Santiago 25
Mateo & Bernabe

 

 

A boozy, over-priced, disappointment. Not sure if it is the ingredients or the brewing process or what but a sorry example of the style. Far to much emphasis on packaging than the product.

 

 

Poured into a Gulden Draak tulip. Pours a slightly hazy orange amber with only patches of foam that dissipate to a thin ring around the glass. Aroma of sweet malt, apple and ripe light tropical fruit, hints of brown sugar and caramel, sweet but mildly earthy. Flavor starts with sweet fruit flavors, apples, pears, light stone fruit, light tropical fruit, then dries out to a musty, earthy finish with light peppery spice, hints of clove and light hop bitterness. Medium bodied with a light syrupy feel due to low carbonation. An interesting fruit forward ale, almost as if fruit juice had been added. The start seems to be leading into an unusual dubbel profile, but the finish is a bit dry and malty with oddly fitting bitterness from the spices. The yeast did not seem Belgian, but the fruit flavors were similar to what might be expected in a sweet Belgian ale. I liked the start of this, dispite its unusual flavor, but the finish lost the interesting flavors. Good, but unbalanced. It was interesting enough that I'm tempted to try more from his brewery from a part of the world that is not well represented in craft brewing.

500 ml bottle, best by 03/2015 printed on the back label. Nice bottle, shape, label, and all around presentation with a little ornate hang tag with beer & brewery details. An 'Abbey Style Ale' per the label. Hand-crafted and brewed in La Rioja, Spain. My first beer from Spain.

Poured into a clear balloon snifter.

A - Pours a dark copper orange with some reddish hues. Hardly any conjuration of head, merely some white bubbles that fade fast. A mostly flat appearance with no lacing to speak of. Looks alright.

S - A musty, horseradish-esque, apple cider vinegar aroma. The pink peppercorn is very noticeable, with subtle spicing. Nutmeg also becomes distinct when I search for it. Alcohol fumes.

T - The taste is smooth. Strangely fruity, berryish, & yeasty. Very mild spicing. The pink peppercorn is most apparent. Indistinctly fruity. Apples. Musty & yeasty. Interesting.

M - The feel is mildly thickish. Medium-full with low lying carbonation, but not what I would describe as syrupy. Mild spice doesn't linger.

Overall, per style I'd say this one is a ways off from being an Abbey ale. On it's own, it is an interesting endeavor. Mild complexity, and almost more saison-like than anything else. I look forward to more from this brewery.

Mateo & Bernabe Santiago 25 -----3.5/5

I poured it from its elegant, curvaceous bottle in the dark while watching TV, so hard to tell how it looked, but seemed fairly amber/red in color. More notably, there was almost no head whatsoever. Makes sense though, since the carbonation level was on par with a mild seltzer - fizzy but not foamy.

Which is too bad because I would have loved that smell to jump out more at me. Well, the beer smell anyway. Oddly and confusingly, the first smell that I got when I opened the cap was a very strong vinegar - like, I was afraid I'd spent 10 bucks on a skunk. Somehow, that smell confined itself to the bottle (and remained in there even after I poured out the beer), leaving the actual beer vinegar-free. In what is supposed to be an "abbey-style" the beer is brewed with pink peppercorns, nutmeg, and cinnamon, with the first two being quite prevalent and the latter being barely there, if at all. It's a simple and lovely combination and I must say that I am a sucker for peppercorn brews.

Unfortunately, the scent didn't carry through into the flavor, which was remarkably bland. Hints of nutmeg still linger but add more of a mild bitter flavor than anything else. If I weren't paying attention, this could be confused with a mildly sweet, slightly more interesting and malty pilsner. I enjoyed it just fine, but I was really hoping for more the bouquet from the aroma.

 

BOTTLE: Ornate bottle shape and presentation. Green glass (ugh). Unbranded red pry-off pressure cap. Simple elegant label art. Has a neck hangtag with tasting notes and brief insights into the brewery. 500ml. Imported by Sublime Imports. "Best by: 03/15. L25C01."

Reviewed live as an abbey-style Belgian strong dark ale per Mateo y Bernabe's website. Expectations are average; I'm skeptical of a Spanish-brewed Belgian abbey ale, but the presentation is fantastic. Served cold into a Jester King goblet. Purchased at a local Austin, TX bottle shop. 7.5% ABV.

