Well, new to me. So that means a real beer post tonight and not just filler. You know when you are out and about visiting breweries and beer stores and you buy a good beer, put it in the fridge and it ends up being hidden behind some old leftovers from dinner in the back? Well, the feeling when you find that beer is pretty sweet.
The beer I had forgotten about was a Thornbridge Kipling. It's easy to make a bad IPA, and they are so particular to people's individual tastes. It's probably due to preferences of bitterness. Kipling, besides being an excellent author (read Kim), is a fine beer. It has a fruit like flavor and is a Pacific style pale ale. In all honesty, I'm not 100% sure what clearly defines a Pacific style other than the origin of the hops. These are Nelson Sauvin hops from New Zealand and are known for a fruitiness, similar to wine. What I really liked was this beer didn't leave a bad finish, a problem I have with a lot of IPAs. I'm a fan of this beer and look forward to trying some other stuff from Thornbridge. If you are a brewer (which admittedly I am not) and are interested in the hop, I believe this is it: http://www.nzhops.co.nz/varieties/nelson_sauvin.html. The brewery has what looks like an extensive web site. I haven't had a chance to check it out in depth, but visit here: http://www.thornbridgebrewery.co.uk/index.php.
The other beer I tried for the first time I actually had been putting off. DH and I made a trade of a few brews a few months ago and he slipped in a Founders Backwoods Bastard. This may sound like beer blasphemy, but I've not really found many Founders that I actually like, until now. The Backwoods Bastard was fantastic. Throwing some beer in a bourbon barrel doesn't automatically make it a well crafted beer. This was done right. As pretentious and wine snob like as it sounds, smell is one of the first things I always notice about a new beer. And bourbon is one of the best smelling things ever. They nailed that part of it. The other tricky thing about bourbon and beer is for it to really work it has to be smooth without being flat. The bitters and carbonation can really mess it up. This was the first bourbon barrel that I've really felt combined beer and the bourbon flavor very well. Loved it.
Anybody tried these and have thoughts?
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