Barley-Davidson's Beers

[Barley-Davidson]

Post your reviews here. Below is the cap codes for what I sent for the spring swap.

IR - Irish Red Ale
ESB - ESB
B - Blonde Ale
W - Wheat Beer
Blank - No style ale
The wheat is an experimental recipe with lemon zest and black pepper.
The no style is closest to an english bitter, but it isn't quite.

Hope you like 'em but let me know if you don't.

[blacklab]

Looks like a winning combo! Got 'em yesterday. I'll cool them for a few days and then probably try the wheat first. Sounds like a winner.

[Dale]

Irish Red Ale

Aroma: Earthy, caramel and malt. No hop aroma, no esters. Maybe a hint of raisin, but also an odd sulfur/rubber note.

Appearance: Deep dark ruby, opaque until held to the light. Good clarity. Poured with a 1/4" light brown head that lasted throughout.

Flavor: Very complex and earthy, toasted malt and notes of raisin/smoke that I'm assuming is from darkly-kilned caramel malt. A sweet dry finish. No esters, maybe just a hint of diacetyl. Well-balanced bitterness with no hop flavor to speak of. Again I detect a weird sulfur note, but it's not a distraction, it fits well with the beer. Very tasty.

Mouthfeel: Medium-full bodied, moderate carbonation, a bit oily.

Very good beer, complex and earthy, true to style.

[Dale]

Blonde Ale:

Aroma: Sweet, mild grain. Again, a hint of sulfur/rubber

Appearance: Straw-colored, a bit hazy. Pours with a slight white head that dissipates quickly

Flavor: Mild sweet malt, balanced bitterness. A hint of citrus from hops, maybe? Very clean. I detect the sulfur again, and this time it is a distraction, but it disappeared from the flavor and aroma after the beer sat out for a minute.

Mouthfeel: Light bodied, medium carbonation

A very tasty, well-brewed Blonde. I'm not sure where that sulfur is coming from, an odd "house" flavor maybe? Or the yeast? I wouldn't think these beers have been around long enough for autolysis to be an issue. Not a major flaw, though, it worked well in the Red Ale, and dissipated from the Blonde.

[Barley-Davidson]

Thanks for the reviews, Dale.

I'm a little embarrassed to admit I haven't had these beers yet myself, the kegs haven't made it into the kegerator yet. I did bottle a few extra of one that I sent, I'm chilling it now and will see if it has the same rubber/sulfur thing going on.

I haven't noticed it as a house flavor, but then again maybe it's there and I've gotten used to it (yikes).

[Barley-Davidson]

I tried a bottle of the not-to-style ale that I bottled at the same time as the swap beers, and there is definitely something bad going on.
My planned brewday today is on hold until I do some more sampling and hopefully pinpoint the source of this off flavor.

I'm sorry about the swap beers being affected, hopefully this isn't across the board. :(