Eva
Herkimer Pub & Brewery

 

 

Served this as part of a beer and sake dinner at the end of Good Beer Week in Melbourne 2013. Reviewed from my notes well over a year later, because fuck you, punctuality.

Pours a pale gold, clear. Head is white, foamy, OK retention. Lace is alright too.

Grainy on the nose; caramel malt and some herbal hop notes. Not very saisony. Actually quite grainy. Not bad but not very saisony.

Tastes more Belgian. Grainy, but phenolic with good vinous notes, spice and phenol. Not quite enough funk but phenol is ok.

A bit fizzy. Body is OK but doesn't quite pad it.

Not quite saisony enough. But a nice beer regardless.

 

 

Tried at Kumo Izakaya in Melbourne during GBW2013 as part of the Herkimer/Kumo Beer and Sake evening. This beer is a "Cöttbusser", an old German style brewed with oats and honey, and fermented with Belgian Saison yeast (although I assume traditionally it was not brewed this way).

Pours a very clear golden colour with a very fine white head. Some streaking lace gives it an undoubtedly German appearance. Fine carbonation. Overall, it looks pretty good.

Nose is disappointingly mild. A bit of grain and some faint, slightly carbonic acid to it: direct and sharp. There's a slightly briny suggestion of seafood and some apple characters as well. But these are looking for ripples in a pretty banal surface. Mostly, it's just clean and flat.

Taste is much better, though. There's a faint prickle of acidity to kick things off before some robust German grain notes give some body and power to the mid-palate. Crisp and bright towards the finish and a little bit fuller towards the back than I expected. I like it: you can almost taste the booze and it makes it feel like a broader, more expressive beer as a result.

Feel is very clean and pleasant. Nice stuff.

Overall, I really like it. It's clean and well made, with German influences but a rugged individualism.