Hatha-weizen - Ale Asylum

So, the Hatha-weizen is something I always wanted to try from Ale Asylum, since I'm a big fan of most beers that they put out. The one thing about this brew is that it's exclusively offered at the tap room at Ale Asylum's brewery (out on the East side, off Stoughton Rd.). If you love you some Ale Asylum go out there and check it out...even if you don't want to stay there you can get a nice glass growler filled with your favorite brew for about $13. The only issue I have is that the growler is clear, which is the worst possible type of glass to store brew in. At any rate, I think refills are about $8-10 bucks on the growlers, so it's definitely worth it.

Vitals:

Name: Hatha-weizen

Style: Hefeweizen

IBU: ??

ABV: 5.5%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: Ale Asylum's taphouse/restaurant/brewery

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a very light gold color with billowing white head that quickly fades. Decent lacing with a very thin cap. This beer looks to be moderately carbonated and is VERY hazy (expected, given the style).

Smell: Banana all the way with some slight lemon zest and clove spiciness. You can almost make out some pale malt in the background but not quite. It's so odd to smell this beer because nearly all Ale Asylum brews are hopped to the point of it at least being noticeable on the nose, but this one is definitely not. I guess it makes sense, as most hefes are not hopped much.

Taste: Banana and malt sweetness greet you up front along with a bit of honey. The clove spiciness is very slight and leads you into the finish instead of a hop bite, which is well played. You finish out with lemon and citrus hop bitterness that is subtle but lingering. The yeast is more up front and center, as with most hefes. This is a solid but not spectacular taste...you also get some esters from the yeast.

Mouthfeel: Refreshing and crisp, though it's a bit creamier than I expected. This is a very smooth and drinkable beer for the summer. The carbonation doesn't quite come through as much as I expected it to from the look of the beer.

Overall Grade: B-

Comments: This beer is a good excuse to go to the Ale Asylum taproom, but is nothing too special. It's a solid hefe, but I'd rather have others. For my money I'll take a Hopalicious/Bedlam/Ambergeddon over this and if I want a wheat brew I'll go with Dancing Man from New Glarus or something like a Weissbier from Franziskaner. Worth a try if you want to support your local breweries and are interested in another take on a hefeweizen, but you can probably do better here.

Cheers,

Hurls

Tripel Nova - Ale Asylum

Vitals:

Name: Tripel Nova

Style: Belgian Tripel

IBU: ??

ABV: 10%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: Riley's Wines of the World

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a very light straw color with about a half-finger of head that is bone white. Poor retention, with no cap or lacing...disappointing in regard. This beer is CRYSTAL clear - usually you get that yeasty/cloudy look in a tripel, but this is incredibly clear.

Smell: Smells great - mostly overripe banana and oranges, with a tiny bit of piney aroma. What strikes me most is the softness of the Belgian yeast notes...you don't get nearly as much spiciness or nearly the amount of Belgian funk that you normally do. Good, soft nose on this one...

Taste: VERY sweet up front and you actually get the alcohol warmth coming on in the middle of the taste (as opposed to most beers, which normally have it at the finish...in my experience at least). It actually does a reasonably good job of hiding the 10% ABV (YES, 10% ABV...wow! have one of these and go about the rest of your evening...these will lay you out!). You get the overripe banana and orange tastes as well, which pair nicely with some other esters. The taste follows the nose with the yeast/spice aspect, which is good and different...it seems almost like the normal spice is replaced with a honey-like sweetness.

Mouthfeel: This is rather thin for the style, but still retains a little bit of creaminess...not too much carbonation. This is definitely not typical, but is pretty good in all aspects.

Overall Grade: B+

Comments: Very good triple...not quite "Belgian" though. This is a lot different than most tripels I have had, but it's pretty darn good IMHO. Check it out! Another good Ale Asylum brew.

Cheers,

Hurls

Mad Town Nutbrown - Ale Asylum

Vitals:

Name: Mad Town Nutbrown

Style: American Brown Ale

IBU: ??

ABV: 5.5%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: Riley's Wines of the World

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a medium-colored brown with a very slight amount of tan head. Poor retention/lacing and wispy cap. This beer has a ton of debris in suspension that has me quite concerned. Not much visible carbonation.

Smell: Sweet caramelized and roasted malts - you get a big nutty smell (hence the name, I suppose) and also a faint cocoa scent. Smells pretty good and should have a great malt backing. My concerns about the debris have temporarily been alleviated/forgotten.

