Notes on beers brewed by
=== Updated Review 03/11 === OK, lots of confusion here. I bought the original bottle in NC when at the time, we were getting both the IPA and the Porter from Meantime in GA. I though that perhaps it would eventually get to GA, but it never did. Fast forward to March 2011 and I find that the beer is noted as 'retired' in the BA db, but again it is on sale in the Carolina's (this time SC) and I see that this is obviously part of a 'new' release as this is bottle 574 out of 2050 with a vintage...
$3.99, Brawley's, Charlotte, NC, USA. Love the 11.2oz bottle! Poured into the new Sam Adams glass. Body is an attractive, bright mid-brown with a cappuccino-like frothy head with is persistent. Looks very much like a cold coffee in the glass with plenty of mocha head on top. A brown ale look. Impressive. Love the nose! Sweet, mild coffee - great! Simple, mild coffee is dominant, but it is exactly that - SIMPLE. It's a strong beer because it is easy. Aftertaste has a nice lingering, mild...
Nice, heavy duty 750 mL bottle with classy looking labels. Murky brown appearance, not especially attractive (it has that nasty Dubbel color) with some ruby red highlights. The "look" is definitely the weakest point. A lot more alcohol in the nose than appears in the taste. Very chocolatey indeed. Decent mouthfeel but it does lack a creamy component. Authentic is an adjective that springs to mind.
OK, I'm slightly confused. I know that this was originally only released in the USA since the brewer thought that the best place for a large IPA to be appreciated would be on this side of the pond. The logic presumably being that a big hop bomb would be a little too much for contemporary English taste buds - OK, fair enough, it all makes sense so far, but when I taste this, that logic goes out of the window. Don't get me wrong, I love this beer, but because it was initially reserved for the...