Beer – #688 – Yeastie Boys – Rex Attitude
Another of the BeerJerkNZ beer club beers, This one the slightly challenging Yeastie Boys Rex Attitude. Challenging, Challenged, Challenge and Change
…the World’s first beer with 100% peat-smoked malt. …. They said it couldn’t be done, that it would be undrinkable,
This bottle contains beer that is 35 IBU, 210 Calories a serve, and 7% ABV making this bottle 1.8 standard drink units.
For Yeastie Boys this is Brewed at Invercargill Brewery in the style covered by : Smoked and they’re in Wellington, New Zealand
Man to Boy
They said it couldn’t be done, that it would be undrinkable, that we couldn’t use more than 5% heavy peated malt in a beer. So we carefully considered their advice and decided to try 100% instead.
Rex Attitude is inspired by French techno and the whisky of Scotland’s west coast.
Like the ’Auld Alliance’ it combines a little Scottish rogue with a dose of French je ne sais quoi.
It is, as far as we know, the world’s first beer made from 100% heavy peated distilling malt.
So, what could possibly go wrong?
unmistakable Peat aroma, but in a strange way also of Calamine Lotion which is an olde school thing for sun burn.
The pour is very pale, I was expecting something darker, maltier coloured, and I didn’t get much if any head, although to be fair I was being smart and used a whiskey type tumbler. Perhaps I should just pay attention.
Aroma is still the same, although it isn’t as strong or prominent as you might have built yourself up to believe.
Taste. Burnt wet wood came to mind. Smokey is an understatement. The addition of the heavy peat element brings with it a low and pervasive bitterness in the finish and mouthfeel, and you get left with something that might not be a comfortable burnt wood taste too.
I might be over-thinking it though, it’s a beer not a single malt.
Not an indication of the alcohol in this that I can pick, which is somewhat an upside. I can image that this is terribly polarising as a thing, I see in other review places that there are some very strong supporters.
I don’t think that this is a beer for sitting on the fence by, you’ll love it or hate it, I’m not ‘tolerate’ it is a thing. For a beer drinker I found this to be a sipping beer, I imagine for a Whiskey drinker they’d shake their heads in horror. But you do have to appreciate that it is quite clever, and is a brewer staple and core product, and brewing to challenge is also a thing that is to be applauded.
The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 7 of its things from the thing. It is challenging and a challenge. I’m not a fan though, although I enjoy a smoked beer on occasion, I think that this, for me, is too far the other end of the smoked spectrum, that is, it isn’t as subtle as they think it is.
The double dip review
- Am I enjoying it? Not really my thing this. but it isn’t undrinkable.
- Would I have another? I’ve had this before, I don’t think I’ll be rushing back.
- Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? IT fits in the conversational piece, and delivers what it says it has, but I think this is a beer that brings you down on one side or the other there is no middle ground.
Music for this : ” Will DrivingWest” ” Grand Theft Music” on Spotify, a covers album, some of what you know in ways you don’t know. They don’t have videos of that so here is something else by them, Will Driving West is an independent band from Montreal.
SMOKED
The classic smoked beers hail from Bamberg in Franconia, Germany. These are made using malt that has been smoked over beechwood. The insistent smokiness may be applied to any lager style. In North America, the same technique has been used to make smoked porter. Whiskey malt beers are made using peat-smoked malt.
A life just as ordinary 