Beer - #488 - Moa - Blanc Evolution

This one: A First, First Things, First things First, and a Finish.

Moa Blanc Evolution is bottle fermented in the Belgian-style with a small amount of coriander added during its extended maturation time giving it a unique spiciness. Described as a rich, mouth-filling beer, it’s really a true wheat lover’s beer and a staple of the Moa Reserve range.

To round out the Moa Blanc trilogy I've managed of course to get them in the wrong order and so I finish with the Evolution.

Brewed by Moa Brewing Company this is in the style that is a Belgian White (Witbier) and they are  in Blenheim, New Zealand.

A small 330ml bottle, cork and cage, 6.2% ABV, 186 calories, this is 1.83 standard drink units.

[caption id="attachment_9763" align="alignleft" width="300"] Sunday, sunday......[/caption]

Moa Blanc Evolution has a slight fruity aroma and a crisp, refreshing finish.

Stone fruit and hazelnut flavours compliment the distinctive dominant spicy and phenolic characters.

With a subtle hop aroma and bitterness, Moa Blanc Evolution is well paired with lightly aged cheeses, smoked and savoury meals, or on its own for a satisfying pint.

Moa Blanc Evolution is best served at approximately 4˚C in a pilsner glass. 

Moa are undergoing some changes, all in progress, but they appear to be making a move to standardised 500ml bottles, re-branding, and shedding some of the range, although they might deny it. They've also been contract brewing for the last year, and these changes might be the continuance of that and reducing some costs, but here I just speculate. Love the cork and cage, it adds a little to the excitement, and no doubt the costs.

[caption id="attachment_9764" align="alignright" width="224"] Not my best work.[/caption]

Spend 5 minutes cleaning up beer after the cork spectacularly popped and beer fizzed all over the macbook, the table, floor and the cork took out the cat.

I've never worn a beer in such a spectacular way before.  Not a good thing. My own fault for peeling the cage and then thinking I could gently roll the bottle to move the sediment.

The aroma though is really nice,  sweet fruity and sugary. Its lively, very lively, I have a whole glass of excitable foam to deal with, and I really tried to be pour gentle.

Sometimes you end up feeling like a klutz.

This is a much 'softer' drink than the standard blanc, and drinks more like a Wheat beer might.

The hops and the associated roughness are not present that I could detect. Now the foam subsides this is a pleasing cloudy golden yellow, and the carbonation bubbles are pretty in the glass.

But as to the overall taste experience and how this sits int he scheme of things. This different to the standard 'Blanc' it is softer, but it is also more intense in the middle.

The aroma is stronger (MrsPdubyah just noticed the rather pungent room), and there is a lingering to the finish that is more to dry than not. The wine elements are highlights and can be picked.

The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 7 a of its things from the thing. I wanted it to be better, I couldn't have wished for more exciting though. The double dip review

1. Am I enjoying it? Not in the way that I expected to, or might have expected to.


2. Would I have another? No.


3. Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? No. There isn't anything special or defining in this that would make it a conversation piece, or move a conversation along.

Music to drink by for this in an evolution of the band Status Quo, legends, their Quo Live album is one of the best live albums ever, in my opinion. So I was overcome with unbounded joy when I discovered they had a new album - The acoustic Status Quo 2014 album - Aquostic (Stripped Bare). This is the track  "And it's better now"

One of those occasions where the music was better than the beer, and that doesn't happen all that often.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcsL-JqVaTo&w=420&h=315]

BELGIAN WHITE & WITBIER

Belgian style wheat beers are very pale, opaque, with the crisp character of wheat, plus the citric refreshment of orange peel and coriander. Ingredients sometimes also include oats for smoothness, and other spices such as grains of paradise. Serve with light cheeses or mussels.

Related articles

• 'Pathetic' marketing idea quickly stubbed out

Beer - #484 - Moa - Blanc

Local beer, Not Local Music, numbers, and  self review.

Moa Blanc wheat beer is a blend of 50% wheat malt and 50% barley malt resulting in an elegantly smooth beer with hints of spice and uplifting esters. Based on a German Kristallweizen style, but in a nod to its origins, Moa Blanc is brewed using renowned Sauvignon Blanc yeast.

Moa Blanc - another of the beers that I thought I'd had, but clearly not, I have no idea how this happens but it does.

