Beer – #979 – Garage Project – Rebel County
Garage Project Rebel County – of course it’s a beer and vinyl day – American Strong Ale and Siouxsie and Banshees. Fancy beer the Rebel County .
Feel the fear, and do it anyway. Sláinte
This is a 650ml bottle of abeer that is 13% ABV, which works out around the 390 calories a serve size, the bottle is 6.7 standard drink units in NZ.
This was brewed by Garage Project and it’s in the style that is a American Strong Ale and they did that in Wellington, New Zealand
Rebel Rebel…
Sine Metu – without fear. The Jameson family motto and the guiding principle for a collaboration unlike any we’ve done before. Jameson, Garage Project and fresh whiskey barrels from the Midleton distillery in County Cork.
A unique opportunity like this demands a unique beer. Inspired by the distinctive oak driven flavours of Jameson whiskey we’ve created a fiercely strong blonde ale, brewed with Irish malt, maize, honey, hazelnut, vanilla and dried apricots, then aged in borrowed barrels and butts, producing a truly collaborative beer imbued with the very spirit of the Rebel County.
Feel the fear, and do it anyway. Sláinte
So, What could possibly go wrong?
An intriguing malty aroma that’s quite fruity, not at all like a whiskey aroma that I was expecting, sweet.
Aroma in the glass too is odd, and not familiar with anything I can think of apart from Toffee.
Lovely golden orange pour of a beer. Aroma is strange, and the only thing I could think of was Toffee. The taste is amazing though, Oaky whisky softness with an intense sweetness and heat about it, that and a long lingering mouthfeel .
The aroma is quite odd though and out of place, and that doesn’t prepare you for the quite intense beer that follows, which is subtly intense and full without being ragey and angry.
There’s that nice warmth in the aftertaste too.
A lovely beer to pick our flavours and layers on though, I wish I could unpick that aroma, but the flavour are discrete and work well together in this.
A mixed review then, on one hand this is lovely beer. Then I thought it was layered and invited investigation. Then I thought it was going to get hard going.
Similar to the vinyl music, the distinctive music, a couple of familiar tracks and then some jib jab and weirdness. Possibly why this is in good condition vinyl wise, might have got a couple of spins and left to mature. Not a classic album by any measure.
The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 8 of its things from the thing. It is another of those relentlessly full flavoured beers that just hammer away at the palate, starts off really mysterious and then revelatory and then to a realisation that you’ve possibly bitten off quite a bit more than you can chew. Despite the large bottle I don’t think this is a quaffing beer and ends up requiring small sips to get through.
The double dip review
- Where did I get it? It was a gift on my birthday, but they are still around in good places.
- Am I enjoying it? I am, it’s got a lot of going on, it’s just very full
- Would I have another? No I don’t think I’d manage it
- Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? It is clever and nice take on Whiskey beers using barrel and casks over peated malts. It’s a nice beer to experience.
Music for this: Join Hands by Siouxsie and the Banshees on Spotify
Siouxsie and the Banshees were an English rock band, formed in London in 1976 by vocalist Siouxsie Sioux and bass guitarist Steven Severin. Punk that became post-punk.
This from 1979 then my Vinyl music and beer afternoon.
AMERICAN STRONG ALE
Not a style, per se, but the only logical category to incorporate the plethora of strong, stylistically vague beers coming from American micros these days. Some are related to English Strong Ales, but with more hop, while others are ultra-strong variants on the IPA theme. But no matter how varied their origins or characters might be, all are intense, potent, with generous quantities of hops and malt.
A life just as ordinary 