Bryan's "Blackbery Wheat" review...

Here's another of the three that Bryan sent my way, via UPS.. first, a visual:

Bryan's Blackberry Wheat

I'll be damned if I can find the info sheet Bryan sent my way for these beers, so I'll have to wing this one and not be able to provide the info he sent for the brew like I did for the last one. Anyhow, it pours out with a relatively foamless head, which was a bit surprising from the pretty explosive 'pop' the Grolsh bottle gave when I let the top go on this one. It's not a clear beer, but rather a pretty hazy thing.. forgiven as it's a fruit beer, and sometimes those never clear quite right. On the nose I'm getting the blackberry pretty plain, and what I wanna say is a pinch of banana, but it's so fleeting I'm really not sure. Carbonation bubbles readily rise to the surface, so I know it's well carbed up. The body is big and fluffy, with the berry flavors carrying along quite well. I have no idea of the abv on this beer, but it doesn't present any real big alcoholic notes to give away that it's a huge beer or anything.. I really have no idea what its strength is. I'm getting a bit of a bubblegum flavor on the third sip and onwards, which I think would be irritating in most other beers... but is this case, seems to compliment the beer, making it appear almost 'Belgian-y', inadvertently. Heh! There is no astringent, tannic or mouthfeel issues here from use of the fruit. It seems to just work. No hops come into play at all, except for the balanced, background bitterness hops that are letting the rest of the beer take the stage. About 1/3rd of the way into the beer, and the bubblegum flavors are taking over more and more.. they're not objectionable, but they're becoming more of the centerpiece than the fruit flavors are, which I'm not sure is what Bryan was shooting for.. but snap, it's still working in the beers favor. Now towards the end of the pint, the bubblegum is definitely the dominant flavor, with the Blackberry taking a back seat. Curious that, the flip-flop of flavors from the beginning of the pour.. but there it is. It was enjoyable all the way through, bublegum or no. Mind you, that would have been a serious no-no in damn near any other brew, but in this one I think it can be overlooked. I think if Mr. Gold renamed this a the Belgian Blackberry Wheat, he'd have quite the showpiece to brag about...

In other news, I came home from vacation to find our house sitter had collected these little guys and arranged them into a centerpiece:

Some tomatoes from the garden, as well as some reddened Jalapeno's and Hot Cherry peppers too.. looks quite nice there.

The Brutal Truth: Savvas's Northern English Brown

This is the competitor:

Hard to tell from the photo alone, but that's a Northern English Brown, so says Savvas.. let's see about that.  ;)

Appearance: Initial appearance shows a dark brown liquid that canot be seen through at normal room lighting conditions. When jacklighted with my trusty maglight, it shows a crystal clear mahogany color thats awesome to see. Style guide wants to see dark amber to red/brown, so I'll give him that. Dinged only for no real head appearance on this beer. 2/3

Aroma: I'm getting an initial sweet caramel thing here, but in the background a high pitched sorta hoppy thing comes through. It's fleeting and get's squashed by the sweetness pretty quick, but its there. That's pretty much the definition of the NEB, so.. hey, good for you. On second glance, I'm sensing almost a microscopic roast note in here, too.. appealing. However, for style, I think it's a little heavy on the caramel and esters are readily apparent, where for style they are allowed, but should be restrained. But still, it's darned tasty..  8/12

Flavor: says hops. Mild, but apparent. A bit of a tangy flavor in here.. from the hops, nothing bad. Beer is a bit too cold right now, gotta rest this a bit and let it warm up.. I'll come back in a sec. After a sec: ah, yes! Quite fine. Nice beer. Seems to hit a lot of the right notes for this style.. I'm liking it. 16/20

Mouthfeel: I'll go medium body for this beer. It's pretty smack in the middle of 'just right'. I'm thinking it's a bit on the light side of carbonation, but I was warned about that ahead of time. Still, nothing wrong with where it's at.. could just stand a pinch more is all. Maybe that's just the high carbed American in me talking, though.. and holy crap, but am I sensing diacetyl here, or is that just me?? 3/5

Overall Impression: They say 'nutty' is the characteristic you're looking for in this beer.. I still get a more deep sweet, caramel thing here than nutty. It's still quite fine, but the nutty party is missing.. which is saying a lot, considering how nutty the brewer is. Oh snap! Still, I'll go so far as to give an 7/10 here.

That's only a 36 out of a possible 50 points, but man.. the whole seems greater than the sum of the components. I really wanna go back and re-figure the numbers to push this a bit higher, but I'm not sure that's the right thing to do. I wanna see this beer a bit less caramel-ly and a scosche more nutty, whatever that means. For a brown ale, I'm thinking it should have a bit more brown in it, rather than Red beer, you know what I'm sayin'? But I'm not an Englishman, and I guess my score will hve to stand, although I feel it should be more of a 38 than a 36. What a bastard!