Brewed by Moa Brewing Company in that style that is of Belgian White (Witbier) and they're in Blenheim, New Zealand

The bigger sized 750ml bottle, as is the style, from the brewer, and it's a 5.5% ABV beer and 165 calories a serve. Cork and cage too, all fancy. 2.96 standard drinks worth in the bottle.  Lucky I went for my exercise earlier....

Moa Blanc wheat beer is brewed using a blend of 65% wheat malt and 35% barley malt which results in an elegantly smooth beer, with hints of spice and uplifting esters. The slightly cloudy appearance reflects its Germanic origins and it’s customary to gently roll the bottle before opening to create an even distribution of the sediment signature. 

Moa Blanc has a fruity aroma and taste. Banana, vanilla, citrus and bubble gum fruit flavours dominate, with some phenolic characters present. Moa Blanc is a highly drinkable wheat beer, with flavours more moderate than other wheat beers. Hop aroma and bitterness are minimal. Moa Blanc is best served at approximately 4˚C in a pilsner glass.

I've already noticed a confusion between description (a) and (b), makes it interesting for drinking and keeps you on your toes.

I'm also sitting in the sun, in the garden, as you can see, and the music bar is playing the Pixies, just so you know what's coming at the end.

I really did have to use a nutcracker to get the cork out, it was firmly in, but a gorgeous pop when it did let go.

Clear pour, and I know that this is a wheat beer, I can see the sediment in the bottom, it too is a bit in place, so I'm going to muddy it up for the second and other pours.

Nice hop aroma on opening, I'm sure that that is Wheat beer style though, it's more a pilsner aroma than a wheat.  Great head though, nice pour, lovely colour.

I'd still not pick this as a Wheat Beer though, it really does seem more like a Pilsner. MrsPhil had a sip and though it was ok to drink, I'm not  sure that is a good or bad thing though, it could mean I have to share, it could mean I have to go buy more.

[caption id="attachment_9729" align="alignright" width="112"] I used a nutcracker thing to open it, for real, I'm not even joking[/caption]

This is a very lively and well carbonated beer, and I couldn't get it to cloud up, despite a vigorous swirling, it might be my action or it might be there is no sediment to cloud it up.

This though is where I begin to have a doubt about what kind of beer this is! At the end of the bottle though the cloudiness appears, and I really did try, and then the lemony and citrus came through like the cavalry to the rescue. This just made a pleasant beer much more fun and enjoyable.

Now I know that the Moa beers are a bit hit and miss, and this as a style for them is a bit of a miss, not one of their best efforts, and frankly it's a bit of a hodgepodge of things, I can see why there is an "Evolution" and a "Sour" version of the same, sometimes you might have to put lipstick on a pig.

The "Evolution" version, which I don't have, by some accounts is about 3x this, and more the Wheat beer that it should be.

The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 7 a of its things from the thing, a jolly good and solid mark for a solid and go-to beer, which for me at the moment this is, mostly because the current stock with this branding is on run-out special, I'm so cheap. sometimes. Moa continue to entertain and disappoint in equal measures with their beers. At this, the run-out price, though you'd have to be a curmudgeon no to enjoy it

The double dip review

1. Am I enjoying it? Yes I am, and I have been, and I will enjoy the rest of the stash that I have.


2. Would I have another? Of course! Despite it's confused style (to my mind) this is a drinkable and accessible beer.


3. Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? Yes, bring a nut-cracker and we will crack another!

Music I've already given away as being "The Pixies" This is "Caribou" The Pixies are an American alternative rock band formed in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1986. I'm listening to an album called "Wave of Mutilation" which is a "best of"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6m-pwWCDKU

 

BELGIAN WHITE & WITBIER

Belgian style wheat beers are very pale, opaque, with the crisp character of wheat, plus the citric refreshment of orange peel and coriander. Ingredients sometimes also include oats for smoothness, and other spices such as grains of paradise. Serve with light cheeses or mussels

Beer - #449 - Blue Moon - Belgian White Ale

This most certainly isn't craft beer is it. Blue Moon Belgian White Ale.

"Brewed with oats for creaminess and spiced with the perfect combination of orange peel and coriander. An unfiltered wheat ale spiced in the Belgian tradition for an uncommonly smooth taste."

