Piston 42
Red Collar Brewing Co.

Opaque black color with a hint of brown at the edges. Poured a tall tan colored head that took several minutes to collapse down to an even skiff. Too dark to see the carbonation level. Left large patches of lace.

Medium malt and a light barnyard. Built up a strong raw bread dough smell that was a mix of malt and yeast. Light hint of molasses or maybe soy sauce in a craft soy sauce brewery. Just a hint of vegetal hops. Swirling the glass kicked up a stronger barnyard for about 10 seconds, then back to the original smells.

Medium bitters; seems less than the 55 IBU on the label. Strong malt, tending to a dark roast but not very close to the scorch threshold. The bitters evolve and seem to bounce between hops and malt for the source. Light vegetal or herbal hop flavor. Light molasses. The aftertaste is a quick burst of much stronger bitters that slowly fade down after the initial drop. There is a really faint soy sauce towards the end.

Very little tongue tingling. Grows to a light foam that never quite becomes creamy. Heavy body. Very light oil feel.

Interesting beer to try, but overall there isn't anything to entice me to get another. The flavor doesn't quite meet up to the expectations of the scent. It does not have the complexity of flavor that was promised in the scent. I was expecting the hop smell and flavor to be more apparent, but they were almost buried under the malt and simple bitters.

 

 

650ml bottle - even after reading the label's marketing blurb, I still have no freaking idea what this one's name means - quelle surprise!

This beer pours a clear, very dark red-brick brown colour, with two fingers of puffy, rocky, and very sexy beige head, which leaves a stellar array of perfectly webbed lace around the glass as it very lazily recedes.

It smells of lightly toasted pale and caramel malt, a bit of bready wheatiness, subtle yeasty notes, muted leafy, weedy and piney green hop bitters, and a sense of alcohol love unrequited. The taste is bready and doughy pale malt, some untethered ashiness, muddled domestic citrus pith, yeast that just won't quit, and more singed herbal, leafy, and dead grassy hoppiness.

The carbonation is actually rather involved in this one, via a pandering frothiness, the body a decent medium weight, and more or less smooth, nothing really taking the time here to go and mess about, as it were. It finishes off-dry, the roasted malt and mixed citrus/verdant essences kind of making a mockery of all things that are holy and good, IMHO.

Yeah, I don't exactly know what they were going for here, but if it was to emulate a so-called 'style' that should have been shelved years ago, then this brewery has surely nailed it. Yeah, I'm not a fan, obviously, but roasted malt mixed with unwilling hops continues to not work for this camper, and this is yet another, and another, exhibit A.