Now, for the final 8 beers in the advent calendar of beers.

Beer #17: Parallel 49 Sahti Claws Finnish Sahti 7.7% ABV 35 IBU
Rated: 4 out of 10
I had never heard of  sahti before, so I looked it up on wikipedia. A sahti is made with juniper berries, and apparently often has a banana flavour that is caused by isopental acetate (which, if memory serves, is a favourite ester of high school science teachers as it smells strongly of bananas). I am not a fan of gin, so I was a little apprehensive of the juniper berries. This beer is certainly not for me. I did hunker down and finish it, and it had grown on me a little by the end but I would certainly not have another.

Beer #18: Red Racer Imperial IPA 9% ABV 90 IBU
Rated: 5 out of 10
I took yesterday off, so there’s two beers for tonight. This is a super strong, super bitter IPA. But it just seems a bit one dimensional. The flavours seem to meld into a single bittery taste, with a side of sweetness, and I can’t get the distinct fruity and bitter tastes that you would expect from a good IPA. On the plus side, it pours with a nice coppery colour.

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To keep the posts from getting too long, I am going to split my reviews of the advent calendar of beer into 3 parts. Given that we are up to the 9th beer, it is time to start part 2.

Beer #9: Parallel 49 Hoparazzi Lager 6.0% ABV 43 IBU
Rated: 7 out of 10
This beer combines the hoppiness of a west coast IPA with a lager. One of the consequences of this is that the beer has a vaguely unpleasant nose. It has a nice rich golden colour, but doesn’t hold it’s head very well. The bitterness, although not slight at 43 IBUs, is not overpowering and you still get some nice floral tones and an underlying crispness. It’s a decent beer, but I’m jut not sure when I would drink it. If I want a hoppy beer, I would prefer to go the full hog and have an IPA (like beer #3, the Filthy Dirty IPA), and if I want a lager I would prefer something a bit crisper.

Beer #10: Red Race Extra Special Bitter 5.6% ABV
Rated: 7 out of 10
The initial indications on this beer were all positive. It has a nice nose, and pours with a nice head. On the other hand, the taste profile is somewhat lacking. It has the bitterness profile that you would expect from an English style bitter beer, but the finish feels like it is missing a tone or two. It’s not a bad attempt at an ESB, and the fact that it can pour a nice head is a refreshing change, but it’s not quite there either.

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If there is one thing I have learnt from PJ Healy, it is that a good experimental economist needs to take his or her beer drinking very seriously.

Kiri bought me a beer advent calendar for the celebratory season with 24 different beers, half from the Parallel 49 brewery and half from the Central City Brewers (who make the red racer beers). I figure this provides a good opportunity to follow PJ’s lead and start reviewing some beers. I’ll keep updating this post throughout the month as I enjoy the beers.

Beer #1: Parallel 49 Schwarzwald 9% ABV 22 IBU
Rated: 5 out of 10
This beer is an interesting one. It is flavoured with chocolate and cherries, in the style of black forest cake. I normally really, really dislike flavoured beers, but this one is almost passable. The flavouring is achieved using cacao nibs and sweet dark cherries. The colour is very dark, almost black with a hint of red, and there is almost no head. The alcohol content is probably a bit too high, as it seems to overpower some of the other flavours. The chocolate and cherry flavours are not too overpowering, but not really subtle either. Not bad for a flavoured beer, but not great for a beer.

Beer #2: Red Racer Pilsner 5% ABV
Rated: 7 out of 10
Like all Pilsners this beer is very inoffensive. It is crisp and clean like a Pilsner should be, but the finish is just a little bit on the creamy side compared to what I would expect from a great Pils. It is a very pale yellow, again with very little head (I think this will be trend throughout the entire case). A good beer, that you could just keep on drinking on a hot summer’s day. I almost gave this one an 8, but knocked an extra point for the non-PIlsnery aftertaste.

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