It’s Friday and time for another beer tasting and, this time, we are LIVE(!) from the Barebottle Brewery Taproom in Santa Clara, California where we’re tasting five flavors from their “Hoppy Flight”!
So, please, go get your favorite beverage, sit down, kick back and enjoy as we do our tasting!
Our first beer is…
BEER: Wonder Dust
ABV: 6.9%
MATT: 4/5
DANIELLE: 4/5
LOOK: Gold and very hazy
SCENT: Peaches, tropical fruit, whipped cream
MOUTHFEEL/TASTE: Smooth mouthfeel and very sweet. Bitter hops on the end which compliments the fruit.
FINAL REFLECTIONS: A delicious start to the tasting, which is very encouraging. I am a sucker for “juicy” style IPAs and this one is outstanding. Deceptive as well since you can’t taste the booze.
BEER: Juicinomics
ABV: 9.2%
MATT: 4.5/5
DANIELLE: 4.25/5
LOOK: Like gold mud
SCENT: Very sweet, with some sour fruit and hops
MOUTHFEEL/TASTE: Delicious use of hops, a lot of tropical fruit with pineapple up front.
FINAL REFLECTIONS: The use of three different hops makes this beer something to behold and savor. There’s the sweetness of the tropical fruit, then the sour of the Citrus hops and that beautiful carbonation on the end that make this sucker great.
BEER: Live and Let Idaho
ABV: 7.2%
MATT: 4/5
DANIELLE: 3.75/5
LOOK: Like gold mud
SCENT: Stop me if you’ve heard this one: it smells like fruit and sweet candy
MOUTHFEEL/TASTE: Not as sweet as the first beer, with bitter hops — but no less delicious
FINAL REFLECTIONS: Another great use of hops (especially the Mosaic, which has become the standard for any Tropical IPA) carries this beer further than it should go. The problem is that the more bitter hops make it less enjoyable than the last beer.
BEER: Jiggly Dust
ABV: 6.9%
MATT: 3.75/5
DANIELLE: 4/5
LOOK: Like gold mud
SCENT: Sweet cotton candy
MOUTHFEEL/TASTE: About as fruity and hoppy as the last one
FINAL REFLECTIONS: These are all beginning to taste the same to us at this point — only, this time, the beer promises a candy coating and still feeds you fruit. Not bad, but the sweetness is beginning to wear. My wife liked it better than I did.
BEER: Centennial Star Destroyer
ABV: 6.5%
MATT: 3.5/5
DANIELLE: 3.5/5
LOOK: Copper and clear
SCENT: A small bit of tropical fruit and hops and malt
MOUTHFEEL/TASTE: This is a West Coast IPA but with more bitterness than fruit.
FINAL REFLECTIONS: This is a good West Coast IPA, but we’ve had better with the likes of “Tucked in By Strangers” and “Tomorrow’s Clear”, just to name a couple. Still, it’s a crisp, refreshing IPA with a cute title.
FINAL THOUGHTS: A great tasting at a great taproom. I’m happy that we discovered this place. It has a nice, fun atmosphere, plenty of space, you can bring your own food (though homemade empanadas and warm pretzels are on the menu there), the beer is excellent, and they have pinball and arcade games for the entire family to play. Great place!
HEAR OUR FINAL THOUGHTS:
NEXT WEEK: We will be back with another great beer tasting! Join us then!