Beer Squared #1

Beer Squared.

Welcome to the first edition of “Beer Squared.”  That other one, that was just a primer to get you all acquainted to the concept.  This is the first one.

I’m sure everyone remembers that we are going to sample a couple of beers and tell you what we each think of these beers.

For our first column we are trying Tripel by Great Divide and Rosey Nosey Holiday Ale by Bateman’s Brewery.

Tripel is a Belgian Wheat Ale and Rosey Nosey is an English Brown Ale.  This past soccer season, I discovered Newcastle Brown Ale and that really opened my eyes up to all sorts of new kinds of beer that I never thought I would touch before.  The word ale scared me.  What I didn’t know is that I hated porters and stouts, but not so much ales.

When where choosing beers, we decided to start with the Rosey Nosey because we both had a great love beers from Great Divide.

Rosey Nosey by Bateman’s Brewery

Nik: As I mentioned, my friends in the St. Louligans introduced me to Newcastle this past summer. After that and a couple of other English and Scottish style ales, I’m hooked. These days, I think that English Ales may be my favorite kind of beer.

So, with Newcastle being my go to English Ale, I will be comparing this beer and all other English Ales to Newcastle. Well, let’s crack it open and have a taste.

Rosey Nosey.

First I noticed that Rosey Nosey is a bit lighter in color than Newcastle and it also has a slightly better nose. It has a very wonderful malt flavor along with just the right amount of bitterness in the finish. It’s not overly bitter and that works just perfectly for me. Unfortunately, this is a seasonal beer as I would love to drink it all the time, but Bateman’s Brewery sees fit to only sell it during the holidays and only in pint bottles. Pick it up if you can.

Bob: I wasn’t expecting much here due to the cutesy picture of Santa on the label, but was surprised to find a very nice English ale with good maltiness and a just-right bitter aftertaste. Wasn’t too crazy about the nose, however, which smelled to me like old socks. Still very good beer, though–I may buy some more at my favorite discounter (whose name shall remain secret, lest too many folks begin to frequent him.) (Ed Note: Mine smelled just fine and please buy a ton of it!)

Tripel by Great Divide.

Nik: I’m not a big fan of Belgian Wheat beers. I always think back to Blue Moon when I think of them, or just fruit beers in general. I’ve always been of the mind, if you have to put fruit in your beer, why are you drinking it? Well, let’s have a taste and see what we think.

Tripel by Great Divide.

 

I love Great Divide. Their Yeti Imperial Stout is fantastic. When we were trying to decide which beer to have first, I suggested we should do the Rosey Nosey first because, it might be terrible and then we’d need the Tripel to get the taste out of our mouths.  Well, boy was I wrong.  This beer was overly fruity and just had a finish that I could not enjoy. I won’t be trying any more of this one.

Bob: I was looking forward to this because of good brewery reputation, but was greatly disappointed. The problem is that I compare all Belgian ales to Duvel, and this one came up wanting. Took me three hours to drink a glassfull (waste not, want not) because the extremely tangy, fruity yeast taste was not very encouraging. Oh well, I have other Great Divides yet to try…