Bilbo's Beer Tasting report card #1

Here with a nearly month old report is Bilbo. The beers this week were all over the map as they were customer picks. Here goes:

1. Hambleton Ales Toleration (Gluten Free Ale) - This was a fine if somewhat bland ale. A slight white wine smell with a slightly sweet and clean taste. Very pleasant, if unremarkable.

2. Burton Bridge India Empire Pale Ale - As I am not really a fan of IPAs, the fact that I wasn't thrilled with this ale was not much of a surprise. It really had a sharp bitter taste, and it didn't do much for me.

3. Stone Arrogant Bastard Ale - I have had this ale a number of times in the past. Against all reason I quite like it. It is strong in alcohol content, and has a bitter grapefruit taste. Yet unlike many other "grapefruity" ales, I find this one very drinkable and pleasant.

4. Aktien Buronator Doppelbock - This one had a dark caramel color and a bit of a honey smell. It also followed that up with a bit of a sweet aftertaste. Not bad, but one that I would want to share rather than try to drink a whole bottle on my own.

5. Alpine Ichabod Pumpkin Ale - This really tastes exactly as you might expect it to. I basically tastes like pumpkin pie and beer. I don't really like pumpkin pie, so I didn't really enjoy this ale, but I could see people more predisposed to liking it finding it quite pleasant.

6. Telegraph Winter Ale - I have not had a winter ale that I have really enjoyed in the past. This one was ok. It had a very strong clove flavor which I guess is the "winter" part of it, and for an ale, the hops were quite subdued. Again, I found it tolerable, but not inspiring.

7. Unibrou Don De Dieu - I had been interested in trying one of these for a while now. Ultimately my fears were somewhat realized as this was a bit of a wheat beer without actually being one. It is a Belgian style made in Quebec and has a sort of lemony flavor and a floral nature. Certainly drinkable, but I couldn't drink a lot.

8. Brother Thelonious Belgian Style Abbey Ale - This was another quite sweet caramel/honey tasting ale. It had a nice dark color, but I find the sweetness of these makes it difficult to enjoy more than maybe half a glass.

9. Allagash Interlude Ale 2007 - Now this is a weird ale. I wasn't really able to come up with a way to describe the flavor, except not particularly good. And at $21 for a 750ml bottle, it is nowhere near worth that much money.

10. De Ranke Guldenberg - This ale was also not very good. It is also pretty expensive at $13 for a 750ml bottle, and it veered dangerously into bad pilsner territory. It was quite light, but had a bit of that Stella/Carlsberg skunkiness that makes those beers so terrible.

11. St Bernardus Watou Tripel - This one had some similar elements to the previous sample, but less skunky and with some fruity overtones. Still just ok.

12. Ommegang Three Philosophers - This is another one that I had wanted to try in the past but didn't have the nerve to plunk down the money on a whole bottle. It was fine. It sits in the caramely field in color and a bit in taste. This also had a bit of a sharpness in the tastes that wasn't altogether pleasant, but it was a fine Belgian style ale.

13. Urthel Samaranth - This is another Quadrupel like the previous one, but this one is actually made in Belgium as opposed to New York. This is actually quite similar to the previous one, but what was most surprising was the high alcohol content that was not evident in the taste, making this a dangerous ale if you aren't paying attention.

14. Melbourn Bros. Apricot Ale - This is another ale that lives up to its name. It smells like apricots and tastes basically like apricot cider. If I liked apricots more I would probably really enjoy this. Recommended for apricot fans.

15. Lindemans Peche Lambic - Again, if I liked peach more, I would like this better, but as it was, the peach flavor was not overwhelming and the lambic had a refreshing nature. Light and pleasant and peachy.

Ok, that is it for this report, back soon for the following week which was Organic Beers from Mountain People's Distributing.

Bilbo.