A couple of weeks ago, I started my countdown to 100 beers reviewed for #BeerSaturday. This is the penultimate post before I turn to the last three beers that will push me to 100 beers. And believe me, beer 100 will be interesting! Something that I have never heard of...
But that is only for next week.
This week, however, I had two more heavy beers. Or rather, I had one, and the other beer I had last year in the beginning of the year. This has a small story linked to it. Let me tell you that story.
I visited my fiance last year (when she was still just my girlfriend). We saw at a local pub the interesting and incredible brett porter or old ale beer that they advertised. It was from Soul Barrel brewery, almost a year before I will visit them. But I opened the beer, and wow, it was one of the most amazing beers that I have ever had. They barrel aged the beers as like the others, but that was the first time in years that I had a beer like that.
And then... My phone got stolen. All of or most of the photographs of me drinking that beer was on my phone, so I only have some picture of the bottle which I kept after finishing the beer. I wanted to buy another of this beer, as my father would have loved it, but they were out of stock! It just shows how popular this brewery is, and how limited their stock is. If it is gone, it is pretty much gone forever because it takes so long to brew these beers.
Okay, so now the beers! Enough of these stories. Let me jump straight into the tasting notes.
East India Pale: Brett IPA
Brett IPA | 7.1 % ABV | 55 IBUs
Both these Brett beers, the IPA and the old Porter, was brewed to celebrate the traditional and "old" way of making beers. In this IPA case, the style tried to mimic the old heavily hopped high ABV style that made it possible to transport these beers.
Immediately on my nose, this beer was different to the more sour beers previously reviewed. It was much deeper and richer with some of the same acidic notes; but much more fruity, with the classic IPA hops (it reminded me of their other beer, the candy cone hazy IPA).
This beer was slightly more carbonated than others. I got a lot of caramel malt notes coming through on the nose. The first sip was interesting; it was a combination of all the sour beers but mixed with the candy cone IPA I reviewed first. It was very bitter (55 IBUs) compared to the others; and it had slightly more alcohol that you can taste - the other beers so far you could not immediatly pick up that there was so much alcohol in it.
As the beer warmed up a bit, I got more pronounced IPA flavours that came through especially with caramel notes.
Old London Porter – Historical Brett Ale
Brett Porter | 10 % ABV | 52 IBUs
What a big beer, 10% ABV and more than 50 IBUs, more like imperial russian stout than a porter in my opinion.
It was an incredibly heavy beer, with bold notes of liquorice and chocolate. It was incredibly full bodied and I even got some whisky notes on the nose.
The smell was heavy, dense, with incredibly rich and diverse notes; definitely chocolate. I was also kind of confused due to all the different flavours; charred barrel, whisky peated nose; but also a little bit sweet.
I let the beer warm up a bit, and this opened up the beer. The nose was very much the same but with a more pronounced homebrewed beer smell and taste; which I loved. Warmed up, the bitter comes through much stronger with a coffee bean taste. I was reminded by the same smell and taste when you eat coffee beans.
Postscriptum, Or So Yet Another Beer Tumbles Down the Hatch
So many beers! I cannot believe that I managed to get so many unique beers from the South African craft beer market.
Even though I near 100 beers reviewed for #BeerSaturday, I am not even close to having reviewed most of South African craft beers.
It is incredible that our small country can offer so much!
For now, happy drinking, and keep well.
All of the drunken opinions are my own, even though I am sad that I could not get another of the porter beers. The photographs are also my own, taken with my Nikon D300.
