Beer – #797 – Brave Brewing – Eastern Glow
BeerJerk Beer Club beer night, always something to look forward to, and this time a Session IPA, which is always something worth going at, just to see if they can get the fall mouthfeel and flavour in there on a limited alcohol base.
Be Brave, be different, do something scary, do something fun.
500ml bottle of a 4.3% ABV beer, about 128 calories a serve size, and this would be 1.7 standard drinks.
Brwed by Brave Brewing Co. in the style that is Session IPA and they are in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand
Evening Glow.
‘Eastern Glow’, our hoppy Session Ale that took out the trophy at the Brothers Beer Session Beer Challenge.
Richer in body than your average session ale. Eastern Glow is unfiltered so go easy on the pour.
So, what could possibly go wrong? I notice this is right close to it’s best before date, as an aside.
Aroma is nice enough on opening, a flat hoppy note, wet grass mostly, but deep flat.
Lovely pour of a plan yellow beer with a lovely firm a decent head of substance, not a noisy beer for all that bubble. Aroma is subtle hop in the glass, which is really quite nice.
Now I might have this too cold, but this is initially a bit sharply bitter, but on second inspection there isn’t a lot of substance.
New camera (Well a new phone) and I’m not sure the standard picture is upto it, might have to read the manual.
I left it to warm a bit, seemed the right thing to do,
But it didn’t improve, and once again, from somewhere I get a plastic sort of taste, which is hop related, but I’m new at this so that’s a bit of a guess. It’s not a wholly pleasant taste, but I put it down to being part of the beer experience
Second pour is the same even pour with the brilliant white head. It does improve with the warming but it really is a bit dissipating and hollow, The malt part begins to assert as it warms but it really isn’t enough to save this really.
The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 5 of its things from the thing. I can’t lie and might be being brutal but this really didn’t do it for me, I thought the taste was strange, but that might be my preference to the hops, and the malt whilst trying didn’t do quite enough to bring body and substance to this. Looks great, pour is lovely, but talks a good game rather than delivering it in the glass. Average, should try harder.
The double dip review
- Where did I get it? Beer Club beer 🙂
- Am I enjoying it? Not so much.
- Would I have another? I don’t know, it is really difficult finding a good session IPA, and this wasn’t one of them.
- Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? No.
Music for this: ” Bird of Youth ” and ” Get off ” on Spotify
SESSION IPA
The term Session IPA describes a category of beers marketed for their hop-dominant flavor profiles at “sessionable” levels of alcohol. While this is typically 3.2 – 4.6 percent alcohol, a few have stretched the definition.
A life just as ordinary 
Hey mate. Matt here from Brave. Flick me your details at some stage and i’ll fire you a fresh bottle next time I make it. Hopefully you will have a better experience. Love the music match by the way. info@bravebrewing.co.nz
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Matt, thanks for that, I appreciate you’re offer and I’ll email you. I’m disappointed that I didn’t enjoy it more, because I think it has great potential. The BeerJerk guys are doing a great job in promoting beer, and I see that quite a few people are enjoying this beer, so I feel like it’s me being contrary.
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