Stratosbeer
Abita Brewing Co.

Poured from a brown 12 oz. bottle. Has a golden color with a 1 inch head. Smell is earthy, funky, light citrus is present. Taste is kind of unusual, it's funky with some citrus and pear, definitely unique. Feels medium bodied in the mouth and overall is a pretty good beer.

From the shoulder: "BEST BY 06/18/19"

Appearance: The body is a pale straw gold color with medium haze. The head is white and short with creamy foam. Medium head retention, no lacing.

Aroma; The beer smells extremely catty. It has an aroma like a big clove of garlic and some onions. The aroma is big and savory.

Taste: The beer has a bit of a rye flavor to it with some garlic. It tastes a bit like a rustic bread.

Mouthfeel: The beer is light with medium-low carbonation and and off-dry finish.

Overall: This style of beer is really supposed to evoke the feeling of drinking Champagne in a beer and it is very far from it, lacking the texture and carbonation necessary to elevate the beer. The beer has a flavor that is reminiscent of a rustic rye bread with garlic cloves and while that is quite nice it doesn't mesh with the beer as a whole. The back label states that this is "distinguished by fruity hop aromas and flavors" which really shows how off the mark this beer is. As a Brut IP it falls below average and I wouldn't recommend it.

 

 

 

 

 

12 ounce bottle - $2.49 at Total Wine & More in Kennesaw, Georgia.

BEST BY 06/18/19.

Appearance: Pours a lightly hazed, bubbly, pale straw-yellow body with a decent-sized, white, airy head. Rather minimal lacing.

Smell: A light, crisp crackery nose with subtler hop tones of pear pits, muted citrus and peppery spice. Not exactly the worst thing I've smelled, though it's an aroma that doesn't really capture one's attention.

Taste: Very subdued maltiness, like crackers leisurely swimming in seltzer water. Any initial sweetness is quite light and drops off rather abruptly. Like the aroma, the hop character is very nominal, a little citrus, spice and stone fruit, all at low, low levels. Closes out with a final flush of no-salt saltine and near-nil hop flavor beyond a little pear. Decently crisp, sufficiently dry.

Mouthfeel: Medium-light body. Medium-plus carbonation.

Overall: Frankly, the majority of beers slapping the Brut IPA moniker on them leave me wondering if those brewing them have even glanced at the most very basic description of the style. That said, this one isn't particularly all that great, either, though, they did bother to get it reasonably dry and amply carbonated.

Guess I should find out or decode the bottling dste on this one because this yellow beer was a tad skunky in aroma and definitely in taste. Not really too much to say about this one. I am hoping that this beer was just old and the flavor was not intended

 

I am an unabashed fan of the new American Brut IPA style & as such, I will actively seek them out as they become available. This one recently showed up at the Friendly Greek Bottle Shop (FGBS) in bottle form, but such are the kind of sacrifices that I sometimes have to make.

From the Bottle: "Limited Series": "Extra Dry & Extremely Crisp"; "Elevate your hop experience with Stratosbeer Brut IPA. Characterized by its champagne-like body and an unbelieveably dry finish, Stratosbeer is delicately balanced with little bitterness, yet distinguished by fruity hop aromas and flavors."

I Pop!ped the cap, and knowing that one of the drawbacks to/of this style is its low head retention, I kept the C-Line pour going as soon as it started. This resulted in the formation of just under two fingers of fizzy, foamy, rocky, bone-white head with limited retention, quickly falling away to wisps. Color was a very pretty Straw-Yellow (SRM = > 2, < 4) with NE-plus quality clarity, allowing me to see through walls! 8=O Nose was kind of odd - earthy with a slight spiciness. I am not sure how they achieved this, but it does not seem to be totally out of spec for the style. Mouthfeel was medium. Taste was more in line with my to-date experiences: lightly fruity, like honeydew, with a light vanilla sweetness. Mmm. It was definitely dry on the finish. Extremely dry, which is some people's knock on the style, but I found it to be very refreshing. I would easily return to this one for as long as it is being brewed.

Let's start off by saying that I like the bottle label artwork. This brut IPA has a big & foamy white head with lots of streaming bubbles floating up to the glass. There is a best by date on the bottle. It's clean with a dry finish with some IPA bitterness with some slight dank on the backend. This is not a bad IPA, you ought to check it out. I guess it's the champagne of IPA's. Cheers! B

Poured from bottle into tulip, good 2+ finger cream colored soapy head, good retention and lacing. Pale golden in the class, slight chill haze otherwise clear. Getting some earthy, herbal notes on the nose, there is something underneath it, but for the life of me I can't put a name to it. Taste is again hard to nail down, not sure if it is my palate, but this is somewhat unique. I am getting some peach, pear, some old school pine, but all somewhat subdued. There is a little more malt character here than in most brut's I have tried. Finish is crisp, very clean bitterness, and there is lingering tropical notes on my palate. Very clean drinking, but not sure if I would go back to this

 

 

 

 

Stratosbeer has a medium, white head, a bubbly, clear yellow-gold appearance, and some glass lacing. The aroma is of cracker and lemon, and the flavor is of those elements, with pear and low bitterness. Mouthfeel is light to medium, and Stratosbeer finishes crisp and refreshing.

RJT

Interesting taste. I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s good! Very clear, light amber color.

Different and I like it!