Unobtrusive ivory-headed bronze-hued ginger treat that’s not as peculiar as you’d imagine. Strong, full-bodied, yet smooth and delicate. Herb spices speckle mannerly grains and fruited malts for enjoyable finish.
All posts by John Fortunato
LEFT HAND JACKMAN’S PALE ALE
Sweet malts collide with snazzy citric hop bitterness for crisp up-front delight. Mild dirty-grained finish retains nutty pliancy. Just wish buttery lemon-spiced mildness didn’t quit halfway through.
LEFT HAND IMPERIAL STOUT
Cocksure oak-aged wine-barreled ’07 black ale rightfully claims to be ‘the fuel of revolution.’ Chewy brown-sugared milk chocolate-y creaminess invades powdered cocoa, vanilla, and black strap molasses sweetening. Lactic frontage greatens Black Forest cake, chocolate mousse, licorice, sherry, and bourbon illusions crowding complex barley-roasted coffee bean midst. Cedar-smoked pecan and macadamia nuts engage brownie-like finish. Perfect alongside Stilton blue cheese or Black Diamond cheddar.
LEFT HAND HAYSTACK WHEAT
Soothing bottle-conditioned hefeweizen knockoff loads peppery hop bittering into lemony orange-apricot center, faint banana-clove flank, and remote vegetal funk. Ensuing herbal ginger-spearmint freshness coats spice-tingled tongue.
LEFT HAND DEEP COVER BROWN ALE
Snappy chocolate sweetness overrun by plaintive bitter grain flow and soothing hard-candied butterscotch notch. Pleasing sugared honey finish peters out to delicate off-dry mocha malt sedation with spiced cherry, plum, and raisin hints.
LEFT HAND CHAINSAW ALE (DOUBLE SAWTOOTH)
Over-inflated connoisseur’s version of award-winning Sawtooth Ale, ‘designed to befuddle silly generalizations about life’ lacks depth. Rich bronze-bodied strong ale counters sweet brown chocolate, butterscotch, and toffee parch with piney hop bittering as well as hastened walnut-hazelnut-chestnut waver. But toasted almond reticence casts astringent shadow.
LEFT HAND BLACK JACK PORTER
Bold, creamy, frothy, ruby-hued London-style porter pours like molasses with cascading bubbles forming eggshell head. Compares favorably to thick chocolate milkshake, as splendid sweet-sour chocolate-vanilla fluctuation succinctly enhances chewy raisin-date overtones. Dry malts, smoked barley, and flowery spiced hops caress chalky mocha undercurrent. As if that’s not great enough, its rich finish recalls marvelous full-bodied milk stouts.
LEFFE BLONDE ALE
Flowery aromatic hops, dry honey-malted wheat, and gentle clove spicing give butterscotch-fronted, ginger ale-textured blonde (from a 13th century recipe) its gentle white wine appeal. Wavering orange-bruised tangerine tang and silken banana-breaded vanilla whim stung by phenol coarsening. Well carbonated and lightly fruited but nothing extraordinary.
(LEFEBVRE) BLANCHE DE BRUXELLES MANNEKIN PIS
Unmemorable un-malted straw-hazed Belgian wheat ale gains floral white-peppered clove-coriander spicing, peach-soured orange peel bittering and banana-breaded nicety above creamy crystal malting. Scant cane-sugared fructose sweetness pervades watered-down finish.
(LEFEBVRE) BARBAR HONEY ALE
Splendid resin-clouded bubbly-headed honey-grained white ale brings mild orange tartness, spicy coriander-clove tuft and burnt wood chip sear to moderated caramel malt creaminess. Honey-dripped wheat base secures citric spicied finish. There’s a lot goin’ on and all of it’s good.
(LEFEBVRE) ABBAYE DE FLOREFFE TRIPLE ALE
Rich cane-sugared brown ale plies dry white wine, buttery Chardonnay, and fizzy champagne illusions to citric-hopped glimmer. Peppercorn-tinged coriander-clove spicing lightens tangy peach-apple-cranberry zest, unripe banana souring, and perfumed floral accents.
(LEFEBVRE) ABBAYE DE FLOREFFE PRIMA MELOIR
Easy drinkin’ brown-bodied fleshy-headed Belgian strong ale lacks advertised anise-coriander seasoning. Instead, heady burgundy-bourbon warmth permeates brown-sugared spiced chocolate drift and awakened prune-raisin-beet sift. Sharply carbolic floral hops tamed by mineral watered smoothing.