Beer Review: Ekim After Battle Pale Ale

An After Battle redux......

I reported on this excellent ale back in early April. As you may recall, I enjoyed this very much, but felt it was still a bit of a clumsy adolescent.

I emailed the brewer, Mike Jorgensen, about letting it cold-condition for a little bit. He said it wouldn't hurt, so, two months later, here we go. (Incidentally, I didn't keep some back.... very hard to do in my house... I just revisited Brookie cellars today and they still had some 1/4/11 batch in the fridge).

So........

Guide to review scoring is on the post Beeradvocate Ratings Systems

Unless otherwise specified, these reviews are my own.

Ekim After Battle Pale American Pale Ale 5.5%

A- / 4.18 look: 4 smell: 4 taste:4.5 feel: 3.5 drink: 4

This is my second attempt at reviewing Ekim After Battle Pale. My first attempt was 8 days after bottling (1 April 2011), and still seemed a bit unsettled. A bit more cold conditioning, and this review is of the same batch, 2 months later.

a) Reasonably clear, bright, light amber, with golden highlights. Pale beige, foamy head, which reduces to a thick slick after a couple of minutes. Reasonable bubbling.

s) Citrus notes were evident several inches away from the glass. Getting the nose closer, one gets tropical fruits such as guava, or passionfruit seed. Perhaps a faint hint of tobacco leaf, and a toasty note as it warms in the glass.

t) Excellent balance between the aroma notes, plus an additional cara/toffee component. Pineapple more noticable now, plus dried apricot, and bitterness is medium. Late aftertaste is of an English pale. I'd like to compare this with a Timothy Taylor Landlord.

m) Medium to light up front, a touch dextrinous mid-palate, but finished fairly abruptly.

o) The IPA is described as hybrid American-English. I would go as far as to the say the same for the Pale. The hops are definitely New World, but the malt profile and overall experience flahses me back to a pint glass somewhere in East Anglia.

For such a tiny op, Ekim beers are of excellent quality, and I recommend grabbing them when you can.

Serving type: bottle

Ekim's ales

A few months ago, I tasted and discussed Ekim's Viking IPA.

Last weekend, I picked up the latest release, After Battle Ale. This is an in-your-face pale ale, with a massive hit of late hops, and like its predecessor, a fine offering.

Ekim is the brewing vehicle of Mike Jorgensen, who enjoys expressing his Danish heritage through the beer's names and assertive characters. The beers are brewed in conjunction with the Happy Goblin brewery on Sydney's upper north shore, and like the Goblins, have varying alcohol levels with, as such, hand-written labels.

My 6-pack of After Battles was bottled on the 1st April; I was drinking it 8 days later. But I reckon you can drink beers too soon, and although I love this beer, think it could do with a couple more weeks in the fridge to smooth out and balance the beer.

I took the opportunity to email Mike about my thoughts. Unlike his larger brewing contemporaries, Mike had the decency to reply promptly, with warmth and consideration.

He suggests drinking both his ales within 3 months of bottling, as they have no preservatives. However, he also agrees that a couple of weeks "cold conditioning" won't hurt, although not essential.

Further, he advises that a third beer (an American brown ale) is in the barrel, but only available at Paddy's Hop Festival (April 30, 2011), and through Warner's at the Bay new growler filling station.

I picked up my Ekim ales (and Happy Goblins) from Brookvale Cellars in Sydney's Northern Beaches. A trip to Lake Macquarie looks on the cards, with a couple of empty growler bottles.

I recommend Ekim beers, and encourage supporting the little guys.

Beer review: Ekim Viking IPA

Guide to review scoring is on the post Beeradvocate Ratings Systems

Unless otherwise specified, these reviews are my own.

Ekim Viking IPA
India Pale Ale 6.0%
A- / 4.25 look: 4 smell: 4 taste: 4.5 feel: 4 drink: 4.5
Bottled 3 May 2010. Poured into James Squire half pint tumbler.

1" beige rocky pillowy head. Chestnut/copper/amber colour, slightly hazy. Olive tinges at the edges. Very attractive.

Aromas are an interwoven blend of malt & hop. Floral, soap perfume mixed with bread crust and caramel. Fruit notes of pineapple, maybe a touch of marmalade.

Richly flavoured, starting with caramel/toffee, with firm herbaceous/pine characters. Spicy notes of caraway or celery seed. It flows over the tongue offering more piney flavours to support the bitterness. Late hints of toast. Rewarding, and outstanding.

Lightly syrupy mouthfeel, sliding smoothly along, finishing a bit sticky & cloying. But this is OK when there is a good bitterness to cut through it at the end. Overall impression of richness and lusciousness.

A top-class IPA, and a top-class beer. Along with the 4 Pines Pale Ale, this beer has been a great find, and a delight to use as inspiration for my own IPA, currently brewing away...

Better stir the pot now.....

Long weekend beer tasting

Well, Paul and I got through 4 of the 5 beers. For some mysterious reason a bottle of Tanqueray 10 appeared on the kitchen table, so martinis were in order.  You can forget about even-handed judgement after that..... And then we had pinot noir with the duck, so things got away from us a bit....

Our opinions were pretty much in alignment.  The Cascade First Harvest is overrated & overpriced. The Ekim Viking IPA and the 4 Pines Pale Ale were both excellent.  I'll review these formally soon, after having a couple of more tasters, just to be sure.......   The James Squire Malt Runner was, well, hard to pin down. Quite thinner than anticipated, and dryer too. Definite chocolate and cherry, but altogether a bit confused.

But the definite finds were Ekim and 4 Pines.  To paraphrase Ferris, If you have the means, I highly recommend picking some up.