Brewed by Coors Brewing Company (MillerCoors) in the style they think is  Belgian White (Witbier) and they are in Golden, Colorado USA

Bottle is 5.4% ABV and 355Ml so that should be about 192 calories a serve, and makes this bottle 1.51 standard drink units in NZ. This might register at 9 IBU's too.

Blue Moon Belgian White, Belgian-style wheat ale, is a refreshing, medium-bodied, unfiltered Belgian-style wheat ale spiced with fresh coriander and orange peel for a uniquely complex taste and an uncommonly smooth finish.

Much of this beer’s production now comes from the Molson brewery in Toronto. A small portion of Denver draught production comes from the SandLot brewery. Still other product may continue to hail from Golden.  Which is where my bottle is from, and it's made specifically for NZ with country specific label and everything.

I first had this in Australia, and it had fruit in the glass, I think an orange slice, but that was then....

So no orange slice, umbrella or plastic tiki. just the beer, just a glass.

Beer - #357 - ’t IJ - IJwit

They ran out of consonants and this is then another one of those unpronounceable beers  - ’t IJ - IJwit

Brewed by Brouwerij ’t IJ in the style of  Belgian White (Witbier) and they are in the progressive city of Amsterdam, Netherlands

A 330ml bottle of a 6.5% ABV beer, with about 195 calories, only 18 IBU things, this would be 1.69 standard drinks in NZ

[caption id="attachment_7931" align="alignright" width="300"] Ears like Rocket Fins[/caption]

Formerly called ’t IJ Scharrel IJwit A full-bodied, Amsterdam wheat beer that is dangerously ‘moreish’. Slightly cloudy, it has a beautiful golden colour and a soft, foamy head. When we brew IJwit, we use wheat malt as well as barley malt, which is also how the beer gets its name. The wheat malt gives the beer a delightful, fresh flavour, and the addition of coriander and lemon during the brewing process produces a rich aroma of banana, citrus and spices. Topped off by a fine, slightly sweet aftertaste, IJwit is a delicious thirst-quencher.

Same old familiar aroma from this style of beer.

Well nice poor of golden yellow with a dense head of  white foam, bubbles dancing in the glass it looks great.

Lemon citrus wheat beer familiar on the nose, musty aroma under,, really dencet flavours and profile in drinking this, it's much more than I thought I would be.

Here then is a beer that is what it says on the label, it's clean,. refreshing, has some nice flavours and is pretty decent, not dressed up or challenge you to taste what the marketing people say it is. I like that.

However there isn't anything else in this except easy drinking, which is a pretty crowed field.  Eventually the sweetness of this would catch up ab become perhaps cloying and you'd need a change of beers to refresh your tongue.

The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 7 a of its things from the thing. It's a really clean drinking beer that refreshes but does not challenge you to more than that.

The double dip review

1. Am I enjoying it? I am


2. Would I have another? just the one, after that I'd be looking to change


3. Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? As a lead in to something but not for a long story of unrequited love and lost fortunes.

BELGIAN WHITE & WITBIER

Belgian style wheat beers are very pale, opaque, with the crisp character of wheat, plus the citric refreshment of orange peel and coriander. Ingredients sometimes also include oats for smoothness, and other spices such as grains of paradise. Serve with light cheeses or mussels.

 

Beer - #340 - St. Austell - Clouded Yellow

The final of the 3 that I have   - St. Austell Clouded Yellow - obviously brewed by St. Austell this one however in the Style of a : Belgian White (Witbier) and they are in the romantically named St. Austell, England.

500ml bottle of a 4.8% ABV beer - making it 144 calories a serving, and 1.89 standard drinks in NZ.

Pale yellow in color and naturally conditioned in the bottle, the beer may be poured cloudy by gently swirling the last few inches to rouse the natural yeast sediment.

[caption id="attachment_7735" align="alignleft" width="300"] Grumpy looking[/caption]

Alternatively, clear beer can be decanted carefully leaving the yeast behind. Either way serve cool in a tall glass for a superbly refreshing wheat beer of character and individuality. Only natural ingredients are used including our own supply of exceptionally soft Cornish spring water. Malted wheat produces a beer with a citrus tang which has been delicately flavoured with whole spices and vanilla. The combination of flavors is brought alive by gently sweetening with pure organic maple syrup.
Ingredients: Maris Otter pale malt, whaet malt. Willamette hops. Vanilla pods, cloves, coriander, maple syrup.

