Is it possible to detect something similar to "butter" when it's not actually diacetyl? I only ask because my palate is an idiot.
I generally don’t like it. I always equate butter with diacetayl too. The somewhat recent versions I liked had no buttery flavor at all: Fox Farm and Incandescent. Not sure if it’s technically the same style, but Suarez’s Pale Bitter was exceptional. What a beer! No diacetyl at all. I’ll also add that the freshly tapped versions I had at Nerax a couple years ago were the best English beers I’ve ever had, and not one was buttery. All incredibly clean with that wonderfully pronounced bitterness that comes through on the end.
Older lagers can have a honey-like sweetness to them. I suppose one could perceive that as butter. Regardless, neither flavor really belongs in a lager in my opinion. Unless the brewery intentionally uses something like honey as a flavoring. But that would be odd for a lager.
I tried another can last night. I picked up a flavor note that I couldn't quite put my finger on, sort of a "creamy" flavor or perhaps leaning toward butterscotch. It wasn't offensive to my palate, and didn't lean toward a "buttery" type flavor. I didn't think it's Tree House's best effort, but I'm just glad they are trying their hand at more British styles.
Wouldn't work for me - no Kegerator. If they did this with Haze, I might consider getting a Kegerator...
This guy did! (And for the record, “this guy” isn’t me, sadly) https://www.reddit.com/r/CraftBeer/...=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Marcus Aurelius has to be their take on Pliny the Younger, right? Named after a philosopher, West Coast Triple IPA, released in the winter...
I tried one on draft. It was ok for what it is. Don't expect full flavor/mouthfeel like you get with the regular strength IPAs. Pretty much the same issue all brewers run into with lower ABV beers (that aren't styles like British cask ale).
I don’t have much interest in trying those beers. Seems gimmicky as hell. They already have Juli-ish and Green-ish. Now there's a blonde Juice Machine? Idk. I get it but it's just leading to N-A Julius so might as well rip the bandaid off. Give me a 2.5% table beer.
Looking at the Boston line up, it's funny to see mostly triple and quad IPA's and then the super low abv Jan. series. Which is silly since if you're doing dry January, you're not going to drink a 2.5% beer or anything about a NA, at least I would think. I tend stick to < 8% down to their pales. Would love to see a solid group of singles, how about some Alter Ego! At least Green and Julius is usually available...
There’s a segment of folks who don’t do dry Jan. But they want to cut back on calories, alcohol intake, and overall junk over the last 2 months. It’s just treehouse giving them something a little leaner. Which, we know won’t be all that good. But it may scratch this itch for a bunch of folks. It’s still tastier than NA. Though some are getting better and better. Overall I think Nate and Crew know to hold back on releases this month. They really haven’t dropped much but a few quads and triples they probably just felt like trying.
yup. The only super low abv beers that work imo are mixed fermentation Saison. A table saison is delcious and you dont feel like youre missing a ton. Every other style lacks from my experience
Juice Family Affair is really great, super soft and tastes like tropical starbursts. More in line with Queen Machine than Juice Machine, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Better than the last batch of Juice Machine I bought pretty easily. Marcus Aurelius is fine. Pretty boozy. I enjoyed it more the further I got into the can, but first impression was that it's not PTY or Triple Sunshine. Closer to a mid batch of Ephraim, which to me makes it far from a bad beer, but not elite. Good enough that I hope they continue to work on it. (Ephraim being a great example - have had some mindblowing iterations and some that were simply good.)