Part duex of my New Years tasting. Now that I feel manlier because of my raspberry ale from Dark Horse I was ready to step up my game to the next level. I downed a couple of glasses of water (the hangover was imminent) and popped the top on some Cigar City – Guava Grove. This is a beer I have been holding on to since March. Waiting for the right time to crack it open, and now seemed like a better time than never.
This is a Saison/ Farmhouse ale that clocks in at 8% ABV. These beers have a Belgian yeast that tends to produce spicy semi dry flavors and often an earthy tone. Cigar City took this one to the cleaners with an extremely barnyard funk to the nose. The smell was so powerful Brad had a hard time drinking through it. I personally have grown very fond of the “wet leather/horse blanket” smell and couldn’t stop quaffing this beer.
It poured a hazy orange with an off-white head that kept during the tasting.
Smell is described above as barnyard followed by lemon, citrus, tropical fruits and some muted spice. You can easily tell that Brettanomyces was used with or in addition to Saison yeast.
Taste is primarily sweet/tart the guava shows up on first sip. There is literally zero alcohol burn and it goes down FAST and SMOOTH. It goes insanely fast. I polished off the bottle before Brad could tell me he was nursing his first glass: still reeling from the nose. Just couldn’t get past the funk. Contunued sipping revealed a peach paired with sour notes and maybe some pineapple.
Mouthfeel. We were getting close to midnight by the time the bottle was gone and the beer to me was a perfect transition to champagne. Medium mouthfeel and had a nice sparkle to the carbonation. I really really really cant wait for Cigar City to come to Atlanta in March!
Happy New Year!
As my gift to Brad I let him pull whatever he wanted from the celler. My quote “pick a winner.” He did not disappoint, and came back with a Shorts Brewing – Anniversary ale 2010 – From their website “Wheat Wine fermented with blood oranges rendering a rich dark purple concoction, with a spicy, malty, citrus and hoppy nose. Thoroughly warming with rich complexity of malt, citrus acidity and green peppercorn spice. Ample Dry hop compliments the blood orange zest. Uniquely alluring.”
It delivers on many levels. This beer pours a cloudy red/ruby orange with a small white head.
First smell reveals the complexity of this beer. Light bready malts paired with Blood Orange, Peppercorn spiciness to tickle the nose and rounded out with other tropical fruits in way of hops.
Sip (because that is all I got before my buddy polished off the glass…it really is a top 5 beer for me.) Taste is much more like a witbier- blood orange, coriander, peppercorn, big wheat backbone. Finish has a moderate alcohol sting-but the initial flavors remain consistent.
Mouthfeel is full body boldness. Really creamy with a light carb. Very nice beer and as you can imagine…drinkability is high on this one. ABV? 11.70%! Who would-of-thunk it.
To round out the night I popped the Stone 10.10.10 and poured it into my Vertical Epic glass. It was super clear and honey colored with tons of bubbles. Head was thick and white.
Stone describes this as: “Fermented with the legendary Ardennes strain of Belgian yeast, 10.10.10 is a Belgian Strong Pale Ale brewed with pale malt and triticale (a cross of wheat and rye), hopped with German Perle hops, and steeped with chamomile during the whirlpool stage. In secondary fermentation, we added a juice blend of Muscat, Gewurztraminer, and Sauvignon Blanc grape varieties."
It smelled very spicy and had clove and banana like notes. I was fooled by the description because this is more like a sweet bubbly Hefe.
First taste is that powerful spicy belgin yeast paired with light malt and banana. It is then followed by I guava and orange peel. The grapes change the structure of this beer and give it a dry quality.
Mouthfeel” Low carbonation, very small bubbles, a heavy body, a long smooth dryness.
Overall not really how I wanted to end my night but my buddy the Hefe drinker loved it.
This was an epic beer night and we really enjoyed tasting some winners and some not so winner winners. I have a hard time comparing world class beers side by side especially when they are all of varying styles and flavors. Please go out and try them for yourself and compare my notes. I would love to hear your thoughts. Thank you for reading my wall of text. Until next time
Cheers!
Ryan.
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