I really don't have much hope for this, and I'm a big fan of the Belgium beer

I get a bananas as the aroma on opening, what's with that!. Cloudy pale yellow poor with an immediately disappearing head, although it sounds like it is well carbonated.

Aroma settles to something more nondescript.

This is really really average. It's really really thin and tastes is of nothing so much as cold water with some undefined chemical thrown in.

So I'm not enjoying it then :-)

Said though, this isn't undrinkable, and on checking it is past it's best before, but not so much that it would the disaster that is in my glass.

The Pdubyah-o-meter rates this as a please avoid - 3 - on the scale of arbitrary, which is at the high end of avoid, and lower than below average.

1. Am I enjoying it?  yeah, na.


2. Would I have another?  yeah, na, no more of this beersie for me


3. Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? I'd give it to an enemy and run away....

and in reference to the no more beersies this :

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srE57FURiZU&w=560&h=315]

BELGIAN WHITE & WITBIER

Belgian style wheat beers are very pale, opaque, with the crisp character of wheat, plus the citric refreshment of orange peel and coriander. Ingredients sometimes also include oats for smoothness, and other spices such as grains of paradise. Serve with light cheeses or mussels.

Beer - #335 - Renaissance - Odyssey Wit Beer

Ok, I have to call it a night sometime, and I want to go out on a high  - Renaissance Odyssey Wit Beer it might be.

Small 250ml bottle of a 5.2% ABV beer, 1.2 standard drinking in NZ (330 ml being a standard drink volume)... 156  calories. They all mount up the calories, I've seen the chore list tomorrow, I consider it pre-loading...

Brewed by Renaissance Brewing this is in the style of a Belgian White (Witbier), and they are in Blenheim, New Zealand last I looked

 Odyssey Wit beer is brewed the traditional Belgian style. Delightfully refreshing, almost everything about Wit beer is a bit different, from the beginning of the brewing process when a high proportion of wheat, both malted and raw, provides crispness. Coriander and orange peel are added during the boil to harmonise the flavours. The addition of spices harks back to the days before hops, when spices or ’gruit’ were used instead. Lastly, special yeast is used to give a unique hazy white look and a spicy refreshing flavour. Serve with summer BBQ or antipasto.

I got so sqiffy I changed my eyes to the external distanc assisted versions. If only I could afford lasik or hadn't thought so many bad things as a teenager.

 The opening

Well, It is getting late, the table is crowded and so I went with what was to hand for a glass.

Lots of orange, and that's all I have to say about that.  Poured flat, and I tried to high pour to make a head, but alas it looks like lucozade in the glass a bit unappealing.

Unappealing to look at and to hold to the light.

The Taste.

Well....

Lets move straight to the pdubyah-o-meter then, which rounds on 5 this to be a  on the scale of things.

The Conclusion

I Didn't like it, it was flat, insipid looking and disappointing, It didn't have an aroma  and that carried to the palate where it delivered no length, carry, finish middle or low or high notes..

Shocker. What then the 5 - average. Oath it's average. It isn't poor, it isn't undrinkable, well it nearly is, but it isn't tart, difficult, over yeasty or over anything. It's just not much,

Smaller bottle = better beer - yeah - na.

The Three Point Turn

Am I enjoying it?  Nooooo.
Would I have another?  Noooo

Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? Noooo

 

 

It was that kind of evening where you thought you might be 18 again. For me this was a bit of Yazoo, but to could have also been Bronski Beat..

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Yod7jc8U94&w=420&h=315]

Bronski Beat....  bonus point if you get the link between the two.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xuz94ZIPfJk&w=420&h=315]

 

BELGIAN WHITE & WITBIER

Belgian style wheat beers are very pale, opaque, with the crisp character of wheat, plus the citric refreshment of orange peel and coriander. Ingredients sometimes also include oats for smoothness, and other spices such as grains of paradise. Serve with light cheeses or mussels.

 

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Beer - #225 - Einstök - Icelandic White Ale

Iceland! Beer! New Zealand! No idea how you join those dots.

Einstök Ölgerð Brewed at Viking Ölgerd of course in the Style of a  Belgian White (Witbier) in the exotic sounding Akureyri, Iceland.

