BrewDogging #11; 5AM Saint
(this should have been posted live from the Harlequin last Thursday: #technologyfail)
If this posting works, I'll eat my foot cheese. At the bar in the Harlequin, blogging live and wishing my thumbs were thinner. 5AM Saint starts with a now-familiar nasal hop slap; here's hoping it's not going to push in one overwrought dimension. My eyeballs are still itching on the first sip, but this is more than a one-hop pony. There's a deep set caramel malty backbone, even though the palate profile still wears those tart grapefruit hops on its sleeve (and on its lapels and all down its front).
By the end of this first pint, I've a mouth full of dry and dusty hop. I'm missing a finish. That backbone seems to have wilted under severe hop strain. After a second pint, my mouth is dryer than a dryed-up dry thing. The third pint is actually unpleasant, hops now relentless.
Balance in beer is wholly over-rated. But let's not make over-hopping as offensive as a predelection for crystal malt.
If this posting works, I'll eat my foot cheese. At the bar in the Harlequin, blogging live and wishing my thumbs were thinner. 5AM Saint starts with a now-familiar nasal hop slap; here's hoping it's not going to push in one overwrought dimension. My eyeballs are still itching on the first sip, but this is more than a one-hop pony. There's a deep set caramel malty backbone, even though the palate profile still wears those tart grapefruit hops on its sleeve (and on its lapels and all down its front).
By the end of this first pint, I've a mouth full of dry and dusty hop. I'm missing a finish. That backbone seems to have wilted under severe hop strain. After a second pint, my mouth is dryer than a dryed-up dry thing. The third pint is actually unpleasant, hops now relentless.
Balance in beer is wholly over-rated. But let's not make over-hopping as offensive as a predelection for crystal malt.
i'm guessing you can predict what I'm going to say here...
ReplyDeletewhere are the hops in the flavour? a massive hop aroma, like inserting a grapefruit nasally. Hops! but then, the first sip... where the ^%^£$ did they go? like Nanny State, the hop is all in the nose, there's none left for the taste. It lacked the bitterness that I'd hoped for. it just tasted of brown ale. overladen with (I'm guessing) crystal malt.
Hardcore is good straight from the fridge, Chaos Theory is superb, How To Disappear Completetely was sublime, but recent BD offerings have just left me disappointed
especially as I'd saved this to be my 500th Harlequin scoop for the year.
too much caramel kills the hop. if that's balance, you can keep it!