Yields absolutely no carbonation hiss upon cap removal.

No bubble show forms as it's poured.

HEAD: Quarter finger width. Off-white colour. Retention is awful - maybe 20 seconds at best. Leaves no lacing as it recedes.

BODY: Peach-orange colour of average vibrance. Translucent. Nontransparent. Clean; no yeast particulate is visible - which is a bit disappointing given this is an abbey ale.

Appears direly undercarbonated. It's far from unique or special looking for an abbey ale, and has an overly bright body.

AROMA: Way too raw and almost wort-like, with strangely fruity preoccupations: mango, papaya, guava, clementine...is this really an abbey ale? The pink peppercorn is nothing short of fantastic, and is easily the highlight of the aroma for me. I find the cane sugar, which lends it an interesting pure sweetness without ever making it cidery, but it takes me some searching to note any cinnamon. I find no nutmeg. It also has notes of tart green apple, light acidic vinegar, and faint funkiness.

The fruit dominates, but over time the emphasis resolves to primarily green apple - odd in an abbey ale. It's seemingly quite lacking for a Belgian strong dark ale; there's no raisin, no dark malts, no licorice/anise/fennel, etc. It comes off more like a saison than Belgian dark ale/abbey ale.

No yeast character is detectable, and it lacks a distinctly Belgian character. It's overly hoppy, with obvious fruity notes coming through too much.

Aromatic intensity is moderate. It lacks the subtle touch of more carefully handled beers in the style.

TASTE: The strange fruit emphasis is as egregious in the taste as it was in the aroma, with a heavy barrage of apple, mango, clementine, and even more tropical notes like papaya beating the drinker over the head...don't expect the subtlety of a good abbey ale here. It's overhopped and overly fruity, but even the malt backbone is wrong: just weird pale malts and maybe amber malts. There's no Belgian character here, and I'm left wondering if they even used Belgian yeast. The cane sugar bolsters the already problematic sweetness, throwing this still further out of balance.

What does work well is the pink peppercorn, which as evocative in this flavour profile as I've ever experienced. It's joined by some ever-so-subtle lime and sea salt on the finish, which is an incredible effect. The finish is the best part of this beer, and if they could just expand that into the entire flavour profile this would be one of the best gosebier I've ever had. But isn't this supposed to be a Belgian abbey ale?

I look for the cinnamon and nutmeg, but find little if any.

It never tastes like a gestalt whole, and doesn't seem deliberately or carefully constructed. It's a piss-poor attempt at a Belgian strong dark ale - if you're willing to even consider it that. There's no raisin, no licorice, no Belgian yeast...this just isn't a dark ale or abbey ale at all.

Shallow depth of flavour. Average flavour duration. Above average flavour intensity (to its detriment).

I have no idea what they were after here, but it's not without its good elements. The peppercorn just works.

TEXTURE: Uncharacteristically thin and wet, with an almost refreshing feel. Belgian dark ales should not be this light or refreshing. On the flipside, it has a conflicting heavy thick feel which is almost syrupy. Smooth, overly full-bodied, and entirely too viscous. Overall presence on the palate is subpar; this weighty and clunky a mouthfeel doesn't suit the intended style well at all and severely restricts drinkability.

This texture fails to elevate the beer and is poorly executed for the style. Overall presence on the palate is subpar.

OVERALL: The finish of this beer is divine, and I see serious potential in this if they'd stop mucking about trying to make it into an abbey ale. The peppercorn is incredible. This is admittedly tough to drink given its poorly handled heavy and thick mouthfeel, but the finish almost makes this worth buying. Almost. I wouldn't get it again, and it's likely on par with what you might fear a Spanish abbey ale would be, but part of me can't help but be glad I tried it - if only for the gose-like finish. The sea salt, lime, and peppercorn are just sublime together. But the first 85% of the structure is forgettable garbage, and this is nowhere near the style they were going for. At best, it tastes like an American pale ale crossed with a gose.

C

Comes in a cool wine bottle-looking 500mL vessel. Poured out overly carbonated into my Carton Teku glass. Large head dissipated quickly. Smells sweet and slightly funky. Taste is malty sweetness, with a touch of spice. Mouthfeel on the thin side with a lot of carbonation. Bit of an indescribable aftertaste. Overall, not bad, but I wouldn't buy another one.