Day 81, 3.22.11., Tournay Black - Belgian Stout

While stouts are quickly becoming one of my new favorite styles, Belgium is quickly becoming the nation of origin I'm most drinking.  So a Belgian stout ought to be perfect, right?
In other news, Lesley likes to buy me presents and she always picks good stuff.  Her newest find: a handsome new tasting glass!  Talk about a great wife.
Anyway, Tournay looks like the perfect stout.  It's black as night and has a fat foamy beige head.
The nose and palate of this beer are both extremely subtle.  on the nose, just a hint of ground coffee and dark roasty malty notes.  There's a tiny sherry aroma, and a fleeting bit of maple.
As I sip, I get a bit of brown sugar and a nice (albeit subtle again) bitter balance to the sugary malty body.
My second beef with this stout, after its lack of assertiveness in aroma and flavor, is the fact that it is quite thin.  It drinks more like a porter than a real stout.  All in all, it turned out a fairly disappointing beer for me.
7.6% ABV.  5 out of 10.

Day 51, 2.20.11., Piraat Ale

Here's a weird little beer: Piraat Ale.  With a name like that, I thought this was going to be a bad joke of a beer from some bad joke of a domestic brewery.  No Sir, this beer Sir, is Belgian Sir.

It's an amber/red hazy ale with a nice big white head.  On the nose, there is some spice notes, like clove, coriander, maybe a tiny cardamom hint.  There are some musky aromas too, and over ripe fruit notes of apricot and sour cherry.
The body is fairly big and with a good amount of maltyness.   There's a strong peppery bitterness that shifts into a sour character that lingers looooong on the finish.  Unfortunately it's not (to me) the  appealing kind of sourness, but the kind that compromises the beer's balance. 
It's an ok beer, but not very well refined.  5 out of 10.

Day 42, 2.11.11, Hermitage - Ale of the IMP

Trying a beer today that I've been curious about.  Bev-Mo carries a whole line of beers from Hermitage Brewery, which is the distribution side of Tied House Pub down in San Jose.  It sounds like Tied House does a bunch of contract brewing, and likely I've had stuff that they brew and didn't know it.  One of their projects is Coastal Fog, a brand they make exclusively for Bev-Mo.  I wonder whether the same is true of Hermitage.
This beer is their IMPerial IPA.  (Get it?)  It is cloudy amber in color and has a substantial white foamy head.  On the nose, floral hops are first up, and in a big way.  But it also smells surprisingly malty
The malt doesn't materialize on the palate much though as the hops again take center stage.  They are very spicy and quite bitter.  With the malt flavor falling flat and the beer having really not much of a body to speak of, it's fairly unbalanced.  Not a bad stab at a very hoppy beer, but a bit too aggressive to enjoy.  Even for a hop-head like me.  5 out of 10.

Day 41, 2.10.11., Xingu

Here's a weird beer: Xingu black beer from Brazil.  My general rule of thumb again with the beer of equatorial tropical climates: proceed with caution.  It's certainly black, as promised, and completely opaque too.  It poured into the glass with very little beige head.  I don't think I've ever tried a beer  this dark from a warm climate country.  Good on ya Brazil.
The nose is subtle, but once you let it warm up a bit and then really get your nose in there, it's all mapley and malty.  There's definitely some brûlée sugar aroma too.  The body is rather thin compared to it's color.  There's not much going on in the palate, a little dark malt bite and then a sour fade out... disappointing.  This is another one of those beers that's not bad, it's just not a standout.
It's fine.  An extra point awarded for the Brazilian people attempting a beer other than the standard clear light lager.
6 out of 10.

Day 35, 2.4.11., Wells - Banana Bread Beer

As you know, I really like beer.  As you may not know, I also really like banana bread.  My mom makes killer banana bread.
When I saw this beer on the shelf, I thought 'hmm, I don't want to drink that'.  But of course I bought a bottle to try since I had never tried it before.   I've certainly tried some hefeweizens that have a distinct banana-esc flavor.  Other than that, I don't really think the two (bananas and beer) have any business hanging out.  I fully expected this beer to be bad to the point of undrinkability...

Wells banana bread beer is a crisp, clear Amber ale.  As expected, the nose is fairly fake banana, like Laffy Taffy.  Banana flavor is less prevelant on the palate, where it's there but quite subtle.  It's accompanied by a fair amount of nice spicy hops character.
In addition to the banana and hop flavors, the beer is actually kind of nice and fruity, not specifically banana flavor only, just general fruitieness.  There's some slight malt sweetness, but it serves to keep the hop bite in check. 
Responsible use of banana flavor makes this a decent beer.  It's actually quite a bit  better than I thought it would be. 5 out of 10.       

Day 29, 1.29.11, Echigo Stout

I tried Echigo Stout while working on a sweet paint job in the bedroom that will be my son's when he arrives in 3 months.  Holy crap.
Back to the beer. 
It's ok.
The color is strangely red/brown rather than the traditional black we see with stouts.  I could definitely see right through the thing when I held it up to a bit of light. 
The nose offered coffee and roasty dark malt.  And the same was there on the palate too, but all the flavors were just so subtle that it came off as kinda bland.  Just not much going on.
I Found Echigo to be quite thin although it did have a fairly velvety mouthfeel. 
It's by no means a bad beer, just not very dynamic.  Didn't have a lot of standout character.
5 out of 10.

Day 4, 1.4.11, New Belgium, Mothership Wit

I have never tried this beer before for two reasons: 1 - It's a wit, which I'm not really that into.  2 - it's made by New Belgium, which I'm not really that into.

And it was everything it promised, it was fine.  I think that New Belgium tried really hard to make it a beer that was approachable and not too "weird" for the average American beer drinker.  Although it does have a characteristic cloudy wit-ness to it, it's quite pale and yellow.  It looks like a Budweiser with a few drops of milk in it.  The nose is nice.  There's a good amount of earthy spice and that Belgian-y banana aroma.  On the palate, it starts out good, fairly smooth and nicely hopped.  But it really falls flat on the finish.  The whole palate seems to drop off into a kind of Heineken-esk skunkieness.
So I salute New Belgium for attempting a beer in the style of their namesake, but I just feel it could be so much better, more refined.  Overall, eh... 5 out of 10. 
On the upside, I did get to sit and sip at Rudy's Can't Fail Café in Emeryville.  Good little spot.  They serve food till 1am!  And they have Lagunitas IPA in the bottle.