Noche De Los Alebrijes
Half Pints Brewing Company

 

 

 

 

650ml bomber poured into tulip 9/1/14

A looks like cola until you hold it to the light where it has a ruby glow, large beige head sinks after a few sips leaving a collar of lace followed by some tightly packed specks

S coco, dark bread, nuts and raisins, leafy, herbal hops, quite earthy, with some brown sugar

T more of the same, chocolate and nuts, some spice I can't place, herbal and earthy, malty as it claims

M lighter side of medium, bubbles fluff it up, a little slick on the palate, coco and leafy finish lingers

O plenty of flavor in something I could session, went down easy and I could drink another bomber no problem

a little spice, lots of malty goodness in something light enough to drink with ease, 5$ a bomber means I might pick up another

 

Appearance - Pours a dark chestnut brown with a finger width of light cream-coloured head.

Smell - Toasted malts, caramel, almond nuttiness, light leafy hop aroma.

Taste - Strong toasted malt flavour along with nuttiness and caramel. Mild hop bitterness.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with moderate carbonation and slight creaminess.

Overall - A nice malt-based brew by Half Pints. Good toasted flavour and overall appearance. Nice to see another Half Pints offering in Calgary.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

650ml bottle, another swell souvenir brought back from Winnipeg by my colleagues in arms Sam and Katie, cool kids that they are. Prost! (Or maybe Salaud?)

Apparently this is an ode to the Oaxocan (yeah, I had to look it up too) carved wooden folk art pieces, usually representing brightly coloured fantasy creatures. I get a strong resemblance to Mexican wrestling get-ups, but maybe that's just me.

This beer pours a clear, deep, dark ruby hue, with three roiling fingers of tight puffy beige head, which leaves some frizzy broken arch lace profiles around the glass as it duly recedes.

It smells of bready, biscuity malt, toasted mixed nuts, bitter cocoa, mildly sweet vanilla, some dusty fruitiness, and earthy, musty hops. The taste is sweet, nutty, bready malt, stronger, and less bitter chocolate, a subtle black fruitiness, a mildly metallic cinnamon spiciness, and rather understated noble earthy, leafy hops.

The carbonation is restrained, but still nice and supportive, the body a sturdy medium weight, and deftly smooth, no qualms there. It finishes off-dry, the bready malt, oily nuts (heh), cocoa, and soft fruit really running the show here.

A quite decent malty, full-flavoured lager, in the German dunkel style, by way of southern Mexico, though I'm not exactly sure what the latter's influence is intended to be. Anyway, an agreeable foreign indulgence for a north of the 49th operation, and we, its supporters.