America the Brave(ish)
A few nights ago I sat with a friend
and colleague of mine and decided to hold an impromptu beer tasting
using a few of the beers I had received from Beer 52 over the last lot
of months. In total we selected 6 at random and then tried to see if
we could make them fit into some kind of logical order.
In the first of the tasting comparisons
I selected two IPA's and both happened to be from the good old US of
A.
Founders All Day IPA Session Ale 4.7%
ABV
Its clear what Founders Brewery want to
associate with this beer, the label shows a typical American SUV with
a Kayak strapped to the roof, driving along a dirt track in a forest.
Bring this beer on a fishing or camping trip. I should say at this
point, although I have pictures of the empty bottles, taking pictures
of the actual beer poured into a glass slipped my mind on the night.
Lesson learned there. Anyway As soon as this was poured I could get
strong aromas of Tropical Fruit, breakfast juice, blood oranges and
passion fruits, the aroma was coming from the glass almost a metre
away. It was strong and very in your face. This was as good as this
beer got unfortunately. The taste, again hit you straight away, but
this time there was none of the tropical tastes which were certainly
overpowered by, in my opinion an over-hopped taste. I cannot tell you
what hops or even what flavours where present, the taste simply
evaporated off my tongue before I could go looking. I was
disappointed, I was so excited by the aroma, the tropical notes the
clear fragrances I had high hopes and they were dashed by a poor
finish to this beer. It was approaching its best before date having
been in my collection for anything up to 8 months, but I'm not
convinced this was the reason for the poor showing. An All Day
Session beer? Well its certainly not offensive and the crisp
fragrance and initial burst of flavour would keep you refreshed, and
lack of after taste could prompt you to sink a few more of these than
you initially expected to, if you were on a camping trip in the
middle of nowhere with no off licence available to buy something
else.
13 Guns American IPA 5.5% ABV
The second beer on my short tour of
America was Crafty Dans 13 Guns American IPA, named after the
original 13 states that made up the USA. (Ok I am cheating a little
here, this is brewed in the Thwaites Brewery in Blackburn England.)
Both bottles were poured at the same time. The 13 Guns bottle has an
in depth label detailing the hops used the malts, the yeast used and
even the name of the brewer! It also tells me this is recipe 213, for
what that is worth. To contrast this with the All Day IPA, the nose was harder to find, I really found myself having to go looking for flavours, and when I got there, I found none of the tropical fruits I expect with an IPA, and having read the hops list. It was a much darker experience, much more of the malt character was coming, and I even detected the slightest hint of light chocolate. Looking at the malts used I would say this is unexpected. Another contrast between the All day and the 13 guns, All day was very light in appearance, a typical IPA, the 13 Guns on the other hand was much darker than any IPA I have encountered recently, a real chestnut colour. On tasting, again the subtle flavours weren't in your face, it took several samples to really identify, the dark malty taste again was contrary to what I was expecting reading the label and knowing what an IPA usually taste like, I even got a touch of coffee. The tropical fruits where there, subtly in the background. I really had to work to identify even these few flavours, the beer was certainly very complex and enjoyable. However, directly below where the bottle says “13 Guns,” and above it identifies the style of beer it declares “An intense hit of hops.” Unless the hops that I am unfamiliar with provided the dark malty and coffee tastes that I got early doors this statement is simply not true. That said I enjoyed working with this beer, of the two I would be more inclined to session the 13 Guns, and if both were sitting in the local off licence I would definitely pick 13 Guns over the All Day IPA.
The contrasting styles were fun to work
with, the light crisp experience with the All Day was contradicted by
the dark malt flavours of the 13 Guns, although I wouldn't say it was
heavy by any stretch of the imagination. At the time, I suggested
that perhaps the All Day was a touch young and the flavours hadn't
had time to develop but after investigating the bottle and seeing the
Best Before date, I can only conclude this was done on purpose. I
have recently tried Trouble Brewing's Remix, which is a similar style
to All Day, and I wonder had it influenced my experience?
Founders Brewery: Website
Thwaites: Website
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