NoVA Beer and Food

Friday, December 27, 2013

10 Predictions for Craft Beer in 2014...

Nothing startling I don't think.

More Sour beers. More Berliner Weisse, more barrel-aged sours, and more Belgian-styled sours. Wild and non-wild fermentation. Sour mash beers. Also Gose.
More single-hop pale ales and IPAs. New hops are coming out with regularity and I expect to see brewers producing different beers in order to showcase new hops.
More secret/quiet/small crowd releases. More new beer releases with no PR announcement. Social media will play an increasing part. There will be some backlash.
More "Reserve" brewery clubs. It's a decent way for brewers to experiment without the risk of huge production numbers.
Less distribution. I expect many breweries will adopt a smaller footprint business model. Many breweries will continue to grow, but over the next 5 years I expect breweries to become more local.
There will be some level of crackdown or enforcement on beer trading that will begin to cause some change.
Growler laws will change for the better in states where they currently have restrictions.
The South, from the Carolinas west to Texas, will continue to see the largest growth rate in craft beer production.
There will be another large merger made by "Big Beer" in an effort to maintain validity. They will continue to produce mediocre crafty beers. (In 10 years, they may only produce alco-pop and similar.)
Silently, Cantillon will grow, if not partially funded by at least encouraged by Shelton Bros.

Monday, December 23, 2013

Re: Grasslands Brewing Co. IIPA batch 1

BTW, I posted the review here:

http://novabeerandfood.blogspot.com/

It's a place I used to log beers, but haven't used it in a while, mostly because of untappd.

On Mon, Dec 23, 2013 at 10:37 AM, Jay Patel <jpatelcissp@gmail.com> wrote:

Grasslands Brewing Co. IIPA (batch 1?) December 22, 2013

Aroma:
Lots of pine and that works for me this time of year. Less citrus, and that's (IMHO) a matter of brewer's choice based on hops. No real dank aroma. Spiciness is present, coriander?

Appearance:
No head on first pour (1/4 bottle). Final pour was more vigorous and produced some head, but it dissipates quickly.
The color is a tad more brown than I'd expect in a DIPA. Cloudy for sure.

Flavor:
Strong bitterness works with the spiciness. The spiciness is big and comes across with heat from the booze. CORIANDER confirmed! More burn. Carbonation, spiciness, and booze collude to overpower any malt. There is malt in the finish, but my tongue is spent after the bitter and burn.

Mouthfeel:
The bitterness, booze, and carbonation result in a tad too much harshness with no smoothness. Perhaps intended, but missing some maltiness.

Overall:

The beer was really bitter, but coriander didn't work well in my opinion. Maybe it was too heavy handed. Unlike beers such as Heady Topper or Pliny the Elder, this is not a beer I'd chose to drink too much of in a session. More malt to balance the bitterness, maybe more aroma, and tone down the brown color and coriander, to bring it more in line.

I hope I'm right about the coriander, otherwise my credibility in this review will seem thin. Either way, I hope you don't take my criticism personally, I'm just trying to give honest feedback.

Grasslands Brewing Co. IIPA batch 1

Grasslands Brewing Co. IIPA (batch 1?) December 22, 2013

Aroma:

Lots of pine and that works for me this time of year. Less citrus, and that's (IMHO) a matter of brewer's choice based on hops. No real dank aroma. Spiciness is present, coriander?

Appearance:

No head on first pour (1/4 bottle). Final pour was more vigorous and produced some head, but it dissipates quickly.

The color is a tad more brown than I'd expect in a DIPA. Cloudy for sure.

Flavor:

Strong bitterness works with the spiciness. The spiciness is big and comes across with heat from the booze. CORIANDER confirmed! More burn. Carbonation, spiciness, and booze collude to overpower any malt. There is malt in the finish, but my tongue is spent after the bitter and burn.

Mouthfeel:

The bitterness, booze, and carbonation result in a tad too much harshness with no smoothness. Perhaps intended, but missing some maltiness.

Overall:

The beer was really bitter, but coriander didn't work well in my opinion. Maybe it was too heavy handed. Unlike beers such as Heady Topper or Pliny the Elder, this is not a beer I'd chose to drink too much of in a session. More malt to balance the bitterness, maybe more aroma, and tone down the brown color and coriander, to bring it more in line.

I hope I'm right about the coriander, otherwise my credibility in this review will seem thin. Either way, I hope you don't take my criticism personally, I'm just trying to give honest feedback.