Øl de Helle Cream Ale

Cream Ale, 5.6% ABV, unknown IBU.

Øl de Helle Cream Ale, enjoyed 2 months after brewing.

Whenever I visit my parents my father has always stocked up on craft beers to be consumed by yours truly. This summer he had a couple of special treats lined up for me: two homebrews from the neighbours Solfrid and Fritz! The two head brewers of Øl de Helle are quite new to the game – the Cream Ale is one of their first batches and it was brewed just a couple of months ago. I will therefore go easy on this beer… yeah right! As if! Nope, this brew is no exception, it will be judged as strictly as any commercial brew!

Before I start rating the beer I must confess that Cream Ale is far from being one of my favourite beer styles – a style that is supposed to be faint and subtle is usually not my cup of tea.

Cream Ale in a Nøgne Ø glass.

It pours a slightly hazy golden body, with a frothy, off-white, short-lived head that doesn’t lace my glass at all.

The aroma is fairly faint, but I guess that could be said to be according to style. It’s not a very exciting aroma, but it’s fairly clean, despite some very subtle hints of higher alcohols. The main elements are pale malts, citrus and some generic fruity notes, with apples in the back and hints of a Belgian yeasty peppery spiciness. Which yeast did you use for this one?

The flavour is also rather faint, with notes of grapefruit, apples, pale malts, spices (especially black pepper) and a chalky dryness in the finish. Also lots of citrus zest and pips, that make the aftertaste a bit astringent and decrease the drinkability slightly.

The taste is light sweet with a fairly long-lasting moderate bitter finish. To me the bitterness level feels a bit too hight for such an otherwise mellow brew.

It has a decent mouthfeel with a creamy, smooth and quite dry texture, medium body and moderate carbonation.

Conclusion: a fairly well balanced brew, but I didn’t quite like the astringency and the bitterness was a bit too high for the gentle aroma and flavour profile. A lover of cream ales might have enjoyed this one more that I did.

Aroma:      5/10
Appearance: 3/5
Taste:      5/10
Palate:     3/5
Overall:    8/20
Ratebeer score: 2.4/5.0

S & M Brewing Heilige Nacht

Belgian Strong Ale, 12% ABV, 31.8 IBU.

DISCLAIMER: I opened this bottle by mistake. The brewers instructed me not to taste this beer before 2020, but I completely forgot about that. In other words, the beer that I tasted was not the final product! Please keep that in mind when reading this rating.

Heilige Nacht. Yet another reason not to be religious.

It’s quite much darker than De Dolle Stille Nacht, right?

I know for a fact that at least half of S & M brewing is a huge fan of De Dolle Stille Nacht, so a tribute to this ale was to be expected.

In the glass it has a cloudy, deep amber colour, with a frothy, beige, short-lived head that leaves virtually no lacing on my glass.

The aroma is strong and far too dominated by stinging and rough alcohol. Fair enough, this is a big beer, but even a 12% ABV brew shouldn’t smell this boozy. I also get a generic fruitiness and somewhat unclean yeasty notes. In the back I find caramel, honey, dark dried fruits and spices.

In the mouth the alcohol really kicks in! I’ve never had a beer remotely close to being this absurdly alcoholic and insanely stinging and sharp! Fortunately there are other elements here as well, behind the wall of alcohol, and if not exactly saving this brew they prevent it from being a total disaster: dark dried fruits, caramel, sugar and honey. Actually lots of honey, in such a degree that this creation tastes more like a braggot than some braggots I’ve had.

The mouthfeel isn’t too bad (ignoring that it’s close to undrinkable due to the stinging alcohol): full body, oily texture and soft carbonation.

Naturally I didn’t manage to finish the bottle, I had to have a more gentle drink. So I poured me a Laphroaig instead. And I swear to Dog, even after a few sips of this peaty single malt, the Heilage Nacht still felt violent and boozy in comparison!

Conclusion: “A beer suitable for Christmas or for long-term aging”. I’ll go for the latter. Maybe it’s possible to drink in a decade or two.

Aroma:      6/10
Appearance: 3/5
Taste:      4/10
Palate:     2/5
Overall:    7/20
Ratebeer score: 2.2/5.0

ClubGonzo’s Eirik 50 år

A birthday brew! Eirik 50 år, ClubGonzo batch 72.

Brown Ale, 6.9% ABV, 35.6 IBU.

Birthday brew and birthday flowers.

It pours a deep brown body with a average-sized beige head that ends up as a fully covering film. Some of the foam is stuck on my glass.

The aroma is rather strong and has some of the dirty yeasty notes that I often find in brown ales, so I guess it’s true to the style. I also get roasted malt, coffee, and sweet, overripe dark fruits. Quite strong flavour of roasted malt, coffee and a touch of yeast, with pine in the back. The taste is light to moderate sweet and moderate to light bitter. Medium body, dry texture and moderate carbonation. A close to decent brown ale with a tad more bitterness and hoppy elements than you average UK brown ale.

