4 Pines Keller Door Imperial India Brown Ale
4 Pines Brewing Company

500ml bottle. BB 17/07/2015. Pours a beautiful brown muscat colour with a high, light beige head which lasted extremely well and left some stubborn lacing. Very hoppy aroma of pine and citrus dominate but there is also some lovely, rich, maltiness to almost balance it out. It smells terrific. Medium sweetness but it is the medium/heavy bitterness that lingers. On tasting I get pine, passionfruit, molasses and dates. Medium to full body, smooth texture and a little alcoholic "burn" in the back of the throat. Quite a decent drop and one for the hop lovers.

 

Top example of style, and not my fave style at that. Well balanced with serious nutty/pistachio notes but not as hoppy as other reviewers perhaps due to bottle age.

4 Pines Keller Door is like the East Coast [Australia you knuckleheaded Yanks!] version of Little Creatures Single Batch... only not as good... but I have a feeling that 4 Pines may be on to something with this oddly named Imperial India Brown Ale (which initialises as IIBA). Let’s stop and have a look at this bizarre etymology: Imperial (from Russian Imperial Stout, high ABV beer made for the Czars), India (from India Pale Ale, high ABV beer made for British troops in India) and Brown Ale (we know Brown Ale). The peculiar part of the name is having “Imperial” and “India” together - which both denote higher ABV brews, and this is only 8% ABV, not exactly challenging for someone who drinks Belgian Tripels for breakfast [I wish!].

Poured from a 500ml bottle into a nonic pint.

A: Hazy dark chocolate bodied with an ample enough 2cm beige head. 8/10.

S: A pleasing mixture of spices (allspice and pepper), dark berries (blackberry, currant and mulberry), a hint of vanilla, and a bold floral hop back note. Quite a tasty full aroma, in fact I sat for a moment simply taking a couple full whiffs before proceeding. 9/10.

T: Flavour brings out brown sugar, dumps it on your tongue, with that floral hop finish. There is some nuttiness in there as well, along with pine/citric hops, and the dryness of the dark berries plays out as well. Fruity, nutty, berry interesting and complex, this is by far the best Keller Door release yet... unless the ESB was a Keller Door release, that was cracking too. 8/10.

M: Medium bodied with an almost flat carbonation. 6/10.

D: I’m impressed by this solid effort from 4 Pines, proving they aren’t just a 4 trick pony (Get it!? Get it!?). This is one brew I could sip sitting by a fire in my wingback chair [I do actually own a wingback chair] and quietly while away the evening puffing from my Meerschaum pipe [I don’t actually own a pipe]. One criticism - the price is a bit of a swift kick in the man-plums, 4 Pines really need to reign in their penchant for sailing around in elaborate gold plated yachts and reduce the price of their brews a little. 8/10.

Food match: I could really imagine drinking this with a delicious Beef Rogan Josh or a Chicken Korma, maybe that’s why they put “India” in the name? More likely I’ve been sub-consciously railroaded into thinking about Indian food because of the name, either way.

Big hops balanced by a strong roasted malt presence - delicious! Plenty of pine, grapefruit and citrus to satisfy most hop heads.

Thanks to Pat

Pours brownish with amber showing through when held up to the light...Good head and lacing.

Can smell pine as soon as I crack the bottle. Nose is a lot of pine and grapefruit, a subtle brown ale malt holding onto that, and a slightly medicinal quality. Slightly roasty. Really quite nicely fresh and hoppy. Previous reviewer also nailed it with the "blueberry" description- definitely get that too now I think about it.

Taste is a lot more pine- more grapefruit. Pretty hoppy and the malt works well with that.

There is decent syrupiness in the mouthfeel, obviously some hop bitterness and also some alcohol bitterness. Does get a bit astringent. Fades with a hint of ash. Ends in booze and mild sweetness.

Performs quite well for what it is. Personally I'm not a huge fan of Black/Brown IPAs, but this definitely comes with enough hops to cover all eight percentage points of alcohol.

Hard to fault objectively but subjectively it's not something I would necessarily return to in a hurry. Mainly due to the challenging ABV (I'd prefer something a bit lighter) and the non-preferred style (Brown Ale/IBA). But it is a good beer.

500mL bottle, new stock at Dan Murphys. Poured into a 500mL glass

A - dark, seal brown. Pours a thin of white head. Free of sediment

S - Strong floral odours with big whiffs of fruit (rockmelon and apricot). Very pleasant, if not one of the nicest smelling beers I've smelt. But beers need to be drunk....

T - Bittersweet at first, as intensely bitter hops (80IBUs) and sweet roasted malts collide. Grapefruit and blueberry fruits tastes in the middle come up. Caramel malts rise in prominence towards the abrupt finish.

M - Medium to full bodied, alcohol is reasonably well hidden, slightly syrupy texture.

O - interesting Keller Door release, and bit more of a success than other recent limited editions from 4 Pines. More of an IPA than a brown ale, nonetheless its an interesting hybrid and a great winter beer. Be aware of the ABV though - its well hidden!