All posts by John Fortunato

BRECKENRIDGE AGAVE WHEAT

Peculiar straw-hazed spiced beer relegates advertised agave flavoring to simple backdrop. Musty orange-dried spoilage and lemon-rotted souring cushioned by gentle resinous hop bittering to blanched white wheat spine. Residual cider sharpness, tart white grape snip, and delicate plantain leafing linger below. Herbal agave influence negated by acidic citric-influenced sour ale finish.

SHINER OLD-TIME ALT

Thin for its Dusseldorf-originated German styling, losing luster at nebulous rye-breaded finish. Musty citric waft proves to be natural lead-in for distant orange-dried bittering. Pungent earthen grained musk and mossy peat fungi subsume tertiary fig-date-walnut illusions. Biscuit-y gingerbread nuance hidden deep inside.

ESTRELLA DAMM DAURA LAGER

Less pathetic, but nearly as drab, as typical gluten-free pale lagers. Unlike competitors repulsive sorghum-based output, dried-out barley (lacking gliadin proteins) proves to be wise substitute for celiac sufferers. Nonetheless, watered-down toasted cereal graining and gentle prickly-hopped rice slip derailed by nasty corn-oiled malt liquor immensity as well as acrid vegetal musk.

STONE JAPANESE GREEN TEA I.P.A.

Indistinct 2011 collaboration between Stone, Japanese brewer Baird, and Guam brewmaster Toshi Ishii promotes Tsunami relief but lacks firm theme. Heavy yeast sediment clouds amber-hazed dry body. Advertised green tea influence lost between bitterly lemon-seeded Aramis hop dryness and honeyed ginger sweetness, recalling earthen herbal crisping and tea-leafed bittering of an English ESB by forgoing expectant citric-fruited tenacity of typical American IPA. Tertiary pineapple, grapefruit, and peach illusions merely warble across dark-spiced nicety. Not bad, but inessential.

Japanese Green Tea IPA (Second Edition) - Stone Brewing - Untappd