Beer of the Month Club Review July 2010
If you're thinking of joining a beer of the month club you've found the right place. Each month we review a beer of the month club shipment to give you an idea of what you really get. This is from Gourmet Monthly Clubs.
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Uinta Soltice Kolsch
Appearance: Translucent golden goodness
Smell: Very mild as you’d expect with this style, slightly fruity
Taste: Nice clean lager flavor. This tastes like summer. Picture yourself on the beach or by the pool or near the salt flats of Utah (where it’s made), this is the beer you want in hand.
St. John Brewers Virgin Islands Island Summer Ale
Appearance: Much like Uinta’s kolsch, this beer pours clear and golden. Big white head accompanies the summer looking beer.
Smell: To be honest, there isn’t much to the smell. It’s a mildly fruity, clean and crisp smelling beer. Great for hot summer days.
Taste: Crisp and clean, it has mild hop bitterness accentuated by the beer’s dryness. There’s some decent beer flavor up front and then it’s gone. This is a good beer on a hot day... and we’d know, it’s hot right now!
St. John Brewers Virgin Islands Liquid Sunshine
Appearance: Golden and hazy
Smell: Sweet, spicy yeast notes,
Taste: Very light light for a Belgian style. For those fans of Allagash White or Blue Moon, this is a good into to other Belgian styles, it has a more robust yeast flavor that will lead you towards other Belgian singles and dubbels.
Uinta King’s Peak Porter
Appearance: Pretty dark, with hints of ruby around the corners. There’s no head on this beer, probably about 1/4 inch.
Smell: Super dry smelling, chocolate and cocoa in the nose... almost a little like chocolate syrup if you removed the sweetness.
Taste: This is a very thin porter... it’s, like, the Kate Moss of porters, just a little too thin. That said, the chocolate taste (no chocolate added) from roasted grain is really nice. It’s a good porter that we’d drink in warm weather. While we’d like more body, it’s not a disqualifying aspect.
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Add a commentClown Shoes Eagle Claw Fist Beer Review
Appearance: Eagle Claw Fist pours clear brown with amber hues when held up to the light. Eagle Claw Fist throws up a great creamy tan head of about two fingers that lingers like a bruise from a punch of a kung-fu master.
Smell: Eagle Claw Fist has a fairly mellow aroma, like a kung-fu master is subtle and sneaky. A little bit of hops and some smooth malt, but that’s it. It’s subdued...
Taste: Whoa! Eagle Claw Fist drinks so smooth you’d never know it’s an 8% abv beer. It drinks like it’s 6%. Eagle Claw Fist goes down so easy (insert your own joke here). There is a great hop bitterness up front, but it’s smoothly followed by a luscious malt profile and finally some piney, slightly citrusy hop flavors. Clown Shoes nailed this one! The hops and malt go together great! This is an 8% hoppy, malty beer... it’s over 80 degrees outside and we still are digging it. Well done to the Clown Shoes Crew.
So if you haven’t noticed, we like the name Eagle Claw Fist. It sounds like the beer Rambo David Carradine would drink. Clown Shoes is four for four in our books!
Saint Somewhere Saison Athene Review
It's still hot and it's still summer, which means it's still the Summer of Saison! This example of the style comes from Tarpon Springs, FL where they know quite a bit about needing a thirst quenching drink after being out in the hot weather. At 7.5% abv this one weighs in about average for the modern interpretations of Saison, but is higher than they traditionally were... but it's hot and we're thirsty so let's just see how this one stacks up!
Appearance: Upon opening the bottle, the beer overflows a bit... good thing we'd read about this happening and opened it over the sink. Saison Athene pours a light, clear golden straw color with an off-white puffy head that reminds us a bit of soda head. The head is quickly gone, but the beer still looks delicious. There's a bunch of yeast chunks from the overflow, but nothing too bad.
Smell: The smell is smooth and of orange and funk from the brettanomyces, which is a wild yeast sometimes found in Belgian-style beers. This wild yeast provides a light, musty aroma to the brew. The beer smells quite dry with a muted Saison yeast note... honestly the smell is more mild than we've come to expect out of this style.
Taste: The first, and predominant, taste you get is orange cream. The mouth feel is much fuller and creamier than expected... it's quite smooth. Somehow, it's still dry, though. Carbonation coats the tongue in fine bubbles, but the mouthfeel of the beer keeps the carbonation from being prickly at all. The funk is much stronger in the nose than in the taste, where it's very backgrounded by the strong orange cream tasete. It's full on the front, but a much thinner, drier and more refreshing brew on the finish. We like this one, but it's too full and not quite dry enough for the Summer of Saison. This is a fall or early spring Saison... perhaps even a good one for winter. The alcohol is, however, very well hidden so don't expect it to warm you on a cold winter day.
As a side note, past experience with this beer has shown us that, if you age it, the brett will continue to work on the sugars in the beer and dry it out. We highly recommend you do this!
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