A 5.25 ABV beer, in a 300ml bottle, making it about 1.35 standard drink units.

Brewed in the centuries-old Belgian tradition, our White Ale features the complex flavors of the classic witbier, including orange peel and coriander – all brewed with pure Icelandic water that delivers a cool smoothness that is flavorful and refreshingly drinkable.

And I'm looking forward to to it, because Iceland, and because Iceland!

Certainly fruit orange aroma on opening. Pale golden yellow, slightly cloudy, decent head. Aroma moves to a muted yeasty note. Nicely carbonated too. On looks and pour it's a winner.

The flavour is muted too. Bit of orange perhaps, but little else. Visually though head still there, lacing present, it has all the makings of an enjoyable drink.

What isn't present is an indicator of alcohol, but it isn't carrying much.

Disappointing, this. I would have liked a stronger carry of flavour, or ideally flavours. The aroma is kind of yeasty, the drink is mostly bubbles in the mouth, there isn't front or middle note and there is no carry, so I'd describe this as thin,

It does compare to other White beers I've had but it's not a front runner, and it isn't something that I'd be keen to recommend, apart from, well, Iceland!

An inoffensive beer than, the pdubyah-o-meter randomly thinks it 6, or average, on the arbitrary scale of things, and you're not missing out if you avoid it.

Related articles

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Beer - #91 - Coronado - Orange Avenue Wit

A beer from the US of A, Coronado Brewery Orange Avenue Wit, of 650ml of a 5.2ABV beer - Coronado Brewing Company, Coronado, California USA in the style: Belgian White (Witbier).

Our spiced California style Wit is both refreshing and complex. Brewed with wheat, coriander, California orange peel and local orange blossom honey. From the first sip to the last you’ll find subtle flavors of bread, spice, citrus and a thirst quenching orange honey finish.

One of those beers that feels compelled to tell you what you're going to taste which should have been a bit of a flag, but I allow some leeway as it's a big bottle with a lot of real estate to fill in.

It's a very pale golden colour, lively carbonation,  and musty hops. The taste is overwhelmed by the bubbles. Either it's too cold or they're making it up about the smorgasbord of flavours that should be present, perhaps I left them in the bottle when I poured  the first part.

I like a wheat beer, I enjoy the fruits under the alcohol, the front and lingering taste. This isn't any of those things. It's all very 'meh', which means the pdubyah-o-meter arbitrarily really doesn't like this and makes it a massive swing-and-a-miss at 4 arbitrary things from it's equally arbitrary number.

If two thumbs up was the best this would be 1/2 of 1 thumb. Very disappointing,and disappointed in this. Without anything to reference, I can't find a best before date on the bottle,  but I did find an  importers sticker saying that it'd been imported over a year ago! (July 11) Quelle horreur!

I'd say based on that, that I might be drinking a beer that is past its' best, way way way past,  if I was being charitable.

If I was being uncharitable, I'd say avoid. I would say however take the extra two minutes to find a date. Lesson learnt. Gives self an uppercut.

Can't change my score on this, it was worth every one of the 4 arbitrary things, sadly making this possibly one of the worst beers I've had in ages.

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Beer - #88 - Wigram Brewing Co. - Ginger Jerry

The Wigram Ginger Jerry bottle of 330ml sized 4% ABV beer, the quiet end of a night out.

Brewed by Wigram Brewing Company, in the style of a Belgian White (Witbier), and of course they're in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Another addition to the Wigram seasonal range, Ginger Jerry has the full body of a wheat beer with the extra zing of infused ginger, honey and lemon resulting in a naturally sweet lemon ginger spice aroma. Cloudy in appearance the beer radiates with a warm rich orange hue. Brewed with a Belgium Ale yeast and low in alcohol, Ginger Jerry is a refreshing beer for all seasons.

For no reason other than I saw it this is a "best before September 13" beer. Not even sure why that bothers me, or even if it does since I had "keeper" beers that I drank that were 5 months old. It is what it is.

Lets be upfont with what I expect, the citrus (read lemon) and ginger that the label promises, and that's about all. So.......

It has ginger whiff , it has a well goodly amount of carbonation, and I get a cut grass aroma. The head which starts off all excitable like a puppy dies away fairly easily, I really do have to find a middling point with this aspect of beers.

