More Tryanaury picks!
One of the things I love about craft beer is the wide variety available. It gives you so many opportunities to try something new for Tryanuary. In fact there were so many that Tori and I wanted to try, we had to split our Tryanuary podcast episode into two parts. Here is the second.
In this second part of our attempt to try new breweries included Fallen Acorn, Donzoko, Maltgarden and Wander Beyond. These were Tori’s picks and I had tried beers from all of these breweries before. But, they all produce excellent and interesting beers.
Pie Hard by Fallen Acorn Brewing Co.
Fallen Acorn Brewing Co was Tori’s pick. I have had some beers from them before - at a cheese festival no less!
This beer looks like apple juice, in the best possible way. There is a good blend of spices and lactic sourness. This is a proper sour - like, makes your cheeks pucker sour and has a pleasant acidity in the finish. Very much like apple pie. I didn’t get any pastry or custard that others picked up, but that may be my palate not picking it up. A lovely beer nonetheless.
Split by Wander Beyond
Another pick from Tori - a banana split imperial black ice cream IPA. I am not a massive fan of banana, but I was up for the challenge with this one. I had had a version of this previously that was strawberry and I love a black IPA. This had flavours and aromas of banana sweets, rather than actual banana, which I appreciated. The body is creamy and ice cream-like, but there was a bitterness and alcohol burn that came with the imperial aspect of the beer. I think this could be a bit more balanced but the ice cream elements were definitely there.
Trivial Activity by Maltgarden
I’ve only had one Maltgarden beer before, and it was another pastry sour. It was delicious! The brewery has a real command of flavours and if the can says its there you will taste and smell it. I’m also a fan of dragon fruit, which a lot of people don’t know anything about. It’s a pink, spiky tropical fruit. The spikes are green and it makes you think of a dragon - I used to draw them back in my art college days because they were so interesting. The inside is white with lots of small black seeds and they have what I can only describe as a fragrant aroma and taste.
The colour of this beer matches the skin of the dragon fruit and that fragrant aroma erupts from the can. There is a little wheat to back that up and some sour lime. The taste is fruity and juicy with mango to compliment the dragon fruit and some sharp lime to round it out.
I want to be drinking this is a sunny garden at the height of summer - it’s fruity and tart and balanced. This was my favourite of all the ones we tried in this session and I highly recommend Maltgarden!
Endless Graft by Donzoko
Donzoko is a brewery that both myself and Tori want to drink more of this year. I had one of theirs in my Brewdog Collabfest box and I want to try more UK brewed lager biers this year.
This, however, is not a lager! This is a dry hopped saison, and we picked it because Tori loves a bit of dry hopping!
The yeast in this beer wins out over all the other ingredients though - you get those peppery phenols you expect from a saison with zesty coriander, backed up by the dry hopped notes. The thing I like about saisons though is their drinkability. This, coming in at 9.8% has a bit of alcohol burn, which I didn’t enjoy. But this won’t put me off trying more from Donzoko.
All in all, our Tryanuary picks turned out pretty well. All of the breweries I would buy from again - I may try different styles from them to get a real feel for what their strengths are. If you want to hear our full thoughts on this brews, give the podcast a listen.
Did you try something new for Tryanuary - a new brewery, beer style or place to get your beer from? Let us know in the comments below. And if you enjoyed this episode you can listen to more of our episodes here. Or watch us here on You Tube. You can also find it on all the big podcast platforms or ask your smart speaker to play A Woman’s Brew: The Podcast.
