What’s the Difference? Share your Side-by-Side (2021)

Sorting through some old beer pics, and came across this from 2019:

On the left: Northern Monk, Heathen Mango Lassi IPA, 7.2%
On the right: Brew York, Hey Mango Ice Cream IPA, 6.1%

I wish I could give more detailed notes, but my only memory is the sweetness...

 

A side by side I’ve wanted to do for awhile...I’ve had both beers at bottle shares at the bar wherein I hang...and now happy to drink them together - Tree House Brewing’s “Green” vs. “Very Green”:



Green:
Deep gold hazy peach juice color with clarity under rocky three fingers of white foam that receded slowly rendering a mousse-like dome; excellent cap retention to bottom of glass, heavy ring, heavy lacing. Nose is pineapple and orange. Taste follows nose with bitter orange rind, sweet tangerine/malt base. Smooth feel; medium full body; somewhat juicy; moderate minus carbonation; no tongue fatigue, no astringency, no warmth from 7.5% abv. Overall, the beer smells and tastes more tropical fruit juicy than Very Green; I’m enjoying this beer a little bit more, but not by much, and on a different day I could have swung dank.
5.0 | 4.5 | 4.75 | 4.5 | 4.5

A few sips in, the Green has more cap retention:



Very Green:
Same look as Green, but only two fingers of rocky white foam; head receded faster; good cap retention; heavy ring; medium heavy lacing. Same fruity nose as Green, but hops are a bit dank. Taste is the same as Green with more bitter hop bite; and the hops have an earthy, weedy taste. Similar mouthfeel to Green, with a slightly dry, grainy feel; no warmth from 8.3%, no astringency, no tongue fatigue. Overall, there is a lasting bitter linger, more so than Green; similar beers, but the earthy dankness sets it apart; I like Dank, weedy IPAs, and this is another great beer from Tree House.
4.75 | 4.5 | 4.75 | 4.25 | 4.5



Half way through, both beers look great...the Green is tastier and the sexier beer for me...Cheers y’all!

 

I am 'green' with envy!?!

Cheers!

 

As you noted: "...found a year old, almost to the date head high in my dads fridge..."

Storing beer cold does slow down oxidation (staling) of beer. Not that it is recommended to store a hoppy beer for a year (as you noted with missing aroma aspects and apple juice aspects) but an IPA stored cold for a year will indeed be in better shape than an one year old IPA stored at room temperature.

Cheers!

 

Ok, time for a "pale ale" battle, truly just to see what the difference is. I expect a little more malt and earthy bitterness from Dale's Pale Ale and a little more fruitiness with the bitter in Zombie Dust. So am I right?


Well, Zombie Dust (ZD) has a lighter body, golden to matte bruised peach while Dales Pale Ale (DP) is pretty much a medium amber. Little more lacing on ZD, which I'll mention here is about a month and a half fresher left from a similar amount of head buildup on the pour

Nose is bearing out my predictions... more of a tea-like aroma from DP while there's a fruity, relatively tropical lean to ZD. Toasted malt is recognized in the former, while the latter has a sweeter aroma in general.

The sweetness levels translate to the taste, but in a closer competition than in the nose. Dale's is a bit more of a caramelized sugar not than the fructose-seeming note from ZD, though that is totally skewed by its fruitier nature in my mind.

ZD is a little more bitter... perhaps... or not. think the impression comes from the difference between the sweet notes and the bitter notes. DP is a little more balanced throughout the taste, while ZD takes wider turns to get to the end. The relative freshness (one month old) of ZD could be at play here.

These ended up being a little more different than I expected, but in ways that I basically expected. Wonder if I might be able to work something so that I can do this with similarly aged beers (obviously preferably fresher, but that's the tougher road to search out).

 

Yeah, I've started back to trying to have some in the fridge more often than not. Foreshadowing... I'm also hoping to do an aging comparison with it, if the store can supply me with fresh ones every other month or so

 

Ah, the things we do for science...
and by science I mean Australian country tick.

I've had Australian hops in quite a few IPAs, but not an "Australian" beer, though it was brewed in the USA.

So, I did see these and shifted to try to determine what "premium" meant. One thing could be that being an ale is premium, of course, as Foster's Premium is an ale while Foster's Lager is, well, obvious. There's also an ABV premium of 10% (or in pure numbers, .5% move alcohol in the same volume).


So maybe darkness in a beer is a premium. The Foster's Premium is a more amber clear beer than the golden clear of regular Foster's Lager. Premium has a little less head retention, so those air bubbles might not be premium.

Well, if caramel is the premium aspect, the can says they add it in, which sorta seems like cheating.

However, if slightly more toasty/caramel-like is premium, the effect actually shows up in the nose, barely. There's a light, generic grain and corn sweetness with some grass in Lager, with the grass gets a light toast and caramel sweetness when we go Premium.

I noted this before seeing the caramel color, which I don't think is supposed to add much flavor. Eh!

