For today’s post, my good friend Colin (of Impossibrew) and I decided to collaboratively drink the Brews Brothers Collaboration Mixer Pack recently released by Parallel 49. We also consider ourselves Brews Bros of a sort, so it seemed fitting.
Unfortunately, Colin lives in Winnipeg, while I’m here in Vancouver. But thanks to the wonders of modern technology we were able to spend an evening drinking over Google Hangouts. In Part 1 – we drink six beers from the P49 box. Here are our thoughts:
House of the Rising Sun – Table Saison – with Dageraad Brewing
Colin – Definitely not very funky. Lacking in body, I think. It’s not often you get a saison that’s 4.5%, which explains the lack of body. There’s basically no hop profile. Actually, that might be why it’s called a table saison and not just a saison.
Bryan – I feel like it’s good but not great. It has a bit of subtle spiciness to it and the basic saison flavours. It does what it needs to be good but it’s almost afraid to get out and try something crazy to differentiate itself.
Colin – The atomic elements of a saison are there, but it’s missing what you would expect to make it great. Like a session IPA. All steak and no sizzle, baby. This is a starter beer. You might go out and mow the lawn, and then come back in and drink this beer.
Bryan – Yes! Which makes it a good choice for us to start off with.
Little Red Rooster – Red India Session Ale – with Bomber Brewing
Colin – That’s not bad. There’s actually a surprising amount of flavour there.
Bryan – Truthfully, I’m enjoying this more than I did the first time too. There’s more hop than I remember.
Colin – I’m impressed how full the malt profile is, considering it’s a session ale.
Bryan – I have to change my expectations with session ales. I know it’s wrong to judge a style based on another style, but I’m still adjusting to it. I keep waiting for a session that doesn’t sacrifice anything in terms of flavour. This seems to come as close as any I’ve tried.
Colin – Hey what song is that? I don’t recognize it. (Note: All the beers are named after songs)
Bryan – (Googles the answer) Wow it’s a Rolling Stones song! (Queue grooving.)
Backdoor Man – Basil India Pale Ale – with Storm Brewing
Bryan – Dirty jokes aside, prepare yourself to be slapped in the face by a heavily spiced Italian dish.
Colin – (After drinking) Honestly, I kinda feel like I want more basil. I know that’s weird, but…
Bryan – What? Really? You aren’t German, you’re Italian. I’m going to start calling you Mario.
Colin – Hah! What’s nice is that the base beer is really good. It’s a really good amount of hops and bitterness. And it balances really well with the basil, this is something I would definitely drink again.
(At this point we spent about 10 minutes talking about how awesome James Walton and Storm Brewing is.)
Bryan – You know what, Storm does their own Basil IPA. I wonder what the difference is between the solo version and this collaboration version?
Colin – That would be an interesting experiment! I’d like to try that.
Bryan – For sure. But as is, this is a great beer. There’s a lot of basil, but I’m totally OK with that. Makes it different, but in a good way. James makes a lot of crazy beer and he knows how to balance it. In general, it’s all up to taste, of course. Some stuff might be too much, but I’m almost always a fan of amping up flavours so I’m totally down with it.
Colin – You know what, now that it’s warming up a little bit. I change my mind, this is just the right amount of basil. I don’t want more now.
Boom Boom Boom – Triple Hop Belgian Tripel – with Moon Under Water
Bryan – You’ll see that this beer suffers from a bit of a misnomer, in terms of what sort of expectations the name sets. (more…)
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