Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Southern Tier - Mixed Case

Tonight was the Eagles first preseason game. That means my neighbor bought a mixed case and invited the gang over. Tonight was Southern Tier. Their mixed case contains a porter, ipa, tripel and an ale. Well it is supposed to. The porter was missing :-( Here's my overview of the three that we tasted. Phin & Matt's Extraordinary Ale It has a thin coppery orange color with almost no head even with a pretty aggressive pour. The nose was hoppy with some malt character. It tasted bitter and tangy with a malty finish. The carbonation was more present while tasting. It is definitely clean fresh and dry. This is a drinkable beer, but, not something I would go out of my way for. Tripel Again this beer has a thin coppery orange color with almost no head. It doesn't have much of a nose at all except for the very slight banana alcohol scent. I certainly didn't expect the taste. It doesn't coat the tongue like other triples. You can definitely taste the alcohol just before, during and after the finish. Even letting it warm up a little didn't help much. This seems like a mass market attempt at a Tripel in that it's not too different, not too strong. It honestly reminds me too much of a Malt Liquor without the nasty nose. Ok I'm a bit harsh here, but, hey if you are going to brew something and call it a tripel it should have more redeeming qualities. IPA Here we go, it presents a dark copper orange, but still not much head to speak of. I really enjoyed the nose of sweet grain unmasking the hops. The best of the three so far. It definitely tasts hoppy. You can't deny that. Then it finishes with a slight malt flavor. As with the others this isn't a heavy beer it feels clean and the carbonation is more present while tasting. This is a good IPA, definitely a better beer than the other two. I would say its an IPA that finishes sweet instead of dry. I like it :-) Sometimes I wonder if my taste buds are deceiving me, but, the gang agreed that the IPA was the best and the others were...eh alright.

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