Conclusion: What? You find this rating a bit boring? Well, that’s what you get for brewing a slightly boring beer.

Aroma:      6/10
Appearance: 3/5
Taste:      6/10
Palate:     3/5
Overall:    11/20
Ratebeer score: 2.9/5.0

ClubGonzo’s Old Lovage

Barley Wine, 11% ABV, 50 IBU.

ClubGonzo’s Old Lovage, batch 42.

Looks good right after the beer has been poured, but the head is too short-lived.

I tend to prefer hoppy American interpretations of beer styles over dull British ones. When it comes to barley wines though, I’ve had several inspired by the Old World traditions that I’ve enjoyed very much, so let’s see if Old Lovage fits in that category.

It pours a hazy, very deep brown body with a small, beige head that doesn’t leave much lacing, and that soon reduces to a fully covering film.

The aroma is malty, sweet, sugary and strong, with truckloads of dark caramel. Also dark dried fruits and honey, and in the back I find chocolate and some very overripe generic fruity notes.

Strong flavour of sweet caramel, roasted malt, dark dried fruits and somewhat stinging alcohol. Further behind there is bitter chocolate and liquorice. The taste is heavy sweet and the long-lasting finish is moderate bitter.

The texture is smooth and pleasant, it’s a full-bodied brew with a soft carbonation.

Conclusion: pure malty goodness, with minimal hop influence. Just like a British barley wine is supposed to be.

Aroma:      7/10
Appearance: 3/5
Taste:      7/10
Palate:     4/5
Overall:    14/20
Ratebeer score: 3.5/5.0

S & M Brewing Teenage Computer Barley Wine

Barley Wine, 11.5% ABV, 45.6 IBU.

S & M Brewing Teenage Computer Barley Wine, batch 3. Photographed inside a Mac Pro cabinet.

Batch 3 from S & M Brewing is a potent barley wine. It pours a cloudy, deep brown to copper body, with a creamy, dense, beige and long-lived head that ends up as a thin layer.

Strong aroma of caramel, lightly roasted malt, dark dried fruits and stinging alcohol. In the back I get overripe generic fruity notes, chocolate and honey.

The strong flavour is very much on the caramel malty side, there is very little hops in the flavour, but it has a good bitter bite in the long finish. Also orange and liquorice. I’m not sure if it has enough hoppy flavours to be called an American barley wine? It’s also very alcoholic, it’s stinging and boozy, but there are no solvent or unclean notes.

It has a fantastic mouthfeel (ignoring the booze), with a full body, oily texture and soft carbonation.

Conclusion: too boozy, too little hops but a nice caramel maltiness. It kept growing on me, so I finished the bottle with pleasure. 

 

Aroma:      6/10
Appearance: 4/5
Taste:      6/10
Palate:     4/5
Overall:    12/20
Ratebeer score: 3.2/5.0

Trying to copy the picture on the label…

ClubGonzo’s Saintly Sins

Saintly Sins, batch 61.

Abt/Quadrupel, 10.2% ABV, 25.6 IBU.

I was quite impressed with ClubGonzo’s first Quadrupel, and this take on the brewer’s favourite beer style recently won the quadruple class in Vestkast’s beer competition, so I’m probably in for a treat!

Saintly Sins pours a deep brown body with an average sized, beige, long-lived head that sticks to my Rochefort chalice.

The aroma is strong with lots of dark caramel and dark dried fruits. In the back I get yeasty spiciness and banana. I also pick up a gently funkiness, the kind that may arise from oak barrel ageing. I even detect hints of red wine barrel storage! Too bad that the beer haven’t been close to a barrel… Could it be the first stages of a light infection?

Looks like a quad, right?

Anyway, the red wine oak barrel funk is present in the rather strong aroma as well, but it’s in the background, along with spices. The most dominant elements are brown sugar, sweet caramel, dark caramel, dark dried fruits, Belgian yeast and nuts. Unfortunately there is also plenty of not-that-well integrated and rather stinging alcohol. It’s relatively clean, no solvent or fusel this time, it’s just quite overwhelmingly boozy. The taste is moderate to heavy sweet and light bitter.

Ignoring the stinging alcohol, the mouthfeel is rather pleasant – the beer is full-bodied and has a pleasant soft carbonation.

Conclusion: a sugary sweet and too alcoholic brew, but far from bad. But not a winner. What does Vestkast’s beer judge lead Gahr Smith-Gahrsen know about beer anyway?

Aroma:      7/10
Appearance: 4/5
Taste:      6/10
Palate:     3/5
Overall:    12/20
Ratebeer score: 3.2/5.0

ClubGonzo’s Hipster-ish IPA

India Pale Ale, 6.5% ABV, 42 IBU.