The Premium ale is a little heavier, and a little smoother, but at the cost of crispness. It took a while to find much difference in flavor here, but I think the Premium is slightly sweeter and the Lager my dry. The lager seems ever so slightly more bland for most of the taste, where the Premium might have a little caramel note to be noted.

I will re-emphasize it took some effort to try to find flavor-specific differences.

The Lager has an impression of a mineral-to-grassy bitterness at the end, and while the Premium has something similar, the non-hop ingredients seem to stand up to it a little more (which also gives it that heavier feel).

Ok, so these beers are not so very different, in my mind here. I'm struggling to find any differences at all, and grappling to find the words to explain what I do find. I think I like regular Fosters Lager better, here. The Premium seems forced to me, like it's trying to be different while also trying to be as similar as possible to the original.

The cuvée? Now that seems truly and completely artificial, like someone was just throwing shit together to see what would happen

 

My main question is, "What whisk[e]y to pair with these Australian gems?"

And my main takeaway is the concept of a Fosters cuvée.

 

That's a ripper, mate!

I'd love to see more of these comparisons between an industrial brewer's so-called premium product and the standard one.

 

Jeez - anything that'll take away the taste!!

Actually, Foster's Lager can be drunk by me without much thought. It's... meh!

The more I drink the Premium, the more I actually dislike it. I just finished my reviews, and I'm not sure if ESB is the proper style for Premium (although I can't claim what might be).

Yeah - I was actually expecting a little more of a difference, oddly enough. I expected an admittedly bad bitter note from the Premium, but it ended up seeming a little sweeter to me.

Then again, last time I had a Premium, I had probably never had an IPA, and it likely seemed bitter to me at the time.

Add to that any potential change in market preference that might have changed the beer (even if admittedly less so than I have changed), and I can see where my memories and expectations could point me to an incorrect hypothesis.

Edit to say what you can give Foster's is that at least their Premium costs the same

 

Craig, I have never consumed a Foster's Premium Ale but based upon what you posted this beer sure does sound a bit like Yuengling Traditional Lager to me. My guess is that this beer is brewed with a lager yeast (despite the branding of ale) and that some caramel malt (or equivalent) is added to provide some color darkening and a bit of flavoring difference as well.

Cheers!

 

The Premium can, to the brewer's credit, maybe just for meeting legalities... states caramel colors were added. I was a little surprised to see the Premium called an ale and cannot speak to the yeast or fermenting process used. That said, I would not argue against your guess for a second.

 

Breakside Noble Pils and Jack’s Abby Post Shift Pilsner: Breakside (2/18/21) is three months fresher than the JA (11/18/20).

Both pour pale gold and maintain a thick, tiny-bubbled head. While the Breakside is crystal clear, the Jack’s Abby is cloudy, perhaps chill hazed(?). As far as I know Post Shift isn’t a kellerbier, so I’m not sure what the particles are.

Post Shift smells of flowers, crackers, and a hint of ash.The Breakside has a much milder nose, suggesting sweetness malt and flowers.

Flavorwise, Breakside features a bright acidity with floral notes and a medium-light bitterness. Post Shift is drier with lemon, toast, and firm bitterness.

Overall, the Breakside Noble Pils is much more delicate and interesting than the Post Shift which is much more aggressively bitter but lacks as much hop expression.

Besides the freshness gap, the Noble pils is 5.6% and Post Shift is 4.7%.

Both Beers are very good, and I would happily purchase more of both without hesitation.

 

The Jack’s Abby Post Shift Pilsner in your photo sure does have a bit of haze to it. It has been a long while since I have had this beer but my memory ‘says’ that beer was quite clear in appearance when I drank it.

I consulted the BA reviews for this beer and in the most recent review (March 11, 2021) @REVZEB stated “Crystal clear pale golden pour…”

I wonder whazzup here? My first thought was maybe because the can of Jack’s Abby Post Shift Pilsner was not too fresh (11/18/20) maybe something about that but I would think that with ‘extra’ time particulates would settle out (except if there was an aggressive pour?).

Oh well despite the haze it sounds like it was an enjoyable beer to drink.

Cheers!

@JacksAbbyBrewing

 

Jack, based on what other people post on this site, I believe Jack’s Abby has inconsistent product in this regard. (That statement sounds negative, but I do not mean it that way.)

 

Chris, I appreciate that input. I do not regularly drink Jack's Abby beers so I have no experiential database here. FWIW if the only 'issue' is the appearance aspect (i.e., haze vs. crystal clear) but the beer tastes the same this is OK with me; I personally do not get hung up on a little bit of haze.

As you know, when I am not drinking local Pilsners (Lagers) I am a Von Trapp man!

Cheers!

 

You'd have to pour one at room temperature to see if it's just chill haze. As Jack is surely aware, this would just be a slight protein issue which wouldn't affect the flavor at all. As beer production issues go, it's one that I could certainly live with as a customer.