April 13, 2013

Beer Reviews: The Wild Beer Company Madness IPA, The Waen Brewery Chili Plum Porter, and Brains Barry Island IPA

Welcome to the newest feature on my blog - the Brewer Half's Half Brewed Reviews!

Brewer half does not like that name.  Rachel in Wales like that name, and so it stays!

Brewer Half says:

I like drinking beer!

First beer up for review - The Wild Beer Company Madness IPA



This is my first review, and have already hit upon a problem. My tasting notes from this beer are not long enough to expand into a decent length review. I think from now on I will be doing a live update style review as I'm drinking, so expect future reviews to be more rambling. 

I was attracted to this beer by the description on the label, which I have now forgotten but was similar to this text copied from the website: "Our beers are brewed with a combination of ancient and new techniques, with the aim of producing a beer for people who want to discover and understand new tastes and flavours." Also, the brewer comes from California.

Sounds great. I love my beer with some flavour. 

My first impression of this beer was hops - the aroma is so intense I could taste the hops before the beer had even passed my lips. Not that this is a bad thing - this beer tastes amazing. It's an IPA, but with a pleasant earthy overtone to the hop flavour, and the bitterness is well balanced.

This is all I have on this one, so on to the next: 




I'm always keen to try Welsh beers, so was very pleased to find this beer from a brewery in Llanidloes. I couldn't resist the combination of flavours - chili and plum in a porter-style beer. 

I've had a few chilli beers, and they have not tended to be very nice. However, this one did not disappoint. 

This beer has a subtle and balanced blend of roasted malt, chili, and fruit flavours. It still tasted like beer, but with extra depth provided by the added ingredients. I couldn't discern the plum element of the flavour, but there was definitely a fruity overtone. There was also a lingering chili warmth. I'll be having this one again!

And on to the final beer in this session:

Brains Barry Island IPA



I actually drank this one first, but didn't want to start my new beer review blog with a disappointing beer. This beer sets its sights high, as an American style IPA. This means alcoholic potency and an assertive hop flavour.

On the first sip, this beer promises much but doesn't deliver. There is a lot of hop bitterness, but no freshness from the hop flavour. The flavour then quickly disappears after each mouthful. 

In fact, each mouthful is like a miniature whistle-stop tour of IPA flavours - a bit of malt, a quick punch of bitterness, a slight hop flavour, and then it's all gone. 

On that sad note, it's time for me to go and drink some more beer. I hope you enjoy my new beer review feature, comments are welome!

All of the beers from today's reviews were purchase from Discount Supermarket - our favorite massive beer emporium masquerading as a corner shop.  Check them out!

Discount Supermarket
97-99 Whitchurch Road
Cardiff, CF14 3JP
02920 619049

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