Chocoholic Stout tasting & some Ayinger beers

First up I decided to try my Chocoholic Stout yesterday. It had been 7 days since I bottled so it was time for a try. I will not open any more for another week.

This was lovely, as good if not better than I expected. If I have one criticism its that it felt just the tiniest bit thin. Perhaps another week conditioning will fill it out a little and if not it is still a lovely chocolate stout. The head stayed with the beer the whole way down to the bottom. Not as thick as the picture but it stayed with the beer. The real test will be next week when I will try one alongside a bottle of Youngs double chocolate stout and then the ultimate test will be at the next ICB meet up.

sight - Black with large tan head.
smell - Strong chocolate and slight roast coffee.
taste - As above but with a background sweetness as well as a nice bitterness.
sweet - 2/5
bitter - 3/5

Tonight I tried some of the beers I picked up at the old stand. Last night, before my stout I let my wife have a Trippel as I figured she would like it and she did. I only briefly tasted it but will try it properly some other time. I opted for a Leute Bokbier and while the smell was very fruity and interesting, the taste was awful. I am 100% certain the beer was off, it was like drinking orange juice that is out of date. In fact the beer was over a year out of date, not a bad thing if its bottle conditioned but I do not think this was and it did not age well. I poured them down the drain but at least I got the weird glass with no bottom that sits in the wooden base. Not very stable but interesting all the same.

Anyway tonight I decided to try some of the other beers I picked up. It turns out these are all out of date also, most dating back to 2008 but thankfuly this had no negative impact on any of them. I stuck with the one brewery tonight and that was Ayinger.





I started off with the Ayinger Weizenbock.
It was pretty much like a sweet wheat beer but with a little more of everything. Its a pretty big beer, even thoufh it came in a small 330ml bottle unlike most of the other Ayingers I bought. I enjoyed this but it was a little too sweet for my taste.

• sight - Large head, dirty amber.
  
• smell - wheat, banana, yesat, fruity (peach or apricot?).
  
• taste - Typical wheat beer, Banana, sweet, spicy.
  
• sweet - 3/5
  
• bitter - 1/5

Next up is the Ayinger Jahrhundert. I had no idea what to expect, no idea if Jahrhundert was the name of the beer or the style. The bottle is all German. It appears to be a Lager of some description but not a typical stlye of Lager. It reminded me more of a Blonde beer actually.
Just one note, I asked my wife to smell it and she said it reminded her of Oatmeal? Never having smelled oatmeal I can not confirm or deny if this is true or not.

• sight - Mostly clear but a little cloudy. Golden colour.
  
• smell - Lemon, honey.
  
• taste - Definate sweetness, tastes like honey. There is also a balance of bitterness
  
• sweet - 2/5
  
• bitter - 3/5

Last up for tonight was Ayinger Bräu Weisse. This is more of a typic German wheat beer. I liked it but I have had better. My wife (I agree) thought it just a little thin but that did not detract very mugh from it.

• sight - Cloudy, yellow, big white head
  
• smell - wheat, banana, yeast, clove.
  
• taste - Typical wheat beer, spicy and banana and yeasty
  
• sweet - 2/5
  
• bitter - 2/5

Well thats it for tonight. I have more Ayinger beers to try tomorrow as well as a bunch of others. I am fairly impressed so far with their beers.