Evil Twin Wake Up and Smell the Gose

I don't drink beer for breakfast but if I did, I would definitely have Evil Twin's imperial breakfast gose on the menu.

Wake Up and Smell The Gose is a deep golden crystal clear ale with a loose and rapidly disappearing off-white head.  It smells of blueberries, burnt toffee and red liquorice laces at first then develops into something more like blueberry and caramel pancakes.

The flavour is very unusual, it's like fruity blueberry pancakes with a salt chaser.  It's tangy and slightly mouth-puckering but I liked it.  It has a thin but not watery body and it's quite harshy carbonated and very fizzy.

It's actually lip-smackingly good.  It's really tasty and very unusual.  I love how the salt lingers on the lips and it perhaps doesn't taste much like a beer but I liked it.  Ale Be Seeing You again!

Brewed by Evil Twin Brewing, Brooklyn, USA
6.5% ABV

My rating:

My Untappd score: 4/5

Find out more at Evil Twin Brewing

Left Handed Giant x Highland Park Brewery Intrinsic Value

Instrinsic Value is a vanilla and blueberry imperial stout brewed by Bristol brewers Left Handed Giant (LHG) in collaboration with Los Angeles brewers Highland Park Brewery.  

As you would expect from a beer brewed with fruit, there is some sediment in the can so it needs a careful pour.  It pours a very dark brown with a huge, tight deep tan coloured head which is possibly the darkest coloured head I've ever seen.

It has a very distinctive and appealing aroma of chocolate, vanilla, malt and fruity blueberries so this is a beer that smells as good as it looks.  The all-important taste is not disappointing at all; it is delicious.  Smooth milk chocolate, fruity blueberries, sweet malt and vanilla all combine beautifully.  It's actually not as sweet as I expected, it's a bit earthy, woody and dry with a bitter chocolate finish.  A hint of blueberries keeps appearing every now and again.

It's a very full bodied beer that's well carbonated to give a bit of a tingle to an otherwise smooth mouthfeel.  With such a high ABV of 11% there's not even a hint of raw alcohol in the taste but it's quite warming which makes it feel incredibly boozy.  

LHG have produced some cracking beers and Intrinsic Value is no exception.  I would definitely recommend this imperial stout and Ale Be Seeing You again!

Brewed by Left Handed Giant Brewing, Bristol
11% ABV

My rating:

My Untappd score: 4.25/5

Find out more at Left Handed Giant Brewing

Vocation & Yeastie Boys - Breakfast Club

 

I have a sweet tooth so this collaboration between Yorkshire's Vocation Brewery and New Zealand's Yeastie Boys caught my eye.  

It's a stout so it's an unsurprising dark brown colour but what is surprising is the head: it's light brown but it has a hint of pink from the blueberries.  The smell of blueberries bursts out of the can the minute it is opened, along with sweet caramel, roasted malt and a little smokiness.

The taste is candy sweet, predominantly blueberries and pastry but there's an underlying smokiness that I found a bit odd.  It's so softly carbonated that it's as smooth as silk when you drink it and it has a lovely full body that I love so much in a stout.

As much as I loved the blueberries in this, it was spoiled by the smokiness that really seemed to take over.  Although I quite enjoyed it, I really wish I had drank it fresh as I think I had left it a bit too long (even though it was well in date).  If I try one again, I'll definitely drink it straight away so there's every chance that Ale Be Seeing You again!

Brewed by Vocation Brewery, West Yorkshire and Yeastie Boys, New Zealand
6.9% ABV

My rating:

My Untappd score: 3.75/5

Find out more at Vocation Brewery and Yeastie Boys