I've never tried any beer from Driftwood Brewery out of Victoria, but hearing from all of my friends in BC, it's damned good beer (actual damned good beer, not pissy corn like Minhas).
Jonny got me a bottle of Son of the Morning which is Belgian Strong Golden ale. Loving strong ales and loving Belgian styles, this will prove to be popular by my palate! The label is quite interesting, a picture of lucifer and pentagram.
Appearance: Quite a bit of micro-carbonation taking place in this. More bubbling going on than the average golden pale light lager. It's amber-blonde in appearance. Similar to a lager, but more amber, slightly hazy and you just know this won't be a lager. Decent amount of beige-cream foam, slowly diminishing.
Aroma: Bit of a sweet champagne aroma, reminiscent of DeuS Brut des Flandres. Spicy coriander, like most of my favourite Belgian ales. Quite citrusy with a yeasty zing, reminiscent to a good saison ale, bit of bubble gum. A bit malty, but overall - reminiscent of most great Belgians, even somewhat similar to Unibroue in ways. Slight hint of banana and a bit bready.
Taste: Spicy, strong, sweet, a bit sour... wow. More zing to it than most Belgians as the flavour kicks you in the face immediately. There's that coriander/yeasty/malty taste that's reminiscent of a La Fin du Monde, but much more powerful! There's a powerful maltiness to this ale.. so if I wasn't such a fan of strong ales.. I may not be able to finish this, but thankfully I love powerful beer! Syrupy feeling on the tongue. The beer has a bit of a "strong ABV beer" taste more than a standard strong Belgian ale.
Overall Thoughts: This is quite a unique flavour for a Belgian-style golden ale. Much much more punch of flavour in your mouth than a La Fin du Monde, as well as a medley of maltiness, yeast, coriander and other notes all complimenting each other. If you love great Belgian-style ales, you would enjoy this. If you are looking for a medium bodied ale, this may be a bit too much for you. The more I drink this, the more it's warming up my body from the high ABV - 10%. Don't try this if you plan on getting anything done! The unfiltered beer contains malt, hops, yeast, water, candi sugar, coriander and black magic.
I hope one of these days we see Driftwood's beer in Manitoba, Son of the Morning would be a great treat for the geeks here! Damn.. Vancouver Island, your beer industry is pretty damned good.. Cheers!
driftwoodbeer.com/beers/son-of-the-morning/
1 comment:
Iron Maiden font!
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