Beer - #487 - Yeastie Boys - The Last Dictator

Spoonbending, spellbinding, whole numbers, whole conversations.

Imperial porter with botrytised vigonier.

The last of the 3 in a series of the Spoonbender series - this one is the Yeastie Boys "The Last Dictator." Actually #2 in the series, but I don't do things in order.

For Yeastie Boys this is brewed at Invercargill Brewery in the style that is an Imperial/Strong Porter, YB are based in Wellington, New Zealand

The smaller 330ml bottle that is 10%ABV and 300 calories a serve, this is 2.60 standard drink units. Also this is 72 IBU things.

I was called out by the brewer on twitter for not liking, "The Sly Persuader" as being muddled, to which you have to say, "you can't like them all, all of the time" But that's not the first time we've had words, might not be the last. His preference, and favourite perhaps but on my research, which isn't a lot, I'm not in the minority.  Plus also I'm not sure that's how you do Social Media by calling out your audience. 

[caption id="attachment_9744" align="alignright" width="300"] Small but deadly?[/caption]

An Imperial Porter with an enticing musky aroma, rich warming fruitcake and chocolate flavours, a luscious mouthfeel and a lengthy bittersweet finish.

Drink now or cellar for up to five years.

Aged on red wine barrels

So undaunted and keeping my own counsel and opinions let's go! What could possibly go wrong?

A lot of chocolate on the nose on opening. It's very pleasant.

Pour is "thick" and very dark, pours with a small and thin head, which isn't a disaster. Aroma moves more to a mustiness, but still with some chocolate.

Loads of rich fruits, like loads, in a smash of flavours right at the front, and a finish that lingers, again of chocolate amongst the bitter. Gosh.

I love the slightly sour too, it's not urgent and forward, its just a layer in the unravelling.

If I had doubts about which of these beers I would prefer it's down to a two horse race. Sorry brewer man.

This is a belter of a beer and deserves to get some credit, it's made my week, but to be fair it hasn't had much going for it :-).

I found that I finished it before I finished thinking about it. and have a lingering of slightly sour but very rich fruits, a sticky sweet mouthfeel, and a lingering bitter chocolate.

I could drink another very easily, but it's not a session beer, because the end would some quickly.

The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 9 a of its things from the thing. It's a real gem of a beer, and I'd stretch to a 10 except that I won't because I wanted something fuller perhaps, but would that I could cellar one and go again in a few months or year or so.

The double dip review

1. Am I enjoying it? Yes this is really a very good beer that is good.


2. Would I have another? Yes this would make a really good "go back to in a few months" beer.


3. Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? This is a finishing beer, and should be best at the end of an evening when you've indulged, it stands up well to desserts and that sort of thing. Come on over, I'll do the honours.

Music for a beer this time is the band "The missing season"  this track "Day is Out" from "After Hours"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxTdzrB8suI

 

IMPERIAL/STRONG PORTER

Imperial or extra-strong porters fall in between the traditional porter, a Baltic porter, and an imperial stout. They range from around 7.5% upwards, with hefty dark malt character, but lack the overt roastiness of an imperial stout.

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Beer #187 - Invercargill - Wasp Honey Pilsner

Ok in for one Honey beer in for two - part he second  - an Invercargill - Wasp Honey Pilsner - Brewed by Invercargill Brewery in the style of a Golden Ale/Blond Ale in Invercargill, New Zealand.

This a 330ml bottle of a 4.9% ABV beer, and that's about 1.2 standard drinks, and at 16 IBU which is low by most measures of IBU more a Scottish Ale.
We’ve blended four malts and two hops with kamahi bush honey to craft an authentic taste of New Zealand... the perfect anytime beer. A New Zealand Pilsner that’s been inspired by Nature’s Raider. A great summer thirst quencher featuring Kamahi Honey, the bee-blended taste of Catlins Forest Park. Best served chilled.

Pouring a rich golden hue beneath a wispy white head, Wasp has a sweetish aroma and palate combining biscuity malt, caramel and floral honey. Medium-bodied, with a spritzy mouthfeel and lingering vanilla note that remind me of creaming soda, the beer finishes crisply with an edge of citrusy tartness from the hops.



