5 Feb 2011

My First Beer Tasting

Posted by Blake

I decided to try out some new beers last weekend. I was going to do it properly though, keeping notes, and tracking the following 5 criteria:

Appearance
Smell
Taste
Mouthfeel
Drinkability

I love dark, strong beers: stouts, porters, and barley wines. So this tasting, I evaluated the following beers:

Lava Smoked Imperial Stout (Iceland)
Marston’s Oyster Stout (UK)
Waterloo Dark (Canada)
Ola Dubh Special Reserve 12 (Scotland)
Christoffel Winterese Bok (Netherlands)
Schneider Aventinus Weizen-Eisbock (Germany)

Click for larger

Off the top, I’d like to say that my favourite was the Ola Dubh Special Reserve 12 ($5.95/330ml). The sweet smell and roasted flavour, went down smooth. This beer is unique in that it is aged in old Whisky barrels. This specific one being brewed in a barrel that contained 12 year old whisky.

My least favourite was the Waterloo Dark, which had an acidic smell. The taste really was unpalatable.

Name	Type	Appearance	Smell	Taste	Mouthfeel	Drinkability
Lava Smoked Imperial Stout (Iceland)	Russian Imperial Stout	Dark Brown, thin head. Almost black.	Coffee	Sweet, bitter aftertaste	Small bubbles, tingly. Low carbonation	Strong flavour. Not a favourite.
Marston’s Oyster Stout (UK)	Sweet Stout	Black, no head.		Bitter/Light		Not very good.
Waterloo Dark (Canada)	Dark Lager	Dark Red. Nice thin head.	Acidic			Least favourite. Would not drink again.
Ola Dubh Special Reserve 12 (Scotland)	Old Ale	Black, small head.	Sweet	Roasted	Smooth and creamy	Delicious.
Christoffel Winterese Bok (Netherlands)	Bock / Wheat	Cloudy Brown, no head.	Earthy	Malty	Smooth/Light
Schneider Aventinus Weizen-Eisbock (Germany)	Ice Bock / Wheat	Dark Brown, off white head.	Sweet	Spicy		Good dessert beer.