Sunday 15 April 2012

Thoughts on Eagle Bay Brewing

Third time to this picturesque spot also, time to run through the range quickly and post some preliminary thoughts.

Eagle Bay's Kolsch is probably the best I've had, does everything it's supposed to as a light and highly drinkable ale dominated by light malt flavours rather than hops of any description, bittering or otherwise. Nice mouthfeel too.

Vienna's up second, this one's an example of the other side of lager, light bitterness and quenching. Not my favourite style, but a reasonable effort for what it is.

Beer 3 is the Mild and this is where things start to shine. This is right up there with anything else I've had at the 3-4% range, lovely caramel malty English flavours, muted mouthfeel, tastes good at all temperatures. Great for anyone driving out to this place, with this beer you don't feel you're missing out in the slightest.

Next up is a pale ale, definitely of the American school, this puts me more in mind of LC's Pale Ale than anything else and that in itself is high praise. Quite complex and well balanced between fruity flavours, bitterness, and malt - highly respectable.

Seasonal beer this time was an IPA and with the standard IPA blurb about it being a hop avalanche of overwhelming bitterness it's easy to see they're jumping on the bandwagon popularity of this style in recent times. On drinking it though it's clear this is the first one they've done. There are hops in it yes, but it's far more reminiscent of a wet hopped pale ale than a fully fledged IPA. Still good but doesn't scratch my hop fiending itch.

And finally a nice ESB, again english flavours, quite nice depth of flavour here, could drink a few of these in a session, particularly in winter.

Lesson from this time: I really, really miss their porter. Please make it again. Seriously. Please.

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