HomeBrew X2!

I've been getting a lot of homebrews recently. Don't get me wrong it's an awesome thing, it's just tricky to know when I'll get the chance to drink them. It's also tricky trying to decide how to give feedback about said homebrews. Do I give a tweet? a text? What if hey suck?
    Naahh, I thought I'd post about them regardless. Let's face it, it's the only real way of getting more than 140 characters of information across. So without further ado I'll give my feedback on two brews tonight; one from Dean from Mr Foleys and one from David (@broadfordbrewer).


First up is Dave's Nebulous (nice name) - a 6.8% India Pitch-Black Ale. I've heard him say on more than one occasion to me that it was more like a hoppy Stout rather than a BIPA, either way, I'll be going on flavour tonight - not if it fits a perfect criteria; that doesn't really matter. It has a good thick and creamy dark tan head upon the pour. The aroma is very intriguing, the hops are definitely there mixed with a great fruity malt. (Bramling Cross? - most probably a wrong guess) The flavour is great to be honest. You do get a bit of bittering roasted/oaky quality, but it's a little watered back behind a really pleasant fruity malt body and drying bitter hop finish. While it may not fit some people's idea of a BIPA, you can't argue with the fact, this is a perfectly made BEER.

Second along comes Dean's Masters of War; a 7.6% Imperial Brown Stout. I was a bit hesitant about opening this beer, after all it had about 2cm of sediment in the bottle because of a filter issue. I was also given warnings from Dean to pour it into the glass as soon as I could after I open it, or it might fizz and mix up the hefty sediment... oh well, here we go!
    Well I'll be honest Dean, most of the beer went on the counter, but I did manage to get quite a large portion of it to come clear in the glass. The aroma was quite strange, I did get some lemon and coconut, but I think the Sorachi Ace was playing a few tricks with me, (I think it's a weird hop) I even smelt a touch of Cointreau. Silky smooth in body, with a nice tangy carbonation zest. Some nice chocolate flavour came through as it warmed and you got a sense that it was a strong beer. (well they were both strong, so maybe I'd just had too much) I couldn't shake that Sorachi Ace flavour though. It really reminds me of Thai Curries, and I just find it really strange in a beer.
    If you can manage to see the picture (cameras broken) the label was designed by Neil (@EisntCNiel) and it's pretty cool too.

Two really interesting drinking experiences tonight. Two different, and well presented beers, and both a little stronger than I needed for a quiet night in ;)

With the amount of homebrewers we have around Leeds, our quarterly homebrewers meet up at Mr Foleys and my plans to run a Beer Ritz homebrew competition for amazing prizes, Leeds is becoming a fantastic scene for 'making it yourself' and it's something that I hope continues!