A Celebration of Hops and Malts

Our good friends recently gave us a six pack of local home brew beers they had been given by the brewer. The charge to myself and my other buddy Dean was to sample them and give our feedback, which they would then pass on to the brewer.

We have had our share of great beers over the years. Some of my favorites are German and Belgium beers, but many of the craft beer here in the Western States of the USA also top our list. We don’t have a rating service but do enjoy our beers.

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Yes we drank one.

Note they have Initials for type coding.

Based on what we have tried these are our comments.

Here was the first one we tested.

BP: British Pub, or Brown Pilsner?

Dean says, Guinness, coffee flavor, Ron, thought more malty.

A malty light brown color. Nice long lasting head.

S: Smooth, smells hoppy, like double IPA, CREAM GOLDEN BROWN thickness, of texture almost opacity rich

Possible…Saaz is a “noble” variety of hops. It was named after the Czech city of Žatec. This hop is used extensively in Bohemia to flavor beer styles such as the Czech pilsener. Wikipedia

The next one, I accidentally drank on my own without Dean’s help, so I don’t have his comments. I could go into the details more, but sufficient to have this confession of my sin.

F: Fabulous, Flavor, Favorite Deep Darker Hoppy Beer

Creamy with a good head, Nice Brown Color. Almost like a Stone IPA. I drank it accidentally reaching for a bottle of Scrimshaw, and was overwhelmed by the richness of the flavor compared to what I was expecting, since I didn’t know I had it until the flavor told me my error.

So Dean was back and we continued:

P: Pleasant, a bit of Hops but no intense bitter taste

Differs from F, which so far is my favorite, less bitter hoppy, mix of smooth, sweet cream flavor in a nice Brown color. Cloudy look and Hoppy smell to the nose. Smooth after taste, Carmel like malty tones predominate. Not a Pilsner.

HH: This could be the Happy Hops?

Color golden orange, beautiful in the sunshine, with nice cloudy texture. Not offensive and it’s got beautiful brown tones mixed with the golden orange. A distinct hop flavor but not overbearing, not too bitter. Dean said it was light at first but I think it’s heavy or strong flavor but not overpowering. A decent head structure. A smooth, smooth almost fruit like taste not at all overpowering, very drinkable I would call it the happy hops. I rate it close to “F” above, with maybe a bit more color, though that one I drank at night so can’t compare the Sunshine effect.