Hey, gang, and welcome back to John's brew review. My name [is] John and this week
I'm actually going to be bringing you a craft brew
Specifically because this happens to be craft beer week or at least according to my instagram feed and some of the hashtags that I'm seeing
[so] with that said I did take a little bit of time before I started this show
To get a little bit of a definition on what craft beer really is what and what it means
To be a craft beer or a craft brewery and if you go online
And you do a quick google search one of the first things that's going to come up is the brewers association
Definition and now according to that definition a craft brewery one of the highlights is they have to
Make less than 6 million barrels on an annual basis, and there are also some other
attributes that kind of are
Associated with a craft brewery for example. They're owned by no more than [25%] owned by a brewery or
Larger company that happens to not meet those craft
Brewery
Standards so with that said I figured I'd go ahead and I bring you what I think is one [of] the best local
Examples that I have here in Texas, and this is going to be a brew from Jester King now Jester King Brewery
they are located right here where I am in Austin, Texas and
They actually on their website. [I] did get some information. They apparently only make about
1,500 barrels a year of any kind of beer so as you can kind of see if you do the math they fall well below
What the craft brew
Standard is as far as production goes, so I think they qualify as craft pretty well according to their website
They do do some
Distributing but it's very limited. It's a different state that I think I saw California listed, Chicago
And then they even do a very small amount of overseas distribution
I believe I saw it listed that they can be found in Europe sometimes
But again, this is going to be in very limited quantities [and] I can tell you living here right outside of Austin, Texas
[they're] sometimes hard enough to find even living here right now
So where they actually produce the beer?
They don't tend to have it on stock in a lot of your major grocery stores
But I did find a local craft beer specialty store recently and they have a very nice selection of Jester King Brews
So I was very excited to bring a review on this [one] to you so from Jester king today
What I'm be showing, you is [their] simple means brew now. This is a farmhouse alt beer
I think [I'm] saying that correctly with smoked malt now
We'll go ahead and take a little bit of a look at the bottle art here and as you can [see]
That smoked Malt is kind of hinted at in this bottle art
You've got a little campfire going that it looks like [with] [the] what looks like a very large hop
Included in there, so it's a very pretty art style of hand drawn very appealing most of their bottles
Do look like this the art style changes
But it has a lot of similarities with the kind of layout
one thing that they also include if you take a look at the back with me is a story and
As mentioned on the show before that I really enjoy when a brewery
Takes some time to put a little bit of a background on either the brew or the brewery themselves
Gives me something to read and kind of get some information on what it [is] that I'm drinking
One thing that points out that I forgot to mention earlier
is that they do focus on Farmhouse ale this is a farmhouse brewery [that] they're uh that's kind of their go-to style and
From everything that I've heard from people around Austin. They are
Pretty damn good at it. So I say they picked the the right path they [have] another section on the back here
So there's a lot [of] information to take in which I really enjoy this gives a little bit more
More the [in-dePth] details into the brew
So it is brewed at five point six alcohol by volume and then they even include a handy little ingredients list so this uses
Unfiltered Hill country well water which is really cool
malted Barley smoked malted Barley hops of course mixed culture of brewers yeast
Native yeast and native Bacteria now you go ahead. We'll dive in and give you a look at this brew now
this is right when I poured it as is kind of typical for a farmhouse or belgian style ale it does four [a]
Decent amount of head, and I happen to enjoy that as I mentioned [before] especially in a glass like this
I think it makes it look
Great makes the glass look very appealing what really stands out about this
Farmhouse ale typically the ones that I've seen are typically on the light side
They're they're light Golden color some of them
Go [for] a darker golden color but I've never really seen a color like this on a [brew] it's kind of this dark
Smoky [Brown] which is really cool because of
You know kind of based off the ingredient list for this brew. They're kind of going for that
They're going for that dark Smoky kind of flavor, and it's reflected in the color of the brew
It looks really good
So as I said [I] did take those pictures before I actually started shooting as you can see the [head's] kind of died down
It's been about 10 [minutes] since I took that picture though, so let's took a while to dissipate
It didn't really go away very quickly. I'm going to go ahead and take a little whiff and see what this smells like
So it's got a it's got a very interesting
Aroma to it
It's not really something that I've experienced in a in a brew before it's definitely smoky that smoked
Malted Barley that they talked about I can definitely get that in the scent, but it is also
contrasted by a bit of a sweet Tangy aroma that is more what I would say typical of
a farmhouse style a very interesting aroma in all honesty a kind of
It kind of smells like a sweet campfire
Which is interesting considering that's kind of what they put on the cover here, so [I] guess I'm really
Experiencing the aromas that they meant for me to experience with this [brew] [it] is a really enjoyable aroma. I'm
Curious to see what it's actually going to taste like so might as well. Go ahead and take my first step it's
a it's an interesting flavor is
The aroma and the Flavor are almost identical the same description that I gave for the aroma
Where I said it was that smoky?
but balanced by a sweetness kind of flavor same thing kind of comes through in this it's
Got a little bit of a tang and a little bit of a sweetness
but that doesn't come until after you've gotten this hit of smoky flavor now will probably take me a few more sips to
Really figure out how I feel about that so go ahead and take another one, so it's it's a really enjoyable flavor
It's a very unique flavor. I'm not sure that I'm in love with it
[the] smokiness is a little odd in a brew for me
But I love how unique it is it's not really a flavor [that] [I've] experienced in this type of brewed now
typically if you're going to get Smoky flavors I've seen that a lot and you know your darker beers your porters or your stouts and
It tends to go along with some of the qualities of those beers for me a little bit better
I'm not sure that I'm a huge fan of that smoky flavor in a style that
[I] typically associate with more light refreshing flavors
But with that [said] it's a very unique kind of flavor
And I'm impressed by their willingness to kind of go for it on this one
I don't know if this is the type of flavor that I would want on a regular basis
This is definitely one [of] those unique experience brews that I'd like to keep on hand just because every once in a while
I want to have something different and fun
And maybe show a friend something that they haven't experienced before
That would definitely be
something that I think that this brew is great for so I've reached kind of a point when it comes to deciding on my
My actual rating of this brew where I'm going to have to kind of weigh my personal enjoyment
Of the brew against what I can see that the brewery is trying to go for here and the fact that they do
Accomplish what they're trying to go for here so with that said I'm going to go ahead, and I'm going to give this guy a
3.5 out of 5 cheers that is a very solid score
It's a good score across the board the only reason that it doesn't score higher for me personally is because some of the flavors aren't
necessarily clicking for me however
I can tell that it's done in such a way that if you're the type of person who enjoys those
Flavors that I'm getting that you would probably rate this beer even higher
I could see somebody who enjoys those more smoky flavors getting a
much more [enjoyable] experience out of this beer and maybe ranking it in the 4.5 to even 5
Cheers range, I respect everything that this brew is doing I'm definite you have to be finishing it. It's definitely quality however
I'm looking forward to trying some other things from the brewery [that] I've heard maybe a little bit more up my alley
So I'm saving [some] of my higher scores for those brews that are more of my house
So thanks again everybody for watching John's brew review as I said at
The time of the release of this video it does happen to be craft beer week so go out and support a local craft brewer
In your area and as always if you did enjoy the review don't forget to go down and hit that red [subscribe] button
It's the number one way to support the show [and] we would very much appreciate it so with all that said
See you next time and cheers
