Purple Moose – Ysgawen

Brewery –          Purple Moose

Beer –                 Ysgawen (Elderflower Beer)

Origin –              Porthmadog

ABV-                  4.0%

Style –                Fruit Beer

Season –            Spring

Now I’ve got to be honest, I’m not the biggest fan of fruit beers. Personally, I believe them to be a bit of a gimic, a hype, a fad, and above all most of them don’t taste beery enough!

But with it being warm outside and having never tried an elderflower beer a go I thought I’d buy one and see what it had to offer.

To be honest it wasn’t my cup of tea as it was a bit sweet, almost like a pear cider. Soft floral, and still.

The Elderflower flavours are quite obvious from the initial swig, but an oddly developing mint flavour soon wraps around the tongue. Offset against the natural bitterness of the hops it tingles the tongue which is oddly addictive.

The finish is like a sweet white wine, it coats the tongue and the taste lingers for an extraordinary amount of time.

I would describe this as a desert beer. It’s sweet, clean, fresh, and fruity. Not one of my favourites but if you’re looking to try all of what beer has to offer it’s certainly worth a go.

Advertisement

Read Full Post »

Quantum Brewing Co. – Pale Ale

Brewery –          Quantum Brewing Company

Beer –                 Pale Ale

ABV –                 4.5%

Origin –              Stockport, England

Style –                IPA

Season –            Summer

Summer Evenings are the time for big hoppy ales to quench the thirst and excite the tongue, and Quantum’s Pale does the trick!

What first drew my attention to this ale was the fact that the hops that go in each batch are different and are chosen by followers on twitter! Ooooh how novel! But seriously engaging the drinker in decisions regarding the beer is genius! No wonder they claim to be innovative on the bottle!

This particular batch has Maryanka, Celeia, Chinook, Cluster, and Perle hops as it’s make up, but what matters most is that there’s a hell of a lot of them.

The nose is rife with them, floral yet crisp with hints of tropical fruits.

The heavy hop content give this beer all you’d expect of a good IPA. Robust bitterness contrasted by sweet passionfruit, fresh and invigorating. Not death by hops like other ales but not sweet and sickly. A far more balanced grown up IPA, and a 4.5% it’s not going to ruin your weekend! The finish has a developing bitterness that lingers, but it’s dry and cider like.

Slightly cloudy, bright, brilliant, fresh and inviting, a great ale, flavoursome but not daft and overdone.

 

 

Read Full Post »