0,33l
6,5%
60 IBU
Hops: Cascade and Galaxy
Malts: Premium 2-Row & Cara 20
As the title tells us, I'd like to thank my friends from Air Canada for providing me with (so far) 2 very, very interesting looking Canadian beers. So "Cui honorem, honorem" - "honour to whom honour is due" I dedicate this blog entry to my friends at Air Canada! Thank you! Now let's tackle that beer...
I shamefully have to admit that I never heard of Steamworks but this has changed now. Looking over their list of beers truly makes me interested for more as some of their brews sound super cool... for now, however, we concentrate on their Jasmine IPA.
The bottle -like most of their bottles- is really funny. Besides the information about hops and malts that I cite in the introduction, it is covered in illustrations. In this case, it is Chinese themed. We find a Dragon/Lion being protecting Chinese style houses and entranceways. The labels are translucent stickers of the kind that, back when I was still actively collecting beer labels, would make me cry to get them off... it does have the cool effect of looking as if they are painted on the bottle instead of glued onto it. Me likey!
Ratebeer is convinced of the quality of the brew with a whopping 81 of their points that I will never understand nor try to understand. (If someone of you does understand it and can explain it to someone with the attention span of a squirrel, please do so in the comments.. oh look a butterfly, can I have candy. I wanna go out and play.)Actually I just realized that the hops and malts mentioned on Ratebeer aren't the ones written on the bottle. Weird. Maybe I got some export version or they refined their brew... what does make this beer special, however, is them including Jasmine Flowers in it. As it has been a long while since I had a decent IPA I am indeed looking forward to this and -at least in my mind- the combination of the hoppy bitterness with Jasmine works fine.... we shall see whether it is so indeed.
I decided to go with a standard tasting glass for this beauty.
It pours reddish gold with not very much foam but then again I didn't expect an IPA to have a huge head.
The aroma is very IPAish with strong floral and fruit tones and decent caramel aroma. Tones of honey and hay can be found and I think this must be one of the best IPAs I have smelled. The normally strong hoppy tones blend into a rich honey aroma as if bathed in the golden liquid. Really nice and rich aroma full of nuances,OK sadly the taste doesn't hold what the aroma promises. Carbonation is about perfect. The taste starts with strong bitter chocolate tones which when mixed with the jasmine flowers end simply being a bit weird. The bitterness blocks out most other facets, alas it is not unpleasant.
This might be one of the beers that grows on one with time.
The strong bitter tones stay present for a long while after a sip and leave a pleasantly dry, yet memorable image of tea and bergamot.
I am torn about this brew. I can see how it could polarize which is a grand thing for a beer that doesn't want to cater to the masses. If you like your brew bitter it is definitely for you!
I would have liked a bit more sweetness and probably was mislead from the aroma.
It's a good brew which could be better if the bitterness wouldn't drown a lot of the other aspects.
PROST!
DMW
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