Black or White???

..... Or should it be; black or sweet amber gold??

You may have heard of a man named Evin. A good ol' chap who runs a little ol' brewery called Kernel brewery..... ringing any bells? Yes, no? It should be doing, unless you've not been on the scene for the past few weeks. (seriously, where you beeeen!?!?!)

Now I had the opportunity to visit this infamous brewery last week, and one of the questions I asked Evin was, "what kind of beers do you like to brew?" His answer was simple: "Pale and dark beers!"

So what kind of blogger would I be if I didn't test out (for me) what (could) be his best versions of dark and pale?

Roll on Kernel Citra and Kernel Imperial stout!!!


Numero Uno: Kernel Citra (cos lets face it which dumb ass is gonna have the I.S. first?)

Kernel single hopped Citra is a 7.2% IPA (for those who think it's a different ABV :- they like to change there beers and make them better, so don't be surprised if it's different!)

You can see what colour it is so I won't bore you, lets move straight onto the aroma. As it's hopped with citra hops it is fairly abundant with all the aromas of; mangos, grapefruit, peaches, lychees and all the similar smelling fruits. The aroma overpowers the taste for me. While the flavour and body might have the similar taste to the aromas, it's all about the sniff. It starts quite sweet but sharply forms a long drying, bitter-ing, tangy finish. You cannot tell this is 7.2%, more like 4%, and I recon the huge sediment goes a long way to improve the 'Vitality" as Leigh puts it! I wouldn't get sick of drinking this beer, I could drink it all day - it rocks!

Beer downed, time for another hit; Kernel Imperial Stout!!

Black cauldron of witches hate, this is an evil looking brew! A 12.5% beast! Not much to the aroma, a little dairy-ness mixed with a little orange zest and a lot of roasty but light malt coming though. Taste: F. the aroma this is an uber beer! So bitter, so thick and rich! It starts a little sweet, but it's super moorish. You get liquid packed full of tar and treacle, small amounts of bonfire toffee and mega dark caramel. There is a little tart-ness in the finish, but you want more before that really hits. It's like someone has got a massive batch of black malts, chucked a bag of raisins in there, and sparged with pure alcohol! Extreme beer indeed.

I've only got one beef with Evin; I've only had two of your beers tonight and I know for a fact whatever I pour now from my room will taste of nothing! All except one form of alcohol!

... Yes it's come down to a 21yr old!

I heard stories about this beer, and if an imperial stout 'could have too much flavour.' I have tried well over 100 imperial stouts and no this one doesn't have too much flavour..... however it's in the top ten, and I have to resort to some of my favorite whiskies, because after this beer, no other beer will cut it for the night.

Agree - Great! Disagree - Suck it! I love the way I drink, and I'm gonna keep blogging about beers I think rule, and for the moment it's all about the Kernel! Ghost out.