Snowblind
Fernie Brewing Co.

 

 

 

Poured from 750mL bottle into a tulip.

Appearance: rich orange hue with a dash of haze. Head pours a thick layer of creamy ivory foam that leaves a good lace on the glass. I like it!

Smell: sweet and yeasty with a floral hop character and just a dash of fruitiness. Not bad, but the sweetness is almost too much.

Taste: floral hops and a bit of graininess give this beer a little bit of a soapy character, which I don't usually mind. Combined with the somewhat overdone sweetness, though, this becomes a decent-enough but not outstanding example of the style.

Mouthfeel: medium body with a big carbonation and an enjoyable creaminess.

Overall: this beer has potential, but it's just a bit too sweet for me.

L: Cloudy brown yellow with a white head that stays throughout the entire beer.

S: lots of different hop smells, has citrus and pine.

T: Sweet with a slight coriander taste and a nice hop taste in there that stays with the whole beer.

F: Light bodied with a high level of carbination.

O: A really good beer from Fernie, all the rotational beers taste good.

 

Fernie Brewing 'Snowblind Belgian IPA' @ 7.9% , served from a 650 ml bottle purchased for $5.50
A-pour is gold from the bottle to a slight hazey amber in the glass with a medium size off-white head leaving a streaky lace along the pint , second pour is even more cloudy
S-hoppy , Belgian yeast
T-a very dry tasting Belgian IPA
MF-ok/good carbonation , feels full bodied , dryness lingers on the palate
Ov-just an ok beer , weak Belgian IPA
prost LampertLand

 

Immensely enjoyable! This beer looks great, smells great, and has multiple layers to its flavor. The spice, malt, and hops connect nicely in this beer, which finishes with a nice boozy burn. Incredibly appropriate for a ski weekend in a mountain town.

 

Bomber poured into a tulip glass. A ruddy caramel color with a reasonably strong Belgian yeast aroma and a decent amount of rich beige head. Comes off as sweet shortbread, seed spice that almost recalls cumin, clove, and fresh pine needles. There is a downplayed caramel malt backbone shoring up some medicinal herbal flavors like lavender and thyme, perfumed oolong tea, melon, black pepper, cloves, and a hint of cherry cough syrup. I am finding that the Belgian yeast esters and phenols are massively trumping the hops here (cf. my countryman leaddog below), rendering this more like a hoppy tripel than a yeasty IPA. Either approach is a viable take on the Belgian IPA style. Does get somewhat sweeter as you go, with a dry "grapefruit cake" flavor joining the aforementioned herb and spice notes. Minimal tropical flavor, maybe a faint whisper. There is a smooth citric bitterness and an overall dry vibe. Well-attenuated and moderate to high carbonation. Has that characteristic tripel booziness. Maybe a tad woody in the finish. Fernie Brewing Co. executes another solid "big bottle" offering, if a bit heavy on the yeast end of things, to the possible detriment of the hops.

 

 

650ml - no dating - served at 50F

A: translucent orange/amber
S: tight, slight cardboard, some malt but little else.
T: simple straightforward ale taste with plenty of alcohol that hits hard in the finish. Pretty boring actually.
M: medium-full bodied
O: this is just a simple alcoholic ale. No character, no distinguishing taste. Too bad.

 

Appearance - Pours a light copper with two fingers of foamy white head.

Smell - Belgian yeast (clove, spices), spicy hops, touch of citrus.

Taste - Spicy hops play most dominance in comparison to the Belgian yeast flavours. Finishes with a pleasant moderate bitterness from the spicy hops.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with moderate carbonation.

Overall - A tasty brew with a good hop punch, however I feel that the Belgian yeast element is lacking in the flavour. Perhaps more emphasis on this component would make it a stand-out.

 

 

650ml bottle. Very native Fernie name, for a rather foreign style.

This beer pours a slightly hazy, dark bronzed amber hue, with two fingers of puffy and bubbly off-white head, which leaves some broadly-defined honeycombed lace around the glass as things slowly fade away.

It smells of earthy yeast straight off, followed by a bready caramel maltiness, muddled tropical citrus, white pepper, clove, hints of banana chips, underripe nondescript melon, musty green tea, and leafy, weedy hops. The taste is gritty pale and caramel malt, edgy Belgian yeast, spicy clove and black pepper, a sassy papaya, pineapple, and kiwi exotic fruitiness, orange cream, persistent Asian tea notes, and burgeoning floral, piney, and lightly perfumed (from the near 8 points of booze, presumably) hop bitters.

The carbonation is pleasantly zingy, tending towards the frothy, the body a decent medium-full weight, agreeably smooth, with even a nod towards all things creamy. It finishes on the sweet side, as the yeast steps a bit to the side, the caramel malt fills the void, and the fruit notes meander along.

A version of the style that tends more to the former in the name, via the yeast, rather than the latter, i.e. the hops. If the rest of the Belgian ale canon wasn't so bereft of hops, perhaps I'd have a better comparison tool here, so as it stands, all I can come up with right now is a Belgo-Canadian IPA. Needs work, this I know.