So they talk it up a bit.

and I know I bang on a bit about head and lack of but I lost about 35% of this beer to over carbonation and a much livelier beer than should be allowed.

And I coughed and spluttered up truing to neck the foam. What an interactive beer this is!

and yes that's 66% head over beer, which isn't what you'd expect.

So It's settles to a murky golden colour that I'm now dubious of, there is a bitter aroma that reminds me of Belgium or Wheat beer, which I like though. The head thankfully has stopped looking like an ice-cream and settled back to being normal.

So the taste, which I actually sort of  like, and is nothing like I was expecting. There defiantly in honey in this but's it's a musty kind of taste. So to clarify that :  It's a taste that I wasn't expecting but am enjoying, and second the musty taste that I'm getting is part of the thing I like, but it's not what I'm expecting to have as the way this beer is described.

Almost as confusing at 66% head of beer.

So the pdubyah-o-meter is having a confusion.  Label says Pilsner, Web Site says Golden or Blonde Ale, tastes like a Wheat or Belgium beer. The heck. This is a beer that could put you seriously wrong in your thinking. I notice too that in various reviews that the ABV content wanders around like a lost person in a mall

So this is a confusion in a bottle, is it a Pilsner, Golden or Wheat beer? And for that reason it scrapes a 5 despite it having a taste that I'm not unhappy with. Or I am unhappy with as described. That and that wandering ABV.

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Beer - #121 - Yeastie Boys - His Majesty 2012

I stopped in at my local bottle shop on the way home, a particularly weird day at work that was pretty frustrating on a number of fronts, and I picked me up a Yeastie Boys His Majesty 2012.

Yeastie Boys beer is  Brewed at Invercargill Brewery  and His Majesty 2012 is in the style of a : Belgian Ale <strong>

His Majesty, The Fourth, is a Belgian-style strong pale ale. A gentle (yet dangerous) giant of a beer featuring an interplay of sweet bready German malt, a hint of kiwi hops and a delicate spiced fruit from use of a Belgian Abbey yeast.

750ml, 8.5% ABV beer - that's about 5.3 standard drink units.

I'm only disappointed that this doesn't have a cork and cage,

Belgium beer then, Sweet, Dark Amber, Heady, Malty, slightly bitter under note. Oh I'm looking forward to this .

Beer – #64 – Invercargill Sa!son

An Invercargill Sa!son, that is all.

Delightfully presented in a 330ml  bottle of a 6% ABV beer, and I mean nice, this is really nicely packaged in with a wrap-over seal, gift-worthy!

Saison is French for Season. Originally this style was made at the end of winter, heavily hopped to preserve it through the summer months so it could be doled out to farm workers at the autumn harvest.

The Invercargill Brewery interpretation has been laid up for three months to allow the flavours to mature and soften.

They say...  and so the aroma really is like a summer ale, hazy golden and with a nice head., and it backs all that up by being  creamy smooth, but with a hint of hops and  quite a bit of grass, I like it, I think, I like it better than the Boysenberry Stout. How could you not?

It's quite interesting on the tongue and has a subtle set of things going on. There is tangerine/Mandarin as a flavour in this, a smile appears on the dial :-) If this was a beer that you get at the end of a days work then I'd be a happy worker, except that it's just a bit meh

It ticks a lot of the boxes though, of enjoyment, taste, adventure, fun and just being good, but it might not be a beer for the whole evening. If you were having a beer adventure night then this would be as a beer on that journey, and it would fill a precious space and entertain a lot of conversation, and it would carry a stronger beer to follow.  In and of itself a strong, well balanced, and just nice beer. Could I go another though? Not really. I peaked early with this.

The arbitrary pdubyah-o-meter is an easy 7 on this. There is no effort in the drinking, but I think that there wouldn't be a urge to have a second or third, not for any good reason, except that it  might be a bit under-stated, a bit quite about it's work. I don't doubt that sitting in the late afternoon sun that this would be a bang-on-treat of a drink, and it's a quantum leap better than the fruit stout, in many ways.

