New Belgium/Elysian Collaboration The Trip XII Pink Peppercorn IPA

So New Belgium and Elysian has this collaboration series called The Trip. I’m under the impression that these are actually brewed in Seattle, but I could be wrong on that. Neither brewery website has updated information on the series. Anyways, it’s an IPA with pink peppercorns. What else do you need to know?

Stats:
American India Pale Ale. 7.5% ABV. Washington. Limited Release.

Burnt orange in color with a really nice, fluffy head.

Well, you definitely get that peppercorn aroma on the nose. Just go open a tin of black pepper, that’s what it smells like. I’m not sure how a pink peppercorn differs, but it’s certainly peppery. You don’t get much else here other than a little bit of caramel.

Mouthfeel is really nice in this beer. A nice medium body with a lower carbonation level leaves this beer with a fairly heavy mouthfeel.

Peppery, with a little hint of caramel and vanilla. It’s like a spice cabinet in my mouth, but the pepper isn’t spicy and obnoxious. It does over power the hop flavor until the finish where you get some medium bitterness.

I like this beer. If you like pepper, then you will probably also like this beer. I’m glad it’s not overbearing, but it does over-power the hop flavor. 89 points.

Elysian Loser

Corporate beer still sucks. That’s the tagline to this brew celebrating over 20 years of Seattle’s famed Sub Pop Records. This APA is brewed with Pale, Munich, Crystal, and Cara-hell malts and Sorachi Ace and Crystal hops.

Stats:
American Pale Ale. 7.0% ABV. 53 IBUs. Washington.

Nice orange color with an okay head, but it leaves some nice lacing on the glass.

Well this beer is a bit cold, but I’m not getting too much here. I’m just getting a slight malt aroma.

The mouthfeel of this beer is great. It’s medium to full bodied with a nice chewy-ness.

Malt backbone with some hops over the top of it all. It’s got some citrus and grain with a slight hop floral and pine notes, which are fairly light, but it does bring quite a bit of bitterness.

It’s a pretty decent beer. I’m not head-over-heals for this, but it’s not a bad pale. 87 points.

Elysian Dragonstooth Stout

I’ve had this beer once or twice before, but have never reviewed it. It’s an imperial oatmeal stout that features Crystal, Munich, and Chocolate malts with roast barley and rolled oats. The hops include Magnum, Cascade, and Centennial.

Stats:
Oatmeal Stout. 7.5% ABV. 36 IBUs. Washington.

Nearly black with a nice tan head.

Not a huge nose. I’m getting some roast barley and some dark chocolate. There is also this cinnamon thing that is really nice.

Mouthfeel isn’t bad. Decent body.

Flavor is a bit light and dominated by roast barley. There is a hint of banana, cinnamon, and jerky that I like.

I don’t understand the A- on BA. This is an alright beer, but it’s dominated by roast barley which covers up everything else. 84 points.

Elysian The Wise ESB

Elysian’s ESB features Pale, Munich, Crystal, Cara-hell, and Belgian Special B malts with Chinook, Cascade, and Centennial hops. This should be pretty easy to find for most of you in western Washington.

Stats:
Extra Special Bitter. 5.9% ABV. 39 IBUs. Washington.

Caramel malty color with a great head and lacing.

The nose is a bit sweet with caramel and honey, some oak and vanilla also come through. There’s also this really nice raspberry aroma.

Pretty nice mouthfeel, medium bodied.

Hint of diacetyl, which is to be expected in the style, but it still has this nice oaky, vanilla thing that I like. I’m also getting a hint of tobacco on the backend.

I’m not a huge ESB fan, but I really dig this one. Check it out. 89 points.

Elysian Bete Blanche

This Tripel is a Spring seasonal from Elysian. It features Pale malts and German Northern Brewer hops for bitterness and finished with Styrian Goldings hops.

Stats:
Tripel. 7.5% ABV. Washington.

Yellow and foggy with not much head, but does leave some really nice lacing.

It’s got a nice yeasty nose with lots of light fruits coming through. Heavy apricot and pear mixed in with honey. Very nice nose.

Mouthfeel is perfect. It’s got a nice body with a perfect amount of carbonation.

You get yeast and light fruit right away which turns into a floral honey flavor. The back has quite a bit of bitterness mixed with pineapple, apricots and honey.

This is probably the best beer that i’ve had from Elysian. My only complaint is the bitterness is off-balanced, but it doesn’t bother me all that much. 90 points.

Elysian Night Owl (Re-review)

This is a re-review of the famous NW pumpkin beer. Now, my original review was not on the kind side. I really disliked the beer. I received quite a bit of criticism for that. Now, I absolutely stand by my ratings, but of course, beers change from season to season and there are always bottle variance. So, when I noticed this came out, I grabbed it. Let’s see if it’s as bad as before. This beer features Pale, Munich, Cara-Hell, Cara-Vienne, Cara-Munich, and Special B malts with Target hops. In addition, it has cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice with roasted and raw pumpkin seeds with pumpkin.

Stats:
Pumpkin Ale. 5.9% ABV. 20 IBUs. Washington.

Sort of a bronzy brown color. Lots of little pieces of sediment that hang in there. Head fades very quickly.

The nose has all of those pumpkin spice notes, as you would expect. It’s not an over-the-top aroma by any means. A lot of apple comes through here as well.

Mouthfeel is decent, medium bodied. Might be just a bit thin for me.