ClubGonzo’s Hipster-ish IPA, batch 78.

Ordinary IPAs are just so 2014, white IPAs are a thing of the past and Black IPAs are passé. Welcome to the next big thing for the hopheads: New England IPA!

Looks like an IPA.

In the glass it has a cloudy amber body, maybe a bit too dark and too little orange juice-like to be a school book example of a NEIPA? Ah, now I see, NEIPAs are yesterday’s news as well, this must be an ANEIPA (which of course is Amber New England India Pale Ale). Or, as it would have been called a year ago, a Pale Ale.

The head is large, creamy and off-white.

The aroma is very strong, and of course very hoppy. I get lots and lots of sweet tropical fruity notes, including peach and mango. There is also a spicy touch, some gooseberries and caramel.

Strong flavour of tropical fruits, grapefruit, citrus peel and spices, with some caramel in the back, and hints of a bit too pronounced and stinging alcohol (without me drawing the “solvent” card once again). The taste is light sweet and the very dry finish is moderate bitter. The mouthfeel is on one hand very pleasant – the body is close to full and the texture is smooth and almost creamy. On the other hand the astringency of the citrus peel and the peppery dryness of the spices makes the aftertaste a bit demanding.

Conclusion: ANEIPAs might be a bit to hipster-ish for me, I prefer a regular IPA with more bitterness and less spiciness and astringency. Or maybe a more juicy NEIPA.

Aroma:      7/10
Appearance: 4/5
Taste:      6/10
Palate:     3/5
Overall:    11/20
Ratebeer score: 3.1/5.0

S & M Brewing Move On Up

Golden Ale/Blond Ale, 5.4% ABV, 30.6 IBU.

Golden body.

S & M Brewing batch 1.

Look what I found in my beer cellar, the very first batch from S & M Brewing!

It pours a close to clear, golden body with a rather small, white head that soon reduces to partially covering film. A decent amount of foam still clings to my glass when it’s empty.

The moderate aroma is pleasant, fruity, mellow, well balanced and clean, with nice yeasty notes, light fruit and hints of vanilla. It’s neither revolutionary nor especially exciting, this simply smells like an easy-to-drink session beer.

The flavour is also restrained, but as was the case with the aroma, it’s quite pleasant and clean. I get a generic fruitiness, perhaps with some apples and with a dash of citrus, hops and a gentle backbone of pale malts. The taste is light to moderate sweet, and I’m a bit surprised that the IBU is as high as 30.

It’s rather light-bodied, is has a smooth texture, it’s softly carbonated and it dries up a bit in the finish.

Conclusion: a drinkable, simple and pleasant brew that won’t make anyone feel ecstatic.

Aroma:      6/10
Appearance: 4/5
Taste:      6/10
Palate:     4/5
Overall:    12/20
Ratebeer score: 3.2/5.0

ClubGonzo’s Smokin’ Christmas

Rated live at Beer With Me’s Facebook page!

Conclusion: wonderful smoky beer with lots of wood smoke, a touch of smoked meat and a sausage or two. Delicious mouthfeel!

Aroma:      7/10
Appearance: 4/5
Taste:      7/10
Palate:     5/5
Overall:    13/20
Ratebeer score: 3.6/5.0

Dr M. Nr. 22 – Welhaven

Saison, 5.5 % ABV, 30 IBU.

Dr. M Nr. 22 – Lovely label!

After the huge head has settled it looks quite nice, save for the dirty body.

This brew is hopped with Tettnang and an unknown variety that grows in Dr. M’s garden. Let’s see if The Doctor knows how to brew and how to grow hops!

Ouch. This one is very aggressively carbonated, but I manage to fill my glass with foam (and some beer) before all the liquid escapes from the bottle. The gushing causes the beer to be absolutely opaque with a rather dirty-looking yellow to orange colour. The big, frothy, fluffy white head shrinks to a peculiar collection of islands of foam with the texture of whipped egg-white. What have you done with this beer?

The quite strong aroma doesn’t reveal any infections, so hopefully the only fault of this brew is a violent over-carbonation. I get lots of Belgian yeasty notes, and since the label tells me so, I guess it’s saison yeast. It’s very fruity, with non-tropical light fruits being the most obvious contributors.  The aroma feels pretty yeast-driven to me, so I’m not sure how much impact the home-grown hops had on this brew.

In the mouth, however, it’s clear that something has gone wrong here. Sharp and stinging  solvent efficiently drowns most other components. There are some Belgian yeast lurking around in the background, and the fruits are still present, but they’re all overpowered by the dreaded solvent. The taste is light sweet and light bitter, and the finish is very dry.

Conclusion: it has a nice aroma and it might have tasted nice once…

Aroma:      6/10
Appearance: 2/5
Taste:      3/10
Palate:     3/5
Overall:    5/20
Ratebeer score: 1.9/5.0