Elusive Brewing: Plan B (England: Belgian Ale: 3.7% ABV)
Visual: Yellowed to apricot. Hazy streaks in the body. Large amount of carbonation and a massive white mounded head that leaves suds.
Nose: Wheaty and peppery.
Body: Nicely bitter. Slight cloves. Dried banana. Creamy texture with prickly hop character. Custard crème biscuit’s center. Light vanilla toffee. Cane sugar. Apricot notes.
Finish: Peppery. Light earthy bitterness. Turmeric. Smoked banana. Slight funky yeast feel – puff crisps. Good hop character. Pine needles. Cheddar cheese.
Conclusion: You know where I have, recently, been chatting about beers that are not complex, but are fun. Well, I didn’t expect a Belgian ale to come along and be an example of that style. I associate Belgian style ales with massive complexity and range. Oh and usually massive abv. Then again this isn’t from Belgium, just in the Belgian style. So that may explain that.
So, a Belgian style blond ale with light sweetness and a slight yeastie character. Ya know, standard, what you would expect. Backed by slight peppery character, slight cloves – again what you would expect. Rounded off by mac off huge bitterness, ya know stand…wait, what?
Basically, instead of adding layers of complexity to this Belgian ale it seems that they just slammed the hop bitterness way up. Earthy notes, prickly hop bitterness. Actually works a lot better than it feels it should.
The balance between the oddity of the funky Belgian yeast and the massive hop character is actually kept quite well, while allowing both to be very influential. Despite two fairly big flavours it is still very easy to drink, very sessionable despite having big (if limited in range) character. Perfect character for something at a tidy 3.7% ABV.
Even better, near the end of the beer some of the more expected fruity flavours that oft come with high hopping, such as apricot notes, start to come out – alongside more traditional cheddar cheese like funky Belgian yeast flavours. Still not massively complex, but just a bit more when you need it to keep the beer from getting dull, when the simple assault would be wearing out its welcome.
So – a simple mix of Belgian style and high hops, but charming, fun and sessionable. I dig that.
Background:
(EDIT: Quite amusingly I have been informed that this is meant to be one of our arseholes – Boris Johnson (hence Plan B) and not Trump. Damn, I always knew they looked similar, but when 8 bitted up they look damn near identical. Anyway, I stand by my comments Re: Trump and have left them there to show I am a fallible human being, oh and Bojo is a prick as well)
Ok, so yes, as is evident this beer is taking the piss out of Trump. I am aware a good chunk of my readers are from the USA. I am also aware that just under half of the USA voting people voted for Trump. So, to address the elephant in the room. Fuck Trump. At best he is a raw populist willing to spout shit from the fascist playbook to get elected, and to snuggle up to the newspeak like named Alt-Right to do so, or to speak plainly – Fucking Nazis. The alt-right are Nazis, at some points literal sieg heiling Nazis, and Trump gives them succour. So, yeah, I’ve never gone wrong in my own personal morals with saying fuck the Nazis and I’m not about to stop doing so now. So fuck them and fuck him. I am aware that we have enough shit in our backyard in the UK and Europe, so don’t worry I’m not claiming this is a uniquely USA issue – just the one I am addressing at the moment. Ok, that now addressed – the beer, a Belgian style pale ale made with English malts, German and Australian hops, and Belgian yeast. Grabbed from Independent Spirit as it was a new brewery on me, and the mix of lower abv and Belgian style made it seem an interesting one to try. In happier news, drunk while listening to Mobina Galore – a punk band who was one of the warm ups at the Against Me! Gig. Great fun, lots of energy, definitely worth checking out.
