The Williams Bros. kindly sent me two bottles of their Ginger Beer Feedback Batch, so, stand by for feedback!A slightly hazy, pale gold this stuff really wafts out ginger. It's like sniffing a bag of candied ginger. I actually love that stuff, thanks to my mother, so my mouth started watering straight away. My wife reckoned it smelled like lemonade (Süßer Sprudel to be exact), which was kind of prophetic, considering she says she can't describe smells or flavours.
The ginger is certainly powerful in the flavour, and especially in the finish where you get a good ginger bite in the throat. As you drink, this flavour increases, really filling the mouth, but while taking mouthfuls, and just after swallowing, there's a taste that reminds me of a German Radler, or shandy, and yep, that's what my better half was picking out. As I got used to the ginger, this lemonadey trait became more obvious. It's perhaps a little thin, but really very refreshing. I'm drinking the second bottle as I type this, and yeah, I'm happy that I agree with my notes from a couple of days ago.
If I had any constructive criticism to offer, I think I'd prefer a little more caramel-type malt body to support that building ginger heat and round things out a bit, but as a 3.5% thirst quencher, it does a really great job.
Strangely, this reminds me very much of a ginger beer some Scottish neighbours of mine made when I was a kid. I remember calling to their door practically begging for the stuff. Do the Scots make the best ginger-related stuff? It seems so.
I really enjoyed this one too, i quite liked the ginger burn, but then im a chilli nut, im going to buy a couple of bottles and try to infuse them with chillis just to see what happens.
ReplyDeleteMy tasting notes are pretty much exactly the same. I have 'shandy' and 'lemonade' written down. I thought it was wonderfully refreshing and loved the zingy ginger - a great summer beer!
ReplyDeleteI have a real issue with ginger in beer. Despite liking ginger, I'm yet to taste a beer that has it in it and balances it out perfectly. Just seems like a hard spice to get right in beer. I'll add this one to the list.
ReplyDeleteLeigh, the best beer with ginger I've ever had was made by a homebrewer in Dublin. It was just lovely, with a real malty profile and this growing ginger heat. I got the recipe from him but never made it. I'll have to give it a whirl.
ReplyDeleteMark, great minds and all that! :D Or is it fools seldom differ?
Andy, I love ginger, and the burn. It's funny, this one has an instant and big ginger hit, but I found I got used to it fairly quickly, and that Radler effect became more pronounced. Tasty though!
she can't describe smalls …
ReplyDeleteWhat, she has some kind of talking-about-underwear block?
LOL, shit! :D
ReplyDeleteThanks for catching that typo, Terry. Fortunately she has no problem talking about underwear :D