Melon Icecream Soda
Reuben & Beer
Reuben from Old Faithful Perth
Petition Beer Corner. Artisan Brewing Rood Ster 2021 – a barrel aged Flanders Red Ale blended with an Imperial Belgian stout, and their unfiltered Lager.
Sour!
This is pretty damn sour!
An IPA… an IIPA..?
NowhereMan Brewing Co – Dumb Enough, West Coast IPA. 6.8% 375ml can. A Limited Release. This is a very old school IPA, like Sierra Nevada Torpedo style. It does have some new school feeling, like the hops are big but also more soft or, the big malt cloying sweetness they used to do to combat the bitterness is gone, but the balance is still there. Its a old style IPA with new ideas. Its still big, and its good.
Akasha Project – Lupulin Fog, New England IIPA. 8.5%ABV, 375ml can. Just jumping on the spot red faced screaming Serenity Now! again and again after the first sip. Its not actually that bad, but there is a bit of viscosity to it that I just despise and harkens back to the big malt heavy IPA’s of old, but none of the cloying sweetness so maybe theres oats in there? It really does have the New England thing goin on that smooths out the hops a bit, but they are still big as hell. Its a sipper as you recover your taste buds and also not be smashed by the 8.5%ABV, yet you really need to finish it before it gets too warm…hmm.
2 more beers
Homestead Brewery – Midnight Blossom, Dark Cherry Sour. 5.5%ABV, 375ml can. This was really nice. Not as sour as most sours are these days, and I am going to assume it was kettle soured, which isn’t a problem. Its nice and fermented-fruit/wine characteristics with none of the weird almost fake taste that cherries can throw off some times. Mild dark cherry/dark fruit flavour, a slight cherry sweetness, and a nice mild sourness.
Lucky Bay Brewing – The Homestead, Farmhouse Ale. 6%ABV, 375ml can. Now this has the “wild” unrestrained fermentation stuff. Very Belgian, very farmhouse with lots going on flavour-wise with the yeast/bugs (some brett?). Nice malts leaning to a stronger Saison and almost a more straight Belgian Ale, but also some lager-like tastes and smells, both yeast and hops – there is definitely hops in here that become more noticeable as it warms, they seem really Pilsner-like adding to the afore mentioned lager-accents. Its good to see a more unrestrained ferment farmhouse ale like this. Definitely something we are seeing less of unfortunately.
2 Beers
Margaret River Brewhouse – Brown. A Brown Ale, 5%ABV, 375ml can. Everything I have had from them has been great. Their core range are just straight up standards done really well, and so have been the few one-off’s. I have not seen this one for sale before and again its a well done standard. A brown ale, nice roasty dark malts, a little crystal sweetness, slightly bready, really worth letting it warm a bit. The smell is quite bold but the flavours are nice and moderate. Light carbonation and good body for the style, nice colour and clarity, good head on pouring.
Nomad Brewing – Brookie, Dark Ale. 4.5%ABV, 330ml can. Ive only ever had limited release and colabs from these guys, so this is the first core range beer from them. Cocoa/chocolate smell and some sweetness. Bold possibly Black malt(?) , some coffee beans, “roastyness” and the light sourness that comes from dark malt bitterness, a slight hop bitterness lingers. For all its initial punch its still quite refreshing. Not bad.
How does this hold up?
Original version from 2015 pictured HERE
I remember the original having a just a bit of heat, crystal malt sweetness, some “Lamington” in the coconut and that cocoa nib cocoa taste. In 2021 The heat is more prevalent, it seems more biscuity, not getting the coconut but that can be expected unless its fresh. More black malt than cocoa or coffee. Not as much body as I would like, and slightly oxidized maybe though its in a can? Its still a nice sip.
Random May Drinks
Martini
This is really damn good gin (The West Winds Sabre). Really nice, aromatic, big juniper, citrus peel, botanical, smooth yet dry drinking with bright flavours. Dolin is classic dry white vermouth, very fruity, but not extremely dry.
The orange bitters are OK, a little less depth than Angostura, but it added a nice dimension.
All combined, for a martini, this would have worked better with a less characterful gin, or a dryer simpler vermouth.
More drinks from Japan (and some rice crackers)
More cider softdrink. These are all pretty good. The Japanese/Korean idea of cider here is like common lemonade softdrink – its a thing that doesn’t taste like apples, its fizzy, its clear. They all taste relatively the same, though. The white peach and mango ones (Tomomasu Inryo brand) were a lot better than the plain (Mitsuya, Asahi brand), nice fruity flavors.
The Kirin milk coffee was interesting, it was kind of funky, “farmy”?, surprisingly rich, it had cream as an ingredient. Nice coffee flavour.
The milk tea (also Kirin brand) was nice and sweet with a good black tea flavour.
The prawn and wasabi rice crackers were ok, real big prawn stink but not too much wasabi heat.
