4 Pines Kolsch

Hm. Pop went the cap and the aroma reminded me more of the lamentable Sunner effort than its heroic siblings at Eagle Bay / Duckstein and other places.

In fact there was a bit of sediment high in the bottle for this one also - not sure what that represents - but probably not a good thing. Perhaps this beer wasn't in top condition when it reached me. The head too was pretty vicious but also collapsed in on itself in strange ways. Really not sure this was in optimal shape.

Taste wise .. carbonation strikes first (possibly a product of the above) but gives way to a pleasant enough drop. It's quite quenching, a summer beer for sure, and light to the point of transparency. Bit more character and citrus flavour as it gets warmer.

This grew on me a little as I kept drinking .. but not a great deal. Perhaps the bottle was a little off, but not overly impressed. 5.0

4 Pines Stout

The first venture into 4 Pines, from whom I'd seen a bit but never tried.

This claims on the neck to be the world's first space beer - but as a marketing initiative it had pretty much the opposite effect on me at least. I almost didn't buy it due to this wankery - while I'm all for martian beer, what I want to buy myself personally is something that is bloody good down here on Urth.

Having said all that I'm very glad I did get this in the end - it's a dark chocolate based stout - sits heavy in the glass, sports a deep black hue, minor low head from the start, soon dissipates. Maybe the aeration & head are something to do with the space initiative? Wasn't a problem on our planet though, just made it easier to drink.

Burnt smoky flavour develops through the mouthful. Mostly cocoa flavours apart from that.

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Edit: tried this once more and bumped it down a bit, perhaps a bit overenthused the first time around due to it coming after a swathe of shit other beers. It's good but sort of lacking roundness (doesn't really develop as such like a good stout, bit too carbonated / light in terms of mouthfeel, bit waxy in terms of taste? 7.0