Good evening all. Tonight's beer is Tiger Baby: Open Windows Open Hills, an American Pale Ale from Mikkeller (Copenhagen, Denmark). This beer was brewed to celebrate the release of the band Tiger Baby's third album "Open Windows Open Hills", and amplifies the usual fruity flavours one would associate with hops by including mango and passion fruit in the brewing process. Sounds like an interesting beer, so let's see what it's all about after the pic....
Tiger Baby: Open Windows Open Hills (5.0% ABV) pours a hazy amber colour with a white head that retains itself well on the surface of the beer. The aroma is sweet and hoppy, with grapefruit, caramel, resinous pine and some earthy/herbal hop notes. The resin and earthy aromas are the most predominant, with the grapefruit lurking in the background supporting everything. There are also some generic tropical fruit aromas that vary in intensity throughout the course of the beer. The sweetness envelopes the hop aromas nicely, acting as a vessel of sorts to transport them to the nose. So far this is a pretty classic American Pale Ale, albeit with a slightly more pronounced hop presence. The taste is very similar to the nose, with grapefruit, pine and some caramelised sweetness. In addition to these there are some light orange and lemon citrus notes, and the finish is almost creamy and certainly not bitter. However, this might not be the case with fresh bottles as I've had this one in my cellar for over 6 months, and no doubt the hop character has died down quite significantly. There is some dryness in the finish though, and the aftertaste is rife with tropical fruits, most likely from the fruit additions as opposed to the hop-derived fruit flavours. The mouthfeel is quite light and the beer is moderately carbonated- personally I would've preferred a bit more carbonation to support the hop flavours. Overall, this is a decent beer with a good dichotomy between the piney/fruity hops and the malty sweetness, offset well by the fruits added during brewing. I'd like to try this fresh to see how much the hops have diminished, but even as it is it's still worth trying. Recommended.
Until next time....
No comments:
Post a Comment