Beer - #63 - Invercargill Pitch Black Boysenberry Stout

I know right, a Boysenberry Stout!!! Brewed by Invercargill Brewery in the style of a.... Stout, and they're from Invercargill, New Zealand, served up as a 330ml 5% ABV

This member of the Pitch Black stout family starts rich and finishes dry. Prior to fermentation we added the equivalent of 15 percent boysenberry juice which blends with the familiar accents of chocolate and roast coffee in the brewer’s version of chocolate beery ripple

They said..... and it delivers a pretty strong and very pleasing aroma, and a fine mocha coloured creamy head. So far so good. The Aroma appears to be fruit and or chocolate, or chocolate fruit.

Oh and then there's a shocker of a taste. Carbonation burst and a melange of flavours of neither one thing or another, but a smokey after-taste. I don't get more than an acid fruit indication, I have no idea what the fruit would be other then it's a fruit. I get, weirdly, biscuit as an aroma, biscuit as in a rich tea biscuit. Odddly odd.  I think it'd like to be chocolate biscuit.

Cutting to an early chase then because this might should have been more a grand-stand beer, in my mind, that it actually is, a closer, the finisher, The night-cap. All these things in my mind that are never going to happen.

The pdubyah-o-meter flickers briefly to 6 from 10, and that would be a push, it's a bit underwhelming and a bit drab. And that annoys me.

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Beer - #53 - Golden Ticket Brewing - Champion Malky

On my visit to Liquorland in Forest Hill today I picked up one of these -  A Golden Ticket Brewing company - Champion Malky.

Brewed in Invercargill , which might be just about as far South as you can get before you have to wrestle Penguins.

Champion Malky - which  carries the claim of  being a  Golden Ale

This Golden Ale combines the best of New Zealand hops, English Malt and American Yeast with tropical fruit notes perfectly integrated with a delicious biscuit malt. Balanced for everyday drinking this beer channels Olympian spirit with Scottish enthusiasm. This beer is produced in limited quantities so this might be the only bottle you get to try. Enjoy

it's a 330Ml bottle of 4.7% ABV beer.  more to the point this has Malts that are the  Bairds Pearl. and Hops that are  Nelson Sauvin, Rakau,  with the Wyeast 1450 yeast.

Most of which means nothing. 

Washed glass, poured, no head, might have to take lessons on washing :p

This has a faintly unpleasing sour odour, lots of grass, an abundance of hops. I poured this and then stepped away from the table.

This of course might be "a learn" that I can't expect to have a two in a row that set me on fire. But in the spirit of all things I'm pushing ahead.

I'm genuinely holding back on drinking this, the change of pace on the palate is often difficult and challenging in itself, and I'm trying to be honest with each bottle. After all it is my money invested.

It's very clear, very golden, well carbonated........ touch, pause..... engage.... and than.....  a taste, to me, of grass, which is of course as of the hops.

This hop under-taste is all there is. In the mouth, on the palate, and it's a long taste in mouth.  Not pleasant. With the absence of anything competing for attention then all you have is a a pleasing colour beer with a sour hop taste.

It's also a  bit 'thin' a bit of not a lot. I'm wilting under the disappointment of expectation.

sad face because this could be one of the most disappointing beers I've had for ages, and notwithstanding that I just had a beer that set my dial to smile. If I'd had this first I think I'd still be confused, let down, and a pleased that it came in a 330ml bottle and not something I had to be daunted by.

2 out of 5 arbitrary things on the pdubyah-o-meter for this, and that's because I'm a nice person. If you can't say something nice don't say it, which I have to set aside. I was intrigued by the label for this that looked like it could be a "golden snitch" of Harry Potter things. Benefit of the doubt being given that it's angel wings on a golden globe - It's definitely not an angel, nor is it a devil masquerading as something, it's just not pleasant.

This Golden Ticket is not one to the implied delights of the Wonka factory. All I have it a Scottish enthusiasm for parsimony and none of the other flowery claims on the label, it's almost enough to put a man off beer.

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