Beer - #381 - Bach Brewing - Hopsmacker Pale Ale

One of 3 beers from this brewer - Bach Brewing Ltd This is Brewed at Steam Brewing Company and this one is in the style: of and American Pale Ale, and they are in Auckland, New Zealand

174 calories a serve out of a 500ml bottle of a 5.8% ABV beer, and at 48 IBU Is well in the top of the range (20-50) for the Pale Ale style.  This would be about 2.28 standard drink units.

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Hopsmacker is the reinvention of an award winning original recipe, a new world style Pale Ale brewed with bucket loads of NZ Riwaka hops and US Cascade hops. Original Hopsmacker was Champion Pale Ale, BrewNZ annual awards 2003, 2004.

Tasting notes:
Fresh and aromatic, bursting with passionfruit and citrus.

This is allegedly a corkingly good beer!.

One of those beers that does it foam out of the top of the bottle on opening, not a gush though, manageable, and unexpected sip of foam for me.

Beer - #343 - Emelisse - Smoked Rye IPA

Two in a row from this brewery then , this one the an Emelisse Smoked Rye IPA (Innovation Serie)

330ml bottle of a 6.25 ABV beer being 1.61 standard drinks in NZ, 186 calories and 55 IBU things.

Brewed by Brouwerij Emelisse in the style of either a smoked or an India Pale Ale (IPA) and they didn't move in the last few minutes from Kamperland, Netherlands

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An IPA brewed with 20% Rye malt and 10% Weyermann Smoke malts. Simcoe and Cascade Hops.

The Smoked Rye IPA is a beer in the Emelisse Innovation Serie’s

Light smoke on opening.

An orange pour with a small and firm lasting head.

The smoked notes are lesser in the glass, but they are there.

Peaty smokey taste with this, the peat is lasting and all present. I guess you could mix peat and smoke, I'll switch to smoke for the rest of this.

So a smokey backbone in this, with little bitterness up-front and a short finish. Lots of carbonation on the tongue.

There's a few things going on in this, some of them are not adding to the whole.

The carbonation gives you a sense of drinking soda water, the taste really isn't strong enough to carry that amount of bubbles.

The smokey note though is there and present and lasting, it give you a full finish, even if the bitterness doesn't.

The pdubyah-o-meter says this is a 6 on the scale of all arbitrary things.

And that's all I've got to say about that.

Except that there are really some very very good smoked,  whiskey, peat beers and this isn't one of them.

The Double Dip review

1. Am I enjoying it? not as much as you'd think


2. Would I have another? Nope


3. Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? Nope

SMOKED

The classic smoked beers hail from Bamberg in Franconia, Germany. These are made using malt that has been smoked over beechwood. The insistent smokiness may be applied to any lager style. In North America, the same technique has been used to make smoked porter. Whiskey malt beers are made using peat-smoked malt.

INDIA PALE ALE & IPA

India Pale Ale gets its name and unique style from British brewers who were making beer for export to India. This style has an intense hop flavor which was used to preserve the beer for the long voyage. India Pale Ale has a golden to copper color with a medium maltiness and body. The aroma is moderate to very strong. IPAs work especially well at cutting the heat of chili, vindaloo or Sichuan cuisine.

Related articles

• Review of Emelisse TIPA

Beer - #226 - Einstök - Icelandic Pale Ale

Outlandish that we can get Icelandic beer in New Zealand. This one Einstök Icelandic Pale Ale

Einstök Ölgerð Brewed at Viking Ölgerd in the style of an  American Pale Ale in the almost tropical sounding - Akureyri, Iceland

330 ml bottle, 5.6% ABV which is 1.45 standard drink units.

American and Bavarian craft come together with the finest Icelandic water to create the Viking version of the Pale Ale, where robust hoppiness meets smooth malty undertones. Cascade hops give it the American character, while Northern Brewer hops add just enough bitterness to make this Ale refreshingly Icelandic.

Hopefully better than than White beer that i started with. Which wasn't 'bad' it just wasn't 'good'.

Cascade Hops : Flavor Profile: Who doesn’t love a good grapefruit aroma and taste in their IPA? As one of the “three C hops,” the cascade hop is notorious for providing this character to both the flavor and aroma of a beer. Floral and spice accents are also seen with this variety which sees most of its usage in Pale Ales, India Pale Ales, and an occasional Lager.

Aroma is one of sweet more than hop. Orange brown on pouring with a minimalist head, but it's a stayer. Much more powerful caramel malt type aroma now.

Seems over carbonated, and that dashes the taste. Which is a strange thing. It's not like a pale ale taste I had before, it's sort of, kind of, spicy caramel thing. It's also very fleeting.

So whilst there is a bit of an upfront taste it's all upfront and no middle and a quick finish. But you can pick the hop profile if you pick and delve a bit.

Lack of head and lacing in this glass too. It's important.

Similar to the White beer I had prior to this it carries a lot of disappointment, and arbitrarily the pdubyah-o-meter gets to the same 6 on the scale of things that I made up, making it 'average'.

A pity really, there is a lot of thought and work in the marketing of this, but it's what's inside that matters. So to recap, though it might have been hoppier, it wasn't, thought it might have a malt carry, it didn't, but it drinks clean even if it's a bit thin and short.

Related articles

• Beer - #225 - Einstök - Icelandic White Ale (pdubyah.com)

Beer - #127 - Rogue - Morimoto - Black Obi Soba Ale

Morimoto - Black Obi Soba Ale  - Brewed by Rogue Ales in the style of a Specialty Grain Newport, Oregon USA

It's a pint of a 5.3 ABV beer (thats about 2.7 standard drinks),

"A darker version of our Soba Ale. Roasted malts provide a rich nut-laced flavor, while the 3 hops blend to provide a refreshing zest. 10 ingredients: Roasted soba, 2 row pale Munich, c-15, c-60, and Weyermann malts: Horizon, Sterling, and Cascade hops, free range coastal water and top fermenting Pacman yeast. 12.05 Plato, 30 IBU, 75.2 AA, 36.0 L"

I was opening this and Auckland had a 4.0 earthquake, unusual, which I hope portends the beer time come.

It's a very dark brown beer, with a monster head of light brown, well carbonated, decent aroma of malts, but also some yeastiness. Head lingers too. All good so far.

It soft on the with a little bitterness, not an awful lot of body in this, and the pleasure is all derived from the flavour. Whilst it's not challenging it avoids being bland and meh by having quite a lot going on on the palate, all very quietly going about what they do.

The darkness of this beer might put some off, and it's colour doesn't really match the taste delivery, this is a bit of a paradox in some respects.

The pdubyah-o-meter says 7.75 would be about right, it stumbles to achieve a greatness but quirky gets your attention and makes this an enjoyable experience.

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• Follow-Up: Review: Morimoto Black Obi Soba Ale (strangedavid.wordpress.com)


• Review: Morimoto Black Obi Soba Ale (strangedavid.wordpress.com)