The Brutal Truth: Jody's Octoberfest.. sorta.

This was, of course, going to be a Brutal Truth on Jody's Octoberfest, as stated above.. but this bottle was presented to me in a plastic bottle with a carbonator cap attached to the top.. and when I poured it into the glass I have in fornt of me, it was mostly flat. There's a couple of bubbles in here, but not much. It's not really a fair game like this.. so, I'll give it a quick run through, but don't judge this beer on tap at his house on what I'm saying in here.

Aroma: A really faint Nor'Easter style aroma resents itself here, except like, 1/4 of what that beers nose is like. I get a microscopic note of some esters in here, with a bit of a sweet note as well. It's damn close, but these aromas are so faint with no carbonation to lift them. I'll go 8/12 here, because what there is is awesome.. but it must be hampered by the carbonation thing.

Appearance: I can read text on the screen through this wicked ruby colored beer. Gorgeous color, for sure. No foam whatsoever, though. Because of the clarity and fabulous color.. I'm torn on this.. but it's just ham-stringed with no bubbles or foam. 1/3

Flavor: Moderate hop bitterness, fabulous maltiness.. finishes relatively dry, which is surprising for the flavor you get here, with it's sorta not sweet-but Munich'y flavor. Tricky, that. Well done, still.. 15/20, hurt by it's lack of 'lift' from the bubbles.

Mouthfeel: Medium body still, with no carbs, but of course it's flat in the long run. Fabulous finish.. Again, well done here too. A bit of a slickness in the finish.. not a diacetyl thing, though.  2/5

Overall Impression: Ah, my kingdom for carbonation! This beer would have scored huge, if not for that one glaring defect. This is a great beer, that aside. Not my favorite style, but I can appreciate it on occasion.  All in all, 7/10, because of an huge amount of greatness bruised up by one huge aspect of blah.

In the end, a 33/50 isn't something to be taken lightly. Cold and flat, this beer still kicks the crap out of a lot of commercial beers on the market in this same segment. If properly carbonated, this thing would easily have been a 40+ brew. It's that good. One mans opinion, of course..

The Brutal Truth: Wheat Stout

Here we have a sample of Don's Wheat Stout, which has Wheat in it as a supposedly major part of it's grain bill. I'm not sure how to classify this beer, but he's telling me it's a Stout, and the closest thing I see in the book is the American Stout guidelines. So, against that we'll throw it, and see what sticks after it goes through the meat-grinder of The Brutal Truth!

Appearance: "Jet Black" is the color descriptor, and "Persistent head of light tan to light brown" is the description for the foam. I'll give it that. Hell, I'll give it a three of three, because the foam is still there, minutes later and it's still jet black. Snap, Don nailed that one! Granted, this isn't too difficult on a black beer. I think this is where Pale ales tend to take the hits.. Score: 3/3

Aroma:  I'm getting a faint to moderate chocolate malt on the nose, not so much a roasted note. Perhaps minutely, but ever so slight, if that. No alcohol hit in the aroma, and no hops either. Appropriate for style. It's an inviting smell, and I can no longer put off tasting this thing.. Score 9/12

Flavor: Chocolate. Wow. Soft as a pillow. Almost no acrid roast flavor here whatsoever. *Extremely* smooth. This is a stout for people that don't even like stout, if Roast character is not their bag. If there are hops in here, I can't taste them, other than to say the bitterness is equal to the task of balancing the dark malts, but not popping up any more than that. ..now that I've had this beer for more than a few sips, I'm starting to pick out the roast malts now.. that real roast barley, not just a chocolate malt or brown malt flavor. It's definitely there, and takes a backseat for the first block of the road-trip, but jumps up from the back seat like a knife wielding maniac might in a crappy B-movie.. you don't know it's there till it's too late. But I got it now. Well done. No esters here that I can perceive, and a moderately dry finish. How about a touch of malted milk ball? It's in there. Yeah, well done. Hit me with a 17/20 Hayyyy Hoooo!

Mouthfeel: Medium full body, silky in feel. No astringency from any dark malts.. err, maybe just a molecule worth, but that's it. Still, well done. Carbonation is on the medium low side in this bottle-conditioned version. Score it 4/5

Overall Impression: Love it! Strangely, the guidelines call for a hoppy beer in the overall impression area, but then tell you low to high in the flavor department. As such, we can take our liberties with this confusion and rank the crap out of this beer as being generally freakin' awesome. Were this my beer, I'd be especially proud. I'm halfway through a bomber of it now and am enjoying the hell out of it. There is a range of ways you can go with this beer, and this is a great interpretation of one. I'm gonna give it an 8/10. I sure as hell hope Don puts this one into a competition somewhere and tells 'em how the Krausen Commando's do it Stout Style on the east coast.

