[ja]cobdavis

I told myself I wouldn’t finish writing this post until I drank the second bottle of Lambic ‘BHall’ from Brouwerji-chugach sent over from Maine. Well here I sit, in bed, with 1/8th of my glass left. My initial notes are below, but my pallette is likely much cleaner than previously – no other tastings, had cider previously – so I wanted to take a quick ‘second look’.

Lambic – 9/10; simply put: superb, verbose: not overly tart/sour (as many of my wild ales lean toward) making for a shockingly drinkable beer with mellow ‘green apple’ flavors, it smells like funk and a barrel had sweet babies crafting  an amalgam to simply draw intrigue – lemon rind, vanilla, light malt, and that ever elusive ‘cherry pie’. Honestly, if his brewery – once it starts – churns out beers like this, I’ll be bragging to everyone that I knew him when.

Now for the first tasting. My [sometimes] brew buddy and his wife stopped over at our “new” place along with a long 10 beer flight with some recent brews, and not so recent, along with BHall’s choice options (lambic, gueuze).

Our flight:

Grapefruit Wheat (GFW), OLY-500 with Pummelo Grapefruit rind and meats and thyme flowers ‘dry hopped’

Summer Stouts (ss04/05), split batch of first attempt at “warm weather” stout – US05 vs S04

Belgian Pale (BP2), “beta” pitch of 100% brett pitches from Omega Yeast labs, second floor version – high heat

Wine Hybrids: Saison with Sav Blanc must added and pitched with EYC20 (20), ECY01(01), WL670 (670) or Cuvree (cuv)

1

• GFW – 8/10; Very grapefruit forward, light spice
• BP2 – 6-7/10; lots of ‘malt’; herbal, earthy
• ss04 – 7/10; chocolate nose w/ “semi-sweet palate”, nutty?, stone fruit
• ss05 – 7.5/10; more “stout”, grain forward
• 20 – 8/10; funk/sour nose, smells VERY tart but is reserved on the palate
• 01 – 6/10; floral nose w/ overipe fruit, quite tart, “nerds”, ‘drink one’
• 670 – 8.5/10; fruit salad nose, very “sweet/sour” along the palate
• cuve – 3/10; sulfur nose, palate: smooth very nice, like a “malty wine”
• lambic – 9/10; “barrel” nose, vanilla, lightly sweet meets a nice mellow sourness, VERY drinkable
• gueuze 8.5/10; “vanilla” nose w/ a touch of sulfur; under ripe apple, a more ‘tame’ version of the lambic

2

• GFW – 7/10; sour grape fruit after taste, wheat at the top w/ a subtle sour note
• BP 2 – 7/10; caramel, malty, earthy, dry
• s04 – 8-9/10; coffee, caramel, malty, nutty
• s05 – 9/10; semi-sour, very nutty, hint chocolate
• 20 – 8/10; sour nose, grapefruit, clove hint of banana, citrus, vanilla aftertaste
• 01 – 5/10; sour nose, overripe fruit, tart (like drinking nerds)
• 670 – 7/10; stone fruit nose
• cuv – na/10; n/a
• lambic – honey, touch of citrus, oak, vanilla
• gueuze – honey, oak, green banana, vanilla

3

• GFW – 8/10; sour, bitter, fizzy, champagne, grapefruit
• ss04 – 8/10; peach, caramel, coffee, nutty, smooth
• ss05 – 5/10; sour, acidity, salty
• bp2 – 6/10; cocoa, malt, bitter, green
• 20 – 10/10; light crisp, citrus, lemon
• 01 – 6/10; spice, tart, sweet, dessert
• 670 – 5/10; dry, citrus, grapefruit
• cuv – n/a; sulfur, dry, sour
• lambic – 9/10; honey, grapefruit, green, lemon, vanilla
• gueuze – 7/10; tart, oak, fruit

Some had obvious favorites – but a pretty decent spread of beers that makes up the current profile. My surprise: the summer stout is really quite fantastic, none of that “acidity” found in many of my earlier stouts – how? Adding the chocolate malt with the sparge, wouldn’t have thought it, but it’s a huge difference – a nice mellow actual chocolate/coffee profile. I am no master taster by any stretch, but my brew buddy is burgeoning and his wife has never done anything like it before which gave me a good spread on experience and expectations, a nice swath I’d like the replicate in the future.