some red hues, but this beer, or at least this bottle, has issues. I'm typically not one to pull a ton of aroma, but in lifting the glass up to my nose, I got a ton of artificial butter to butterscotch notes, which suggests this beer is overrun by diacetyl. Now, diacetyl is a by-product of standard fermentation practices, and the buttery note can be considered an acceptable part of certain beer styles. But it should not overwhelm the beer, and I'm fairly certain that in this style, it should be minimal/non-existent. For example, Church Street themselves say the beer should have "notes of sweet caramel and mellow roast", and based on the style, I might also expect some other sweet food notes and a hint of alcohol/booziness. Unfortunately, except for a mild cola note, this beer is overrun by the buttery note and a pretty nasty aftertaste. I have a couple more bottles of this beer, as well as a couple of their Hefeweizen (though, none cold), and I hope they are better drinking experiences than this bottle was.

Beers in Review: Near and far

A quartet of beers ranging from local to international are on tap tonight. Let's start with the international, shall we?

From Brouwerij Verhaeghe in Belgium I had the Duchesse de Bourgogne, a Belgian-style Flemish red ale. It pours a matching reddish-brown color, and not much body, but this ale was loaded with fruit flavors. This is a result of maturation in oak casks prior to bottling. The fruit experiences were quite diverse: pear or apple, maybe cherry, with a massive sweetness. It was almost too sweet for my taste. In addition, Flemish reds typically have some sour attributes to them, and here they were more a complementary feature--not overly strong like I find in most sours. I expect this might be a result of having a legit Belgian Flemish as opposed to American attempts at the sour style.

Next up is the closest-made beer, American Kolsch Story by River Rat Brewery. It pours a pale straw color, and serves as a solid hot summer day beer. Initial impressions had bready and crackery notes early on in the sip. This gradually lead to hints of traditional German beer sweetness. It also led to a bit of a bitter finish, which was a bit surprising.

Next up is Oasis Brewing Company and their Scarab Red Ale. A pretty solid ale overall, I first got notes of graininess and even possibly corn. There was also a whole bunch of initial malty sweetness that dissipated pretty quickly after drinking. Again, solid, pretty tasty, but nothing spectacular.

Finally, what was supposed to be an Anniversary beer for Unknown Brewing Company, but it wasn't quite done on time. The result is 1.5-ish, an ale aged in Cabernet barrels with strawberries and vanilla beans. We'll get to all that shortly. The ale pours a cloudy bronze color and has a lot of body. As you might guess from the brief description above, the flavor profile has a whole lot going on. The Cabernet barrels shine through with strong initial red wine notes, leading to a kind of strawberry sundae thing going on from the strawberry and vanilla bean infusion. There was lots of sweetness (but not overpoweringly so, like the Duchesse above nearly was--note these were enjoyed on different nights) and even a little bit of funkiness. A hint of sourness rounded out this wonderful flavor experience of this ale. I had sat on 1.5-ish for a while before drinking it for no particular reason. Truly, I wish I'd drank it sooner and bought 4 more bottles. A really great drinking experience.