The Palate is of a harsh bitter ginger that leaps and barks at you, like an excitable puppy, it's very long on the palate, very long and almost troubling. Peppery and tanging on the tongue. There is a lemon back taste, but it's like washing up liquid. What's going on ?

Gak. This is almost like drinking washing up liquid, it's not  really hitting any mark at all, and confuses to deceive as a beer. Not sure what the goal was but this might be an own goal of massive proportion.

This isn't even a sweet ginger ginger beer, this is the worst of the bitter, and a mufddled taste, what I get is all grass, it's fairly unpleasant. Lucky it's 330ml and not something substantial.

The pdubyah-o-meter resists strongly but lurches to a really weak 3 things from it's equally arbitrary number.  This should take a bus trip to Geradine and join the "muster" that I had a couple of beersago, and they should elope to and hide as recluses never to be seen again. Ghastly.

A poor finish to a night, and would have been a tragic start to a night, the chaps at Wigram need to sit in the sun more and listen the the inner voice, because whatever caused this wasn't contemplation and thought.

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Beer – #51 – Hoegaarden Wit

 

Don't think badly of me. I enjoy Hoegaarden Wit beer, it's light, lemony and usually pours with a head, but since It's me it doesn't. Which means I can't pour beer or live in some dead zone. No it's not a craft or special beer.

[caption id="attachment_3063" align="alignright" width="300"] It's a commercial beer, the shame.[/caption]

Hoegaarden Wit, 330ml 4.9% ABV. Brewed by Brouwerij Hoegaarden (InBev) in the style of a Belgian White (Witbier) and it's made in Hoegaarden, Belgium

If you're unsure about Wheat beer/White beer/Wit beer there would be far far worse places to start than this. It consistent like commercial beer is.

Arbitrarily this is always consistent  and 8 from 10 arbitrary things. giving it more would give away the lie that it's somehow a craft beer, which clearly it isn't. It's a good beer however and I'm going to enjoy this one and the 3 mates it came with. Probably the beer that got me started on "different" beers truth be known.

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Beer - #28 - Brasserie Du Mont Blanc La Blanche

Ok, So I was in Faro Fresh  on the North Shore, looking for some Camembert from the Over the moon dairy company, and coming away from the cheesery disappointed, and not wanting a Goat version, I mooched over to the beerorium, where I had spied that they had the Trois Monts that I enjoy, but hidden behind it was some  Brasserie Du Mont Blanc - La Blanche

Well now well now well now... who can resist something like this then, a magnificent label of the most fantastic blues and a medal winner too!

 "The brewery has a long history with the first beers being produced in 1850. Like all high quality beers the key to great characteristics is ingredients. At the centre of this is the water. In the case of Brasserie du Month-Blanc, the water is from alpine glaciers harvested at the source of the Enchapeuze at an altitude of 2074m. Along with purity enhanced from being sourced at a high altitude, a low mineral content makes it ideal for brewing."

750ml of 4.7 % ABV a French attempt at a WitBeer (Belgium White) The Interwebtubes says this isn't something to write home about. But there was little else to do on a Sunday afternoon so I had at it. The bottle is presented as a flip top, but has a cap, I guess you sip and seal? or it might be some weird EU rule for export. Who knows.

It's very very fizzy, noisy fizzy, and very very pale, but no head! What's with that ? It also smells yeasty, which reminds me of home brew. I now have  my fingers crossed (metaphorically).

And that's odd. A montage of tastes in this, none of them making me lick my lips. There is no aroma to give anything away this is all on the tounge.

I lied the aroma is the yeast smell  that lingers, it's odd.

It's very thin on taste, and there are tastes in there fighting to get through, but like all things French not fighting hard enough,  My brow is furrowed on this one I have no idea what to make of it.

The pudubya-o-meter is barely moving on this, and this is going to be a minor setback in my run of good bears well enjoyed. Given the choice of the cheese or this I would have picked the cheese. Which by the by is most excellent Over the Moon Dairy Company.

I'm really struggling to get this to an arbitrary 2 from 5 arbitrary stars on this,  it's not offensive and at the same time it is. A bronze medal in how to make a beer smell like homebrew perhaps, I'm going to sulk and wish I was as adventurous in Cheese as I am in beer.

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