The Lost Abbey: Red Barn Ale

It has been a while since I have reviewed a beer from the Lost Abbey brewery but the one that I am about to review is definitely a must have. The beer in the review is the “Red Barn Ale.” It is a fantastic beer that I couldn’t recommend more.  However, to me the ail throws this beer off a little bit. To me I found this beer to be in between an ale and a wheat beer. Its really a combinations of the two.

With that out of the way, I have to say that this beer is a very complex beer that has a lot of different ingrediants, aromas, and tastes.  To start off with this beer is brewed with a variety of malts and hops. The hops that this beer is brewed with are the Phoenix and German Tettnang Hops. Those hops are combined with Two Row, Flaked Wheat and Flaked Oat malts. This beer also includes a combination of yeast orange peel, black pepper, ginger and grains of paradise.

I happened to stumble upon this beer at my local Bevmo and it comes in a 750ml bottle. I chose this beer because I have had a few of the other Lost Abbey beers and have loved them and figured this one wouldn’t dissappoint. So when you pop the cork on this bottle and pour it into your glass you will notice that this beer pours to a dark golden color and is hazy like a wheat beer. When you pour it, it will have a mild head but nothing spectacular.  As I do with all of my beers, I smelt this beer before I had even took took a sip. What I noticed was that it has a sweet aroma to it. In my opinion the ginger really stuck out in my mind, it was a different aroma and maybe thats why. Its one that you don’t find in a lot of beers. I also sensed a floral aroma to this beer which is more than likely coming from the hops that are in this beer. Than of course you get the fruity\citrus aroma from the orange peel.

So once I had time to distinguish the aroma’s I  took my first sip. Like I was saying, I found this beer to be a mixture of an Ale and a wheat beer and you can get this when you take your first sip. To me the beginning of the beer is really where the wheat beer aspect of this beer is. You will get the smooth refreshing portion of the beer where you can taste the orange and the ginger. Then when you get to the back end of the sip you will get hit with the bitterness of the hops. However, don’t be alarmed  , the bitterness is not overwhelming. Its actually right on point, it gives you the ale aspect of this beer.

So if you are looking to try a very unique beer that you will be sure to love, You have to try this one.

 

 

What is a Pilsner

A Pilsner is a type of beer that was created in 1842 in the Czech Republic. When it was first created the breweries would brew this type of beer in a cave or cellar. They needed a place that would be relatively cool during the brewing and storage of the beer. However, today they have large brewing tanks that are used during the brewing process. A pilsner beer is brew with a lightly malted  barley and usually a variety hops that is considered spicy. These two things are what give the Pilsner its taste, aroma , and color. A Pilsner is a very clean refreshing beer that pairs well with many different foods. Some of the foods it goes well with are  chicken, fish, and all sorts of spicy Mexican food. I encourage you all to try this type of beer, so many before you have and they loved it. That is why its one of the most popular beers in the world. A typical Pilsner beer is about 5% alcohol, however some have a little less and some have a little more. Some of the top rated Pilsners are Reality Czeck, Danish Dream, Barmen Pilsner and Cerna Hora.