Pumpkin right away on the palate, again the spices are a bit subtle. Pretty good balance, but very understated flavor. It has some length, but it’s not a pumpkin spice flavor, more of a slight apple and bitter flavor, which doesn’t please me. I do get some of that tap water flavor the back end.

This is definitely a lot better than what I had last year, but it’s still far from great. Flavor is still pretty light and slightly disjointed. The backend has some issues as well. Honestly, I think this beer would be improved if they just added more spices, which isn’t something I often say. 83 points.

Elysian Men’s Room

The Men’s Room ale is brewed for radio show of the same name on KISW in Seattle. A portion of the net proceeds from the beer go to the VA Puget Sound Fisher House and the Ft. Lewis Fisher House to help support our vets! This beer features Crisp 77 Crystal, Munich, Cara-hell, Cara-red, and Cara-vienne malts with Chinook and Cascade hops.

Stats:
Amber Ale. 5.6% ABV. Washington.

Amber in color and actually keeps a pretty nice, white head.

Nose reminds me a bit of a Rogue, with just a tad bit of diacytel, but not offensive. Certainly some hops in here, but also don’t over-power the malts. I’m getting a little bit of cracker, orange, strawberry, and cherry. Seems to bring out some red fruits.

Very good mouthfeel, medium bodied with the right amount of carbonation.

Just like the nose. Slight hops, and a bit of red fruit with the underlying cracker maltyness. There is a bit of bitterness on the back, but again nothing offensive.

Solid brew by Elysian. Nothing mind blowing, but it’s worth picking up. It’s cheap, it’s decent, and it’s for a good cause. 87 points.

Elysian Avatar Jasmine IPA

Here is an interesting beer, and the only one that I know of with jasmine. They add dried jasmine to the boil. This beer also features Pale, Crystal, Munich, and Cara-hell malts with German Northern Brewer, Glacier and Amarillo hops.

Stats:
India Pale Ale. 6.3% ABV. Washington.

Amber colored IPA, pretty decent head, and good lacing.

Smells of malts and a little bit of jasmine. Really not that much hops on the nose though. I also notice this really grape juice type of thing, and a little bit of butter.

Medium bodied and slight carbonated bite.

The initial attack starts off with some fruit, mainly that concord grape sort of thing, but has this sort of stale beer type of malt flavor. The flavor really dies in the mid-palate, and then it just finishes like charcoal. Then the flavor dies off once swallowed, no length to this beer.

This beer has some issues. Maybe this isn’t a fresh bottle or something, but it’s really lacking in flavor, complexity, and balance. 76 points.

Washington State IPA Blind Challenge Pt.2

Beer 3-4 pairing.

Beer 3 is lighter with a more yellow color, while beer 4 is a darker amber color. Both beers have a decent head, but beer 4 has better lacing.

Beer 3 has a little bit of pine, with a ton of apple, I also get a kind of raisin, brown sugar thing. It seems like a darker nose than it looks. And again, a bit sweet. Beer 4, even though it’s darker, I get much lighter fruit. Grapefruit and orange/tangerine come out quite a bit, with a nice pear aroma. Beer 4 has a much prettier nose, with a nice, almost fruity perfume like nose. Almost dessert like, in fact this smells exactly like hot cross buns.

Beer 3 is medium bodied, with low carbonation. Beer 4 is a tad lighter than 3, and again, actually really little carbonation.

Beer 3 is light on flavor, but has apples and some citrus, and brown sugar. Back end is kind of a disaster, with a faint breadyness. This beer isn’t very good. Beer 4 has a lot of mushrooms, with a grapefruit, citrus component. Again very thin, but is lot more earthy, with a bit of a spicy component on the back. More of a bitter, burnt flavor then the rest I’ve had.

Beer 4 comes off a little better than beer 3. It’s, again, a little more bold, more earthy and a bit more complex, but I don’t think it’s great. Beer 3, 82 points. Beer 4, 83 points.

Let’s unveil the round’s loser

Stats:
India Pale Ale. 6.3% ABV. 42 IBUs. Seattle, Washington

This IPA is brewed with Chinook, Amarillo, and Centennial hops with Pale, Munich, Cara-hell malts.

Our bracket now looks like:

Elysian BiFrost

Winding down on the winter warmers, I have a couple more to post. This one is from Elysian, one of the better known breweries in Seattle. Their version is brewed mainly with Pale malt, and small amounts of Crystal and Munich malts. The hops include Centennial, Amarillo, Styrian Goldings hops. I want to give a quick shout out to Kevin and Mariko who both brought this along for me to try.

Stats:
Winter Warmer. 7.5% ABV. Washington.

Definitely the lightest winter warmer I’ve ever seen. Pale to coppery in color, leaves just a little bit of head.

Interesting nose, with some hops coming through. It’s certainly malty, but there is a pineyness from the hops. I’m also getting some spices on here. There is a nice orange zest thing going on. I’m imagining like oranges and a bunch of spices all being baked in the oven, and then honey drizzled over the top.

Light carbonation with medium to heavy mouthfeel.

The palate isn’t exciting me as much as the nose. I get a lot of earthyness, with some spices. Some of that orange and honey flavors I get on the sides of my mouth. There is a nice apple spice flavor on the finish. But it also ends with too much bitterness, which is off-balanced, and astringent.

This is an alright beer, but it lacks balance, and it certainly isn’t what you would think of as a winter warmer. I think it’s solid enough to try, but much better choices are out there. I’m actually going to bring this down a point to an 86.