Taste: Very sweet and malty throughout the whole experience...the malt backing is very well toasted. You get a slightly bitter finish with some earthy hops (just slightly so). I guess my issue is that, while the taste is solid and stable throughout the experience, you don't get much complexity...nothing changes or "evolves" as you go through the taste experience. You perhaps get a tiny chocolate flavor too, but I'm not really even certain of that. Decent but forgettable.

Mouthfeel: Very smooth drink without much carbonation. Probably a medium body, but nothing really special...drinkable at least.

Overall Grade: B-

Comments: This beer is just OK for me - I'm sort of at a loss because nothing really stood out to me as great throughout the experience. Ale Asylum usually puts out a better effort in my opinion, but I am also not an enormous fan of brown ales...so take it for what it's worth. If you like brown ales this is worth a try; otherwise probably not.

Cheers,

Hurls

Ambergeddon - Ale Asylum

So, upon doing my recap, I realized I had only reviewed one amber. Putting two and two together, having only reviewed one amber and having an amber fresh and chilled in the fridge, I decided to go that route to start the evening. I also have to say, you gotta love the name on this beer. Ale Asylum is the best.

Vitals:

Name: Ambergeddon

Style: American Amber Ale

IBU: ??

ABV: 6.8%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: Trixie's Liquor

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a thick, hazy amber-brownish color with about a finger of tan head. The head retention is moderate, but leaves a nice creamy tan cap on the beer.

Smell: This beer is nutty and malty on the nose; those come through strongly. You get some excellent earthy hop undertones on the smell as well. The malt is caramel-like, so somewhat sweet. The caramel is expected, but the nuttiness isn't...not sure how I feel about that...

Taste: Caramel malts dominate the outset with sweetness, which then rolls through the nutty flavor to a slightly bitter finish with earthy hops. The malt flavor is very bold, and the hops are relatively mild, providing good balance for an amber. The hops are, however, much more pronounced than most ambers I've had. Prepare yourself for that and I think you'll enjoy it (provided you enjoy hops). The 6.8% ABV doesn't come through much but will keep you from drinking a lot of these (Editors Note: hmmm....so THAT'S what happened on Thanksgiving at Amanda & Mikes...)

Mouthfeel: Medium body with light-medium carbonation...a nice beer with some substance to it. Splits itself nicely between easily drinkable and a little bit chewy. This beer dries you out a little bit, which is a bit of a detractor (given the style).

Overall Grade: B+

Comments: This is a solid effort from my favorite WI brewery; keep in mind I'm a total hop head so this may not be for everyone. I'd say it's a must try if you want a unique amber. The beer comes together pretty well; only the astringent quality was a noticeable detractor.

Cheers,

Hurls

Hopalicious - Ale Asylum

Ah, so many good memories with Hopalicious. Regrettably it has taken me quite a while to review this one, though it is one of my very favorite Wisconsin beers. Cheers to Marc for leaving a few of these as a leftover from the movie night we hosted back in the fall - that really got me turned on to Ale Asylum in general, and Hopalicious specifically. I also distinctly remember loving the fact that Ale Asylum provided fresh cascade hops to go with your beer at Quivey's Grove, which was fantastic. I will be trying to organize a big group for Quivey's this year and it should be even better than last year! Anyways, once Sarah got me a kegerator I knew the first beer that had to go in there...now on to the good stuff...

Vitals:

Name: Hopalicious

Style: American Pale Ale

IBU: ??

ABV: 5.8%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: where HAVEN'T I bought Hopalicious? Hmm....

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a delicious looking golden orange color, almost to the point of being copper. Medium carbonation is evident from the tons of little bubbles excitedly rising to the top. The head content was less than I anticipated, despite being familiar with the beer, and it wasn't for lack of a good pour. All in all there was maybe slightly less than a finger of bone-white head, which surprisingly lacked retention but left a beautiful thick lacing on the glass.

Smell: Surprisingly, given the name, the smell is somewhat understated (especially compared to a lot of Pales out there). You get floral and citrus hops on the nose and a bit of sweet malt hiding in there. There may be a little fruitiness to it (grapefruit if I had to guess, but I'm not completely confident in that) but not too much.

