Tag: sour blonde

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Featured Reviews – The Bruery Tiki beers

The Bruery have a couple Tiki inspired beers out now and here are my thoughts on them….

Seahorse – right out of the gate, this beer is great.  Big, juicy pineapple aroma and flavor.  Super tropical.  Light malt taste slides in for a second. Quite tart but that fades a notch not less acidic territory as it warms. The only minus is that the bourbon barrel character is missing as is the citrus for me.  Those two added would have made for an even more complex sour. 

Mai Zombie – pours an amber red color.  Quite a multitude of ingredients here and boy is it almond dominated to me.  The orange flower water adds a twist but the spices, lime and grapefruit are not to be found.  Tastes a bit hot as well.  Maybe dialed back in ABV would soften that edge.  No sugary rum texture found either. More cocktail oriented.

The clear winner was Seahorse. Both beers could have delivered more of the flavors on the labels but the sour was more balanced and maybe the Zombie cocktail is not for me.

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Drinking with Mom – Eagle Rock Equinox

A new (occasional) feature on this here blog is what I’m calling “Drinking with Mom”. I will be sending beers to her in Portland and she will send some to me in Los Angeles. Or we will pick a beer we can both get and we will compare notes on the beer. The point being to get a different perspective on the craft beer revolution. One beer at a time. A little background. My mom is primarily a wine drinker with a particular soft spot for champagnes. When it comes to beer she prefers the porter/stout style. But not the imperial stout.

First up is Equinox from Eagle Rock Brewery.

It is a sour blonde ale with Brett yeast. Now this was a reach on my part. This is out of my mom’s comfort beer range for sure. Back in 2010, my review of the beer when it first came out was as follows, “pours really yellow. aroma is faint but a little fruity. sourness is minimal but the acid does leave its mark. very refreshing. one of my favorite sour ales so far because it doesn’t try to pucker your mouth into a grimace” I gave it a 3.7 out of 5.

My mom was “pleasantly surprised” despite not being a sour fan. She found it refreshing, easy to drink and effervescent. She appreciated the light touch on the sourness. She explained that it was similar in many respects to champagne. The Brett didn’t register as too big either because she didn’t even mention it. Maybe the cage and cork played into the wine aesthetic?

On a final note, my brother in law tasted as well and with he gave it a thumbs up too. So there you go, three different enthusiastic reviews! Check Eagle Rock’s taproom to see if any bottles are left of that or their second anniversary beer, Deuce.