Total score: 41/50. SNAP! This beer is awesome. Have Don hook you up with a bottle and see for yourself.. it'll be worth the trip.

The Brutal Truth - Timmay's Imperial Belgian IPA (Don't count the Belgian part!)

Here it is, another installment, guaranteed to break hearts of home-brewers everywhere. Dig this:

Our latest victim, Timmay's Belgian inspired Imperial IPA, which he told me to disregard the Belgian part of. Something about it not turning out quite Belgian'y or something? I forget. Whatever! Let's begin.

Aroma: A mild fruitiness, some notes of peach, and a very faint sweet smell.. per guidelines, I'm looking for an "intense hop aroma" that I'm not finding here. Hop aroma should be in an Imperial IPA. No hot alcohols, and no off-aromas found. With a label like Imperial IPA, I'm missing something.. perhaps we'll find it in the flavor? Let's keep looking. It simply needs more aroma hops to compete better here. For now, 5/12

Appearance: Looks like a million bucks! I mean, look at the head on that damn thing. Fluffy, tight bubbles, persistent. Looks great to me, although it's supposed to be clear. As such.. 2/3.

Flavor: Ah! There's something! Even has a flavor of Peach! Very interesting. I get a big malt flavor, with not as much hop as I'd like in this style.. but.. It has a really intriguing fruity flavor, and enough bitterness minus the hop flavor, to carry it. Just barely. I think I could use either a *bit* more bittering hops, or a more dried out beer, to bring a sense of less body and midrange and emphasize the taste of the hops and yeast derived flavors.  It's pretty drinkable for a bigger beer (how big is this, anyway? I have no idea.. I wasn't told and it ain't on the label.. we'll assume it's 7%+ or I'd hesitate to call it Imperial, but who knows?) However, bottom line is, it's not packing enough hops (al la Pliney or Ruination) to compete well in this ballpark.. 12/20

Mouthfeel: Nothing to complain about here, just smooth, well carbonated goodness. Well done in that respect. No alcoholic warmth from what we assume is a bigger beer, just very drinkable beer. 5/5

Overall Impression: This one is a mixed bag. It's got just enough bitterness to carry the beer, but not enough hops to be a DIPA. It's clean, moderately malty, yet very drinkable. It's got some punch to it (I feel it creeping in on me now..) but invites sip after sip. A funny peach-ish flavor seems to seem in everywhere I look, but with the name "Belgian" on it, I'm interested in how that plays out. This one is hard to put a finger on, but.. for the style, it misses out on a few important key points, but still impresses. It's a well made brew, with an easily rectified (on the next iteration) issue, that being "more hops".  I'm gonna give it 7/10 in this box.

Total: 31/50

Summary, it creeps into the "Very Good" scoring guide per BJCP style sheets.. I think because it has some curious strong points, like the killer flavor aspect and easy drinkability, but misses the mark on hops. If this is the beer Timmay sent to the Ohio comp, I'm curious to see how it fared there.. just a few more days will tell. Good job, Tim. Add a few more ounces next time and this one will be out of the park!

The Brutal Truth: Savvas's Belgian Thing

Behold, the latest poor bastard up for a go-round in, The Brutal Truth:

Let's do this thing. Because he's not sure what this is, I'm gonna put it in Belgian Pale Ale for him. The only stats we know are that it's in the neighborhood of 6% abv and was built as a kit from somewhere that he got for a gift.

Aroma: Mild banana and custard-ish aroma. Nearly heaven, in fact. It's very light, but distinct. No off flavors noted here. A touch of maltiness in the aroma as well. 10/12

Appearance: Color is good for style, but clarity is a might bit less than clear.. The head poured well and stood for some time, and persistence is very good so far, with a mousse like consistency. Gorgeous, in fact. If only it were crystal clear.. 2/3 

Flavor: Soft and delicious in every describable BJCP manner. It's hops are so restrained, but the malt comes through *so* well to make up for it. This is to style, however. The beer invites sip after sip, and does not disappoint. Bitterness zips right in to hit the tip of the tongue to let you know it's there, but fades off to nothingness after you swallow, leaving the fantastic maltiness in it's wake. Very well done! I cannot place whatever hop was used in here at all.. and this is also to style. As this beer nears the end of it's day, I almost want to call out an extremely mild peppery-ness in here, but I'm not positive on that. I also think I want perhaps one more thing here.. either a bit of orange peel or it's ilk, or maybe a whiff of aroma hops.. I need just one more dimension to reach perfection. As a result, 17/20

Mouthfeel: Carbonation is fine and persistent. Body is medium in feel, overall. 4/5

Overall Impression: This is a solid, well-done, very drinkable, kick-ass product. I find no faults with it, from a brewing standpoint.. I think a higher score would be found with just a hint more of *something*.. but this is a damn fine beer as it stands. I'd be proud of this one, were it mine. 8/10

Score: 41 of 50 (oh, snap!)

