#ella blanc

[thedaily-beer]

Sam Adams Ella Blanc IPL (Picked up at Target). A 3 of 4. Lots of floral and herbal notes on this -- not particularly vegetal, but more flowery. Smells of some bready, almost caramel malt notes. Drinks much the same in the body with a nice thickness, and has a touch of resinous hop notes. Finishes clean and dry. Quite good.

[manofbeerman]

Sam Adams Ella Blanc

You know what I have been thinking about a lot lately? Cyberpunk. I don't know why since cyberpunk tends to deal with near future dystopian societies and the impact of technological over dependence on their every day lives. Doesn't seem familiar. But what I really like about the cyberpunk zeitgeist is the phylisophical questions it asks and requires you to think about, e.g. what is the human soul and what truly makes someone human? Is the universe materialist (composed of nothing but matter/mass), idealist (the opposite of that last thing I said), or some kind of combination of both, with maybe some other stuff? Are we all just brains in a jar with probes in them showing us a projection? Possibly according to some physicists. Now I hop you enjoy your sleep tonight. These are the kind of things that keep me drinking.

Well that and breweries keep cranking out tasty brews and I am nothing if not a hedonist. And today's offering is and IPL called Ella Blanc by Sam Adams. I am not well read enough to understand that name and Wikipedia takes too much typing, but there is a kangaroo with boxing gloves on the bottle so I'll do it anyway. Otherwise it will be yet another thing keeping me awake at night. And since Google only returns hits on the beer and people on Facebook I never want to meet, I guess it will always be a mystery. But that's what therapy is for. And drinking. I should drink.

It smells fruity and hoppy like you would want from a well hopped lager/IPL/whatever. It has a sweet orange and somewhat tropical smell to it. And possibly peach. Or maybe I am confusing color and scent again. That happens to me some times. Either way this smells quite hoppy, but like a juicy fruit scent. I don't know if that's because of the German or the Australian hops, but I'm going to go on a limb and say it's the Australian hops. Because the drop bears protect them. And the spiders. And literally everything else in Australia. They had better be good cuz you're risking your life with every harvest. Wait, does that mean the hops will kill me? Let's find out.

Well the good news is that I lived. But the bad news is I lived. At least the beer is pretty good. Bitter up front, bitter throughout actually, though it is somewhat muted by virtue of being a lager. I assume. The taste is more spicy through the hops though which is actually kind of interesting. It's quite a bit less fruity than the scent would have you believe. There IS a bit of bitter orange is the back of the taste, but it requires slurping so it really isn't worth the effort. But yeah, basically hops. That's the taste. No too much malt body that I can taste.

Problem with the beer? Basically that it doesn't have that malt background that would have given this a bit more body. It's a bit more flash than substance. Like a presidential speech. However, unlike a presidential speech, this is enjoyable in a not stupid and ironic way and won't lead to the overall destruction of the free world. Did I get political? Yes. But you know what today was one of those days where everything seemed personal even though the universe is a cold unfeeling place that cares for you as much as it does a random ant SO ALL BETS ARE OFF!!! Sorry, please don't unfollow me.

From the bottle this is much less bitter. Except in the back of the throat. Which is where I would really prefer the beer not being bitter. Like it isn't bad that the beer IS bitter in the back of the throat. I just don't appreciate that it lingers there. Haunting me. Like that one dream I had where I almost slept with my long lost half-sister. And I don't even know if I have a half-sister so I am effectively ruined for women forever. And now I need to stare at the wall listening to “Hello Darkness My Old Friend”.

But before I do that I should probably finish talking about the beer so psychological crisis on hold for the moment. From the bottle it is less bitter up front. I am getting more fruit and it is definitely bitter orange. I am not tasting any poison so I assume Jim Koch invented some way to brew it out or cover it up. It starts getting more bitter as time goes on, but because I believe in philisophical pluralism with an emphasis on the mind, I am able to get by on the memory of the less bitter taste alone. That's a lie but it sounded good at least.

I am kind of full. This'll be a pretty good poop though I think though. And since it's a hoppy beer it will smell like weed. Which I have no idea of what that smells like because I am a good person and I am a supporter of Ronald Reagan's war on drugs (nailed it). Not super gassy though which means know weed smelling farts, but I feel like I am okay with that. I mean in the end I am just killing time until dinner anyway so fuck it.

I give this beer a 7. I would buy it again should the mood strike me, but it's basically just drinkable. To me. But I am a snob.