The Bearded Brewer Will Like Us Again!!

After MONTHS of saying that we'd review El Bearded Brewer's offerings that he had sent us, Justin and I finally stepped up to the plate and threw down on some Minneapolis/St. Paul homebrew to celebrate Independence Day. BB had sent us, along with some commercial offerings a bottle of his Mayabock and of his Irie Stout.

We started with his Mayabock, an organic Maibock named after his golden retriever. Through e-mail, BB had stressed his disappointment with this run of the Mayabock. These were all lies!! Overall this was a nice beer. A bit of an extract "twang" to it and bit dry for style, but it had a great caramel taste with fruity notes and a solid bitterness. Official review:

Pours a golden amber with fizzy white head. Lots of sweet malt in the nose, caramel and biscuit with mild fruitiness and a touch of extract twang. Lost of caramel in the flavor with a touch of said twang, dry and mildly hopped for flavor and bitterness.

Now, I do understand his points if he's referring to the beer stylistically, but this guy had some great drinkability to it, even if it was a touch dry for the style. Like the BB, I, too, love me a Maibock, and I definitely wouldn't kick this one out of my fridge.

After the Mayabock, we moved onto the Irie Stout, a monster of a "Foreign Export Stout", weighing in at 9.3% with some orange peel and brown sugar. I guess I would have to categorize this as an Imperial Foreign Export Stout. Whatever one wants to say it is, delicious should be in there somewhere. It's not a conventional stout. There are some crazy aromas and flavors present throughout, presumably due to the the orange peel and brown sugar. I can see why BB was happy with the turn out. This was a great tasting beer, more fruity than roasty, with a plethora of flavors that danced on the tongue.

Pours black with mild red hues, 1/2 finger khaki head. Nose is briney olives with roast and smoke. At first I got some notes of bubblegum and apple. Taste is bright fruit, apple and raisin, slight cherry, some brown sugar, molasses, plum, and mildly roasted coffee. It is nicely hopped without any astringent bitter in the finish. No alcohol taste at all, which scares me. A fantastic offering. The mouth feel is perfect. A touch too little head, but I'll overlook it this time.

I must say, kudos on this brew. I really enjoy seeing experimentation with classic styles.

These two offerings definitely whetted the palate for more Bearded Brewing brews, which I was forcefully told by BB that we would receive no more of until we drank these. El Bearded Brewer, you have my address. Please include more Irie in the next one.

I'm sure Justin will chime in with his thoughts soon.

Cheers,

Dave