Happy Independence Day!
An obvious theme for the 4th of July in America: Red, White and Blue!
Red: Mikkeller Raspberry Tripplebock
An ale brewed with raspberries, this pours opaque brown with a coffee ice cream head. It has a roasty nose of raspberry cream and chocolate. The flavor is momentarily roasted malt, then immediately tart raspberry soda, then back to roastiness with chocolate malt. It’s not a sour but it is quite tart, a bit like a roasty version of a tart lambic. It has a pretty long “lambic” finish. Danish, brewed in Belgium, 13% ABV
White: Gulden Draak
Golden amber in the glass with a buttermilk head, then a rich malty sweet nose with a tint of spicy hops. The flavor is of caramel malt, rich and slightly roasty. There’s a fruitiness, stone fruit , and a creamy mouthfeel. Despite the caramel there’s a crispness leading to a long sweet finish, never cloying, with a tiny hint of hops drying the end of the finish. From Belgium, 10.5% ABV
Blue: Wachusett Blueberry
This is a wheat beer, pouring golden straw with virtually no head. The nose is of light cracker malt with distinct blueberry. The flavor is “essence of blueberry” first and last with mild malt in between. The finish is brief and malty. Westminster MA, 4.5% ABV, 10 IBU
What’s that you say? A Danish brewer in Belgium, an outright Belgian, and only finally an American from Massachusetts? Not red, white and blue enough? All right, let’s distill it right down.
Red, White & Blue: Dales Pale Ale
Rather dark amber for a “pale” ale, with a medium off white head. The aroma is hoppy with bread malt, then the flavor is caramel with slight roastiness, hoppier than an English IPA, hoppy with citrus and floral notes. It gives a long finish of malt and hops, very satisfactory by–and in–the pool. This is from Oskar Blues, originally from Colorado, but this brew is from North Carolina. 6.5% ABV, 65 IBU
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