2009-01-05
Beer Research
Ryan, Nick, and I have an upcoming brew day. In preparation we had a meeting today to plan our attack. This included a quick inventory of equipment, both on hand and needed, as well as brushing up on the process and perusing some recipes. As part of the research we went to Happy Hour and assembled six beers to taste. We had decided to try brewing an India Pale Ale (IPA) and bought 3 varieties of IPA to critique.
First up was the Titan IPA. This beer was very hoppy, as an IPA should be, and very dry. There was a quick bit of sweetness at the end but overall the citrusy hop taste overpowered the other flavors. Ryan said he tasted peach, this comment cause me to quickly point out that there are no peaches in the beer.
In an attempt to blance out our tongue we switched varieties. Second to tongues was Einbrecker Schwarzbier. This looked really good in the liquor store but came out tasting "okay." There was nothing remarkable about this beer other than it was a solid beer flavored beer. I could drink a lot of these but it isn't memorable.
Alba Scots Pine Ale is the oddball in the group containing pine and spruce sprigs. The beer was "tip of the tongue" sweet as opposed to the richer "back of the tongue" sweet of a malty beer. Larger gulps left a very piney taste, think Christmas tree, that I didn't detect as much with smaller sips. I'm glad I tasted this, and would recommend it to someone that enjoyed sampling beers, but it's overall kind of a novelty.
IPAs are notably hoppy. Referring back to the Titan, there was little body, little sweetness, and a strong dry hop taste. The Arcadia IPA was more well rounded tasting more like a standard Pale Ale (Boulevard or Sierra Nevada) as it had more overall body and a richer sweetness. Ryan and I agreed that these could be easily pounded back. Nick's philosophy was, "if you are something really be it," and didn't like this as much as the drier IPAs. I understand his position but like a good all-around beer. This was very well balanced for such a hoppy brew.
(Slightly out of order in the Photos) Salvator from Paulaner was a nice, smooth, well-known, taste. This double bock has that rich, dark sweetness that is typical of the style. While IPAs are historically notable for being high in alcohol content (sometimes over 15%) this beer had the highest published alcohol content of the batch at 7.9%. The high alcohol lets the double bock carry more sweetness without tasting like an alcopop; theconverse is true where the sweetness keep the alcohol bitterness in check. This is one of my absolute favorite beers.
Avery IPA tasted like an IPA. Light bodied, though thicker than the Titan, and heavily hopped. The malt flavor stuck around longer than the Titan but didn't round out the taste like the Arcadia. This grabbed the spirit of the style better than the other examples and is a great IPA.
To ground ourselves, we split a Miller High Life. This beer has almost no smell ... and in comparison, little taste. It just kind of floated around on the middle of the tongue and went away.
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