Nibiru
Elysian Brewing Company

December 29th, 2015 - Here's a treat with some Szechuan kick. A sparkling, scintillating spice appears first in the smell, which I take initially to be black pepper, but it's brighter and more glittery, and features some preserved lemon and strawberry notes. The body is soft and foamy, and starts buttery and a little unctuous, with some squash (cooked in brown butter and brown sugar) and a short aftertaste. It's mild for all those notes, with a slight herbal touch. For all the intriguing tastes going on, it's an interesting beer, though the kind I'm satisfied having just one serving of.

 

 

Bottle.
Appearance: yellow. Hazy. Thick foamy head. Sweet artwork on label
Smell: pear. Esters of Belgian yeast.
Taste: strong Belgian yeast profile followed by a bitter, grassy flavor. Pear and fruit.
Mouthfeel: high carbonation. Medium body. Dry.
Overall: weird combo of herbs and a Tripel. Not horrible. Not stellar

 

 

 

 

Enjoyed this 12oz bottle out of the large snifter glass.

A: Pours a golden hue with huge frothy white head that lasts forever and ends in a solid persistent lace and decent trail down the side of the glass.

S: Spicy sweet Belgian yeast aroma.

T: Similar to the aroma there is a spicy sweet flavor dominated by Belgian yeast.

M: Medium body and high carbonation.

O: Excellent triple – worthy of a try.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This brew was served from the tap at The Blind Tiger in New York, NY. It arrived in a generic tulip glass, glowing a clear golden yellow coloring. No real head was noted, but spots of lacing were seen dripping down the glass as the beer disappeared. There was a transient chill haze without sediment, while carbonation appeared average. The aroma was strong of adjuncty grain, heavy metallics, light molasses, and woody dryness. To cut came apple juice sugar, red grape astringency, vanilla icing, syrupy honey, and cayenne spice with warmth. Our first impression was that there was a decent buttery quality to the flavoring, while the back was very bittered with wood and citrus. The flavoring opened with the sweetness of honey, wheaty malts, chalky adjuncts, and the sweetness of orange flesh. The middle peaked with more honey, sweetness of pale grain, and fusel alcohols to wash. Citric hops, pale and wheaty malts, mustard seed, grape juiciness, and tannins blended and marked the finish of the sip. The aftertaste breathed of big tin and yeasty metals, citric hop resins, heat of booze, and more wheaty, adjuncty grain. The body was medium, and carbonation was average. There was decent froth and coating all around the mouth, with an ultimate astringent bite to the hard palate. Each sip gave okay slurp and froth, but little cream to the lip. The abv was appropriate, and this guy is more of a sipper, but goes down smooth enough.

Overall, what we liked best about this beer was the bite of flavoring. While much of this came in the form of adjuncts, the blend certainly wakes the palate up. We do wish that the advertised yerba mate was more verbose in all of its organic, woody, leafy flavoring. Everything else about this beer was just simply okay, and while this is an interesting concept, the execution is underwhelming.