Beer Review: Old Cellar Dweller, Driftwood Brewery

I got a bottle of 12% Old Cellar Dweller Barleywine Style Ale from my brother-in-law for xmas. I shared it with some friends.

Incredible green hoppy aroma, like opening a fresh bag of freeze-dried hops from the local beer-supply store. After it warmed up a bit, an alcohol smell is noticeable. All in all, no offensive smells.

Tastes like hops and fruit. Can't really taste the barley malt, the alcohol or the yeast underneath. I was hoping for a much more maltier taste, given the description on the bottle. Has an astringent aftertaste, like from an oversteeped black tea.

A nice deep copper colour, but not much of a head. Perhaps there wasn't enough malt/sugar added to the mix, resulting in the under-carbonation and lack of malt taste. Then again, the yeast could have consumed all of the sugars and this is the intended result (all 12% of it).

A similar beer is Hop-Head Ale, but this one is a bit heavier and thicker than that IPA. More of a sipping beer than a "refreshment" beer; 1/3 of a bottle was definitely enough.

http://driftwoodbeer.com/beers/old-cellar-dweller-barleywine/

Rating: 25/31

Beer Review: Aventinus Weizen-Eisbock

I recently started up my own business, so I decided to cut down on the beer I was buying. I ended up going to the BC Liquor store on Cambie at 8th Ave and see what sort of things I could get on a budget. One of the beers I tried was the Aventinus.


I wasn't expecting that much since it was only about $3 or so a bottle, but this little German beer was really tasty. It's a cross between a dark wheat beer and a dopplebock, but they let it freeze and I assume must scoop the ice from the top which allows this beer to get up to it's 12% ABV. While the alcohol had a strong taste, it wasn't over powering and I rather happily nursed a single bottle of this over a full night. Definitely worth trying.

Rating: 7/10
Cost: $2.96 per 330ml bottle
Available: BC liquor store (Cambie @ 8th)