Chai Ale

Bottle from backlog. Pours clear amber with a small fizzy off-white head that dissipates pretty quickly leaving some residual and lacing. Aroma is grain, spices, cinnamon, clove. Flavor is light sweet, burst of lemon, clove, bit of lemony tartness. Medium body, interesting, not necessarily good.

Draft @ the brewery. Pours a pale yellow color with a small white head. Has a fruity spicy aroma. Fruity malty spicy creamy flavor. Has a fruity malty spicy creamy finish.

2008 A very big thanks goes out to cquiroga for this big bomber from californ-eye-aye. Large bottle that bursts with a lava like opening cerimony. Smells quite like yeast. Has an almost hefe olfactory. Beautiful rolling carbonation in the glass. Quite bitter impressions for a blonde. Big rocky alabaster head. Never stops foaming in my big mug. Enjoyable fizz on the palate. Taste is like many east end brews I’ve had, must use the same yeast. Malty bitter bite continues to grow on the back and top of my mouth. Hazy like an orangish hefe in appearance. The personality of this brew is somewhat reminiscent of unrefined belgie dubbels I’ve encountered. Strongish in the alky taste department. On the finish, it is quite interesting. Getting a buzz near the end of the session.

Bomber $4.99 at Bottle Barn; 2007 product. Looks like I should just copy IrishBoy’s words. Glass of foam with a little liquid. (That repeats with each pour; must be a live one) Slightly hazy golden color with a huge frothy white head. It has a really spicy aroma. Pie spice. Coriander? Nutmeg? Clove! Chai? Isn’t that tea boiled with milk and water? Certainly seems to have ginger. Thin to medium bodied with spritzy carbonation. On to the flavors. Ginger, coriander or nutmeg, likely clove, something herby - must be the Chai - seems a bit like tea. Light malt, or medium malt overwhelmed with spice. Overall it reminds of different ales: Butte Creek Mataveza; Badger Blandford Fly. Pretty tasty. Ought to go great with spicy asian food. The finish is decently dry, and the spice lingers while there is a flavor like that from sucking tea leaves. Overall it is pretty strongly flavored, but there are many different flavors, and they seem to work well together. Don’t die ’til you’ve tried this one.

Bomber $4.99 at Bottle Barn, Santa Rosa; 2007 vintage; bottle opened fine, but I got an inch of beer in the glass for aech 6 inches of foam; urine yellow with an absolutely huge and pretty long lasting yellowish head; nose of chai, grain, and nutmeg; flavor has mainly spices (chai, nutmeg, cloves, and maybe some ginger) overpowering a small amount of background hop bitterness and the malts.

Bottle. 2007. Amber beer with a huge cream colored head. Bottle under big carbonation. Spicy, nutmeg aroma. Very spicy (nutmeg, cinnamon, clove) flavor. Some vanilla and dusty malt. Lingering spice. Medium bodied. Spice overpowers.