Ok so I've never done a beer tasting before and I don't even know what hops, malt, etc taste like. I've never tried to taste salt, fruit or soap in a beer so I felt very overwhelmed with the responsibility entrusted to me to taste this, one of the last bottles of the first batch of Bull Run Brewing's IPA. Drama? Maybe! But I wanted to do a good job.
So I got on-line and read about all the flavors to look out for. I went out and got 5 other beers to compare it with, and plastic cups so I could see the color/clarity of the beer. This has actually turned out to be a lot of fun!!! No no I mean, I had to sample 6 beers to get a feel for what I'm doing. Bull Run had better compensate me appropriately.
Probably some brewers would roll their eyes at the beers I selected, but what can you expect? I went to Safeway. So I already had some Desuchutes Pale Ale at home,then I got Red Hook IPA, Full Sail IPA, Metolius IPA, and Bridgeport IPA. Here they are all lined up:
Isn't that a lovely sight?
So you can see how much more dark BR's IPA is from the others, which all look like apple juice. Wow! It's also got quite a bit more head on it than the others.
I'd read that IPA's should be drank at around 50 to 55 degrees. I did not know this. I'd always just pulled mine outta the fridge and started sucking on it. So I pulled the beers out and let them sit for about 10 minutes before tasting. I don't have a thermometer so I have no idea what their temp was. Sorry.
So anyway I sampled them in this order: Desuchutes Pale Ale, Red Hook IPA, Full Sail IPA, Metolius IPA, Bull Run IPA and Bridgeport IPA, with a swig of water in between. I did this 3 times to see how the flavor might change as the beer sat out.
Right outta the bottle Bull Run smelled a little fruity, and it seemed I tasted the fruit in the first taste. The second taste I was surprised by a sweetness on the tip of my tongue. This beer seems to feel "thickest" out of the 6. I don't know how to turn that into beer lingo, but it seemed thick in my mouth. On the third taste I was surprised by how "soft" it felt. Again, sorry. I don't know what that means. It was just the first word that poped into my mind. Soft like whipped cream.
This was probably cause of its' carbonation. Wow! This beer was really fizzy compared to the others. By the third round of tasting it was still fizzing a mighty storm.
All in all it was very different from the other IPA's, not so much in taste, but in mouth feel and color. The fizziness really set it apart. I liked it very much!
BTW Bull Run Brewing is on livejournal as yllwsmly. Check out his page!
So I got on-line and read about all the flavors to look out for. I went out and got 5 other beers to compare it with, and plastic cups so I could see the color/clarity of the beer. This has actually turned out to be a lot of fun!!! No no I mean, I had to sample 6 beers to get a feel for what I'm doing. Bull Run had better compensate me appropriately.
Probably some brewers would roll their eyes at the beers I selected, but what can you expect? I went to Safeway. So I already had some Desuchutes Pale Ale at home,then I got Red Hook IPA, Full Sail IPA, Metolius IPA, and Bridgeport IPA. Here they are all lined up:
Isn't that a lovely sight?
So you can see how much more dark BR's IPA is from the others, which all look like apple juice. Wow! It's also got quite a bit more head on it than the others.
I'd read that IPA's should be drank at around 50 to 55 degrees. I did not know this. I'd always just pulled mine outta the fridge and started sucking on it. So I pulled the beers out and let them sit for about 10 minutes before tasting. I don't have a thermometer so I have no idea what their temp was. Sorry.
So anyway I sampled them in this order: Desuchutes Pale Ale, Red Hook IPA, Full Sail IPA, Metolius IPA, Bull Run IPA and Bridgeport IPA, with a swig of water in between. I did this 3 times to see how the flavor might change as the beer sat out.
Right outta the bottle Bull Run smelled a little fruity, and it seemed I tasted the fruit in the first taste. The second taste I was surprised by a sweetness on the tip of my tongue. This beer seems to feel "thickest" out of the 6. I don't know how to turn that into beer lingo, but it seemed thick in my mouth. On the third taste I was surprised by how "soft" it felt. Again, sorry. I don't know what that means. It was just the first word that poped into my mind. Soft like whipped cream.
This was probably cause of its' carbonation. Wow! This beer was really fizzy compared to the others. By the third round of tasting it was still fizzing a mighty storm.
All in all it was very different from the other IPA's, not so much in taste, but in mouth feel and color. The fizziness really set it apart. I liked it very much!
BTW Bull Run Brewing is on livejournal as yllwsmly. Check out his page!
deceptiviewfilm:
beer tastes the same to me...I dont like it. I am dying to do a wine tasting ala sideways.