Tuesday 3 May 2016

Beer Tasting: Howling Hops Farmhouse Saison (Sorachi Special)


I snared this saison at BottleDog in London. 

The beer pours mostly clear yellow-gold, highly effervescent, with a billowing, frothy and pure white head. Pleasant citrusy hops in the aroma, augmented with some dry wheat, pale bread, zesty lemon, tangerine, pithy grapefruit. Light to medium sweet flavour with mellow bitter grain husk, more citrus peel, some grass, wheat bread, and subtle saison yeast expression. Light to medium bodied with lively carbonation. Nicely balanced on the finish, with well rounded citrusy hops, more lightly dried wheat bread, some straw, tangerine, lemon meringue, mild pithy grapefruit, biscuits. 

Well, this is pretty great stuff overall. Super drinkable, with a nice amount of complexity. Great work.

Beer Tasting: Late Knights Hop O' The Morning


I inadvertently aged this one. I think it boasts two to three years of age. Thankfully, the beer is still in great shape, and shows almost no signs of wear and tear. 

It pours clear, dark brown with a frothy, light khaki head. The nose has lots of ashy roast, tobacco, burnt leaves, faint cocoa. The flavour is lightly sweet with prominent hard, ashy roast, some dry earth, torched tobacco leaves, bitter cocoa, leather. Light bodied with average carbonation. Dry and bitter on the finish, with more steady and sturdy ash, chalky bitter cocoa, old espresso. Lingering burnt pine in the aftertaste. 

Pretty OK overall, in that hard-edged ashy kind of way. There's a lot of flavour jammed into the 4.2% abv.