Oh yeah, this one is good! Nice work Savvas, and thanks for leaving this one here for me to run through the wringer!

The Brutal Truth: Franks DIPA

And here we go, for another round of The Brutal Truth, where we tear apart the hopes and dreams of yet another home brewer who foolishly submits a beer for my evaluation! In this round, we're disemboweling Franks (and to a large extent, Robs as well..) Double IPA that he crafted at the Big Brew, 2010. I say party Rob's as well, because they brewed this together and did a split batch of it.. but since Rob's was fermented off site in another location and is also packaged as draft only, it can't be fully counted as just one review. On with the show!

This is what I'm presented with:

So far, I would be checking off the Acetaldehyde and Estery check boxes. *Very* low in the Acetaldehyde though, almost imperceptible.. Estery as far as an also mild fruity character goes.

Again, sticking with BJCP recognized forms and scoring.. Bottle fill was perfect. No rings or weirdness in the neck that I noticed.

Aroma: Mild fruity and caramel-ly aroma. Strangely, no hops detectable. Certainly there should be some hops evident in a DIPA? No off aromas detectable here.. fermented well enough, I guess.  5/12 is the score. For a DIPA, there should be hops here that I'm not finding.

Appearance: Head retention thus far is low, but persistent. I've got an orange colored, well carbonated bottle conditioned beer in a double walled Bodum glass in front of me. Its clarity is unparalleled. 3/3

Flavor: Low maltyness and a very minor caramel flavor present. Actually, vanilla might be a better descriptor, because it's less than caramel, but there's a very minor player in there that tastes almost as if this was oaked, with non-toasted chips. Plenty of hop bitterness, but no real big hop flavor is around here. There's nothing here that's bad, but for a DIPA, I'm expecting some hops that I'm just not finding. Perhaps I'm biased from my West Coast experience, where a veritable hop clubbing was received every time, but there should definitely be more here in this beer, for this style. Bitterness is spot on, however. 10/20 is the score.

Mouthfeel: A bit of an alcoholic taste is evident, but very background. Fine for the style. Fantastic carbonation, medium body and overall near perfect mouthfeel. Very well done in this regard. 5/5

Overall Impression: Overall, if you handed this beer to me and didn't tell me what it was, and I wasn't hell bent on figuring it out, this beer is *solid*. It's well fermented, nothing wrong with it from a brewing or fermenting standpoint. Strong as heck abv%-wise, and balanced right out. It's dry, and drinks like a champ. There's nothing wrong with this at all, except for the one thing you're really needing in an (D)IPA. If this had more hops, this foundation would be simply awesome.  If we're arguing that it's a DIPA though, I'll have to take exception. I would brew this again, exactly the same, but add more hops in the midrange and then dry hop this thing in the fermenter as well. Then, perfection might be achieved. 6/10 for overall impression.

Total: 29/50

Huh? Wait.. 29/50 indicates "Good: Misses the mark on style and/or minor flaws" per the BJCP sheet.. but wait. Does that make sense? Well, the math here is weird. I dinged this beer hard on Flavor and Aroma.. and to a large extent, Overall Impression. Yet, it still makes "Good". Well, the Brutal Truth says it *is* good! It's a DAMN good beer. It scored well in the other areas, which negated the pain a bit. I mean, really well done, balanced, big abv, and no remarkable brewing or fermenting flaws. I dare say, find another category (Old Ale? Biere de Garde (Gads!)) and this thing might score very well indeed. I think the issue here is, it's a newish recipe, brewed with a new crop of hops.. this just needs a couple more refinements and it'll be perfect. As it stands, it doesn't make the best DIPA, but it makes a mighty fine drinking beer. And, with that said, I drank this on an empty stomach and it just *killed* me... this is not a session-able brew! ;) Too big!

This was my breakfast yesterday. An English Muffin I made with my pal Crystal (well, we made more than one..), an egg from the backyard hens, and a slice of cheese made a pretty decent MikeMuffin Sandwich, I'll say.

If you think you (and your beer) is man enough for a Brutal Truth review, don't be scared to pony up and submit one for review. One 12 oz bottle is all it takes to have your heart ripped from your chest and dashed on the pages of Up's and Down's!

That's all for now. Carry on..