Taste: This beer is very well balanced - you get sweet malt up front (not too much or too little) and you get the hop bitterness that hop-heads crave on the back-end of the beer. The hops are surprisingly piney with a citrus flavor as well. What's surprising to me here is that Ale Asylum prides themselves on putting in ELEVEN (yes, you read that right, as in ten plus one) separate additions of cascade hops to the boil. I am just becoming familiar with the brewing process, as I'm looking to try it out with Marc, but basically you boil the wort (will explain this in a later post) with hops for a long time (typically an hour, but some beers such as DogFishHead 90 and 120 minute IPAs, appropriately named by the way) boil for longer. The hops immediately added (and thus boiled the longest) are for bittering purposes, so you can get a lot of the bitter resins out of the hop cones. The later additions (boiled less) provide the main aromas and flavors. So, basically, with that long (yet quite abbreviated) explanation the puzzling thing to me is that Cascade hops typically impart citrus and floral tastes and aromas, yet I'm getting a lot of piney flavor here. It makes me wonder what the tight-lipped folks over at Ale Asylum are up to with this beer that they don't advertise. My guess is something like Chinook hops added with 15-20 minutes left in the boil but this is just pure speculation, since Chinook are known for being very piney. The key here is the smoothness of the bitter finish; you really get a sweet taste up front from the malt, then a pretty bitter piney bite, and then a surprisingly smooth bitter finish to bring you through. It glides off your palate rather than getting that scraping feeling that a lot of bitter, hoppy brews can give you.

Mouthfeel: Medium body with decent carbonation. I will say that the body is more on the light side of medium, so you could drink this all day (as I can personally attest to). You get a nice thin layer of residual resin on your palate, which is just right for this type of beer. You don't want your mouth to feel completely coated and overwhelmed, but this beer leaves you at just the right place: wanting to come back for more!

Overall Grade: A-

Comments: I consider this to be a close-to-perfect beer for year-round drinking; its versatility is very nice. I think it's light enough to be able to drink in the summer and give you a hopiness if that's what you crave. However, it's also bold enough of a taste, and not completely light bodied, so you can enjoy it when the weather gets cold. Most people know of my love for Ale Asylum beers (if you have a chance check out my post on Bedlam! and try that one out too). Also, as a teaser, I have a bottle of Ambergeddon (what a great name, by the way) in the fridge, awaiting tasting and review. This beer is available practically everywhere in Madison, on tap or for sale in 6 and 12 packs. If you consider yourself a hop-head, or have any interest in hoppy beers, this is a must-have staple of your beer drinking rotation. Go out and enjoy one and see if you agree with my assessment!

Cheers,

Hurls

Bedlam! - Ale Asylum

So, as previously mentioned in my Craft Beer Week post, I was able to sample Bedlam! at the tapping/Beer Wars party at Argus Bar & Grille. I made sure to add a bottle of it to my BYO 6-Pack at the Old Fashioned just to make sure I had a chance to sit down and really enjoy this beer and see what I tasted.

Vitals:

Name: Bedlam!

Style: Belgian IPA

IBU: ??

ABV: 7.5%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: The Old Fashioned (BYO 6-Pack)

As an editors note, I completely love Ale Asylum but am nonetheless completely frustrated by their secrecy that they have regarding their beer. They are apparently (after reading some online posts) notorious for not releasing IBU and Gravity information about their beers (most likely for fear of someone reverse engineering the beer and, thus, figuring out the recipe). At any rate, that's why I don't have the information above.

Descriptions:

Appearance: This beer pours a deep hazy orange, with a few inches of cloud white head on it. Most of the head subsided but there were little patches of it hovering on the top of the beer, which was nice. Not much lace is left by this beer in its wake.

Smell: The aroma you get from Bedlam! is quite floral, slightly citrus-y and somewhat bread-y. Mostly on the citrus you're getting orange and grapefruit I believe. Smells absolutely great and you can also detect some herbs/spices in there too, as it is brewed with clover and coriander.

Taste: This beer tastes very good - everything seems well balanced and compliments each other note that you get on your tongue. You get a great deal of orange and grapefruit, with a little light bread taste. You also get a hint of the clover and coriander, which is awesome because it's so well done it is not overstated in the least...just gives it a little bit of spice and a distinct flavor that sets it apart. It's not too hoppy either, so if you're not into hops you can still enjoy this beer. The malt, as with most Ale Asylum brews, is well done and gives a nice background/backbone for this beer, though the breadiness still comes through well. By the way, this beer hides the 7.5% ABV VERY WELL...BEWARE OF THIS BEER!

Mouthfeel: The mouthfeel on this beer is very smooth, medium to light body, almost juicy. However, it definitely has enough resin from the hops to stick on your tongue and teeth after you begin drinking. There is a small amount of carbonation, but it's not overstated and is not a detractor.

Overall Grade: A

Comments: I absolutely LOVED this beer and would recommend it to anyone. It is citrusy enough that many non hop-heads would like it, yet it still has enough hop flavor to cater to a true hop-head. Get out and try this beer now - it is on tap at a lot of local places, including (but not limited to) two of my favorite spots: The Old Fashioned and Argus Bar & Grille. It is a seasonal brew, so make sure you get it while it's around. It is a great summer beer and should be enjoyed over the upcoming months!

Cheers,

Hurls