Rising Tide Ishmael

Hey everyone! I don't know about you guys, but I am relieved it is finally Thursday night! One more day of work this week, and then the weekend is here! I was able to get 3 runs in this week, and after a 1.5 mile run today, I rewarded myself with a beer!

Tonight's beer is Ishmael from Rising Tide Brewing Company. I picked this bottle up while on vacation in Maine, at House Wine in Bar Harbor. Rising Tide is a 2 year old brewery located in Portland, Maine, and as of right now you can only find their beers in Maine or Massachusetts. I'm very excited to get to try this!

From the back of the bottle, Ishmael is an "American interpretation of the altbiers of Dusseldorf." I wasn't too familiar with what to expect from the altbier style, so I consulted Michael Jackson's Beer Companion. According to Jackson, the altbier reigned in German cities, usually in the north and west, that hadn't been converted to the bottom-fermented lagers. Altbiers generally have a normal ale fermentation, followed by "cold conditioning at 32-46 F from 3-8 weeks."

My bottle of Ishmael was "born" in July 2012. It pours a hazy copper color with a finger width head. Not much lacing as I drink this one. Ishmael smells like sweet malt, fruit and only the lightest bit of hops comes through. The taste follows the nose. In the front it tasted like a blend of fruit and bready malts, followed by a light, lasting bitterness in the aftertaste. Ishmael is a medium bodied beer, and displays an incredible balance of hops and malt.

Overall: A great beer I'm glad I got to try. I probably wouldn't seek it out again, just because of how many other beers that are out there to try. If it was on tap somewhere, I would definitely include it in a session!

Have you tried Ishmael? What did you think? Do you have a favorite altbier? Any suggestions for an altbier to try?

Thanks for reading!

Comments

The Six-Pack Project: New Jersey

Welcome to the Six-Pack Project! The idea of the project is to create a six-pack of beer that would best represent the current beer scene in your respective state. For me, that is obviously New Jersey. The Six-Pack Project was created by Bryan over at the This Is Why I'm Drunk blog. Check out his introduction to the project here ! 10 years ago, beer probably wasn't the first thing that came to your mind when you were thinking about New Jersey. However, times are changing, and it's an exciting time to be a beer drinker in the Garden State. Every year, more and more bars are starting to serve a greater variety in beer. Even more importantly, new breweries haven been opening in NJ each year, and lots more are in planning Today, there is a wide variety of beer brewed here in New Jersey. Choosing six beers to best represent the state was no easy feat, but I was up for it! Hopefully, the following will clue yo...

BJCP: Strong Scotch Ale (9E)

This is the first article in a new series of posts, where I will periodically choose a section from the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) style guidelines , write about the style, and then drink and publish my tasting notes from some of the commercial examples given by the BJCP. Now, I'm not sure if I will ever actually take the exam to become a beer judge, but I think this will be a fun exercise to learn more about beer! Fair warning, I will not be doing the sections of the BJCP style guidelines in any sort of order. Whichever kinds of beer I am craving is what I will be writing about! Strong Scotch Ales (also known as Wee Heavy) comprise sub-category 9E in the BJCP style guidelines. They range between 6.5% and 10.0% ABV, and have a light copper to dark brown appearance. Obviously, strong scotch ales are all about showcasing the malt. While studying this style, I found it quite interesting that the brewers ferment out the wort at cooler temp...

Beer Variety from New Jersey

Just what New Jersey beers are people drinking these days? What are the post popular styles that are coming out of the Garden State? In a previous post , I outlined what 6 bottled Jersey beers I would give to someone to represent New Jersey (kudos to Bryan from This Is Why I'm Drunk for the blog collaboration idea). In this post, I'm going to look at NJ beers a little differently. To get a good sense of the NJ beers people are drinking, I could call up each bar and liquor store around and see what their top selling brands are, call the breweries to see which is top grossing, or see what beers are top rated on any of those beer rating websites. A quicker and easier way to achieve this, I believe, is to simply look up Untappd check-ins! The beer rating websites may give you each brewers top-rated beer, but won't give you top selling. Untappd may be a very small sample size compared to the real sales numbers, but I feel it suits this purpose...

Mould's Beer Blog

Search This Blog