Silk Road
Around the Bend Beer Co.

Got in a trade with The-Adjunct-Hippie. 12 ounce bottle into pint glass, no bottle dating. Pours moderately hazy medium orange/amber/light copper color with a 1 finger dense and rocky off white head with fantastic retention, that reduces to a nice cap that lasts. Dense soapy lacing clings on the glass, with a moderate amount of streaming carbonation. Fantastic appearance. Aromas of grapefruit, tangerine, lemon, peach, pear, pineapple, ginger, mango, melon, citrus peel/rind, pepper, pine, caramel, toasted biscuit, light nuttiness, herbal, and floral/grassy earthiness. Nice and pleasant aromas with good balance and complexity of citrus/fruity/earthy hops, galangal spice, and dark/bready malt notes; with solid strength. Taste of big grapefruit, tangerine, lemon, peach, pear, pineapple, ginger, mango, melon, citrus peel/rind, pepper, pine, caramel, toasted biscuit, light nuttiness, herbal, and floral/grassy earthiness. Light-moderate pine, citrus peel/rind, herbal, grassy bitterness; and galangal spiciness on the finish. Lingering notes of grapefruit, tangerine, lemon, peach, pear, pineapple, ginger, mango, melon, citrus peel/rind, pepper, pine, caramel, toasted biscuit, light nuttiness, and herbal/floral/grassy earthiness on the finish for a while. Very nice complexity, robustness, and balance of citrus/fruity/earthy hops, galangal spice, and dark/bready malt flavors; with a great malt/bitter/spiciness balance; and zero cloying/astringent flavors after the finish. Lightly increasing dryness from lingering bitterness/spiciness. Medium carbonation and body; with a very smooth, moderately creamy/bready/sticky, and slightly resinous/rindy balanced mouthfeel that is great. Zero warming alcohol for 5.9%. Mildly increasing spice heat after the finish. Overall this is a delicious American pale ale. All around nice complexity, robustness, and balance of citrus/fruity/earthy hops, galangal spice, and dark/bready malt flavors; very smooth and pretty refreshing to drink with the mellowly bitter/drying finish, never aggressive. Well restrained on galangal spice, not overwhelming to the base style. Nice hop profile from Chinook, Simcoe, Ahtanum, Amarillo, and Citra. Well balanced juicy/dank hop complexity, with a nice bready Munich/Victory malt backbone. Not overly sweet. A very enjoyable offering, and spot on style example.

 

Pours a honey amber color with a slightly off-white head of 3 fingers. It just destroys the glass with lace.

Huge aromas of ginger (or galangal, rather), oranges, orange drink/soda, and vanilla ice cream. Explosive.

Surprisingly malt-forward but the hops still play a part in bittering at the back end, bringing slight herbal qualities. In the middle though, I get a lot of spice, ginger, orange, chai, cantaloupe, and herbal hop. It's really original, and I kinda really like it.

Feel is soft and creamy, very mild carbonation, with a resiny and slightly dry finish.

Overall, this beer was a delightful surprise. In a world where everyone's trying bourbon this and dry hop that, ATB decides to go the Eastern route and totally changes things up, making a beer with Thai Galangal. Packs way more punch and flavor than you'd expect, and I can't wait to try it with Thai food. Extra point for originality. Yum!

Taste: Complex, citrus, piney hops meet malt backbone. Bready semi sweet, orange peel citrus nose. Honey color hue, semi clear, with tall white head, broken ring of lattice. Medium body. Made with exotic fruit of Galangal.

 

Another first from a Chicago brewery ! Around The Bend is less than a mile from home. Had at the Zoo's craft beer fundraiser, this APA was distinguished by its use of ginger-type root which is particularly refreshing on a hot summer eve. The ginger also added spicing to distract from the 58 IBU hops... usually above my threshold of tolerated bitter. So ginger may be a good technique to appeal to dark malt-heads like me. I will review this more fully and probably re-rate.... if I find it again.

7/1/17 Found it ! And I Had it with two types of spicy food at lunch. First, was a good pairing with salsa and chips. The second was with an Indian naan and a peppery mango chutney. The ale completed the meal well. If I find Silk Road again (and I hope I do), I will have it with Thai food as the label suggests. My rating against the average improved by 3.5%.

4/30/17 - (Chicago) - 12 oz pour from bottle into a pilsner glass. Darker copper pour, thin white lace. Ginger, spicy aroma. Ginger taste predominate, nice dry pleasant bitter malt taste. Thin texture, mild carbonation, smooth drinking. Overall good beer, like the flavor and taste.

Mostly clear rusty-orange body, pretty dense champagne-like white head, coarse carbonation rises. Nose has a lot of earth and considerable spices like ginger, both with heat and refreshment. The flavor reverses this, focusing mostly on the ginger aspect with some earth behind it. Flavorless bitterness adds to this already stiff flavor, and, being bone dry, has no sweetness to mitigate it. Body makes the final addition to this intensity, with medium weight and a coarse, biting carbonation.
Quite a fierce brew for a new brewery, and darn good. Galangal might seem gimmicky, but they pull this off well and make me believe in the power of ginger-like flavors in beer. There wasn't much standard 'beer' flavor, but at the same time the galangal wasn't thin or left out to carry this beer by itself. Very good, refreshing but balanced brew right here.

 

Pours a dark, hazy orange with a slightly off-white, orange-brown tinted head. Rocky, thick, gorgeous head with plenty of lacing. Violently carbonated, medium body. Lots of fruit character on the nose backed by a slightly sweet caramel malt. Explosive juicy hop character, tropical fruit, and slight spice lingers for a bit. The flavor profile is very unique; Apparently the beer is brewed with Galangal which I have never heard of until now. This must be contributing to the juicy/spicy flavor profile. Overall, I'm impressed by this APA, ATB did a superb job of putting their spin on a commonly brewed style.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I rated this beer high not so much that I liked it...but that the one of the ingredients in it that made it so interesting. That ingredient was galangal root which gave the beer a floral nose and a spicy taste....reminded me of a xmas ale. It poured a rich clear amber with white head that left a very nice lace. The Mouthfeel was medium in body with good carbonation. Overall it was pretty good

 

 

 

 

Cloudy, burnt amber in color with a white head. Decent lacing. Nose has a very light hop profile with sweet malt notes, mild earthy tones. Taste has a light spice hop profile (Apollo hops?), hint of ginger, backed with medium caramel malt followed by mild bitter residual. Not much to this one, it's malt offsets the hops with little balance. Bit of a disappointment.