Thursday, July 10, 2008

exploding ale!


Phin & Matt's Extraordinary Ale was a new find at Once Upon A Vine. The brewery is in southwest New York state, and it seemed like a promising find. On opening the first bottle, however, it seemed more like a homebrew that had escaped the lab. The first bottle literally exploded with foam when I tried to take a sip. Pouring the beer as an alternative took more than ten minutes because each short pour brought out the liveliest head I've seen since a batch of my own homebrew got a little too carbonated. I tried contacting the brewery, but their website lacks contact information. The beer itself is good, but it tastes a little yeasty, like something went just a little off in the fermentation tanks or in the bottling. You'd think I would have returned it after testing a couple of bottles, but the store is off my regular route, so I'll just tough my way through this batch.