The home-brew review...

As promised, I reviewed my first tasting experience of the RijzeBrew "Ragin' Cascadian" for your curiosity. I was somewhat reluctant, as - truth be told - of the 6 beers I brewed prior to this one, I haven't been happy with any of them. Each one has had it's major flaws, wether that be: too flat, too "yeasty tasting", not flavourful enough, mouthfeel off, various other off-flavours (unless you're a fan of drinking plastic... that was a bad brew day)... I tend to be the hardest critic of my own work, and if there's something that isn't quite right about it, I'll be the first to point it out. Even some of my brews that others were pleased with, I always felt they were just saying it to be nice (whether that's true or not I'll never know)...

But I'm not one to give up due to a couple of "bad brews". I decided to take a month or two off of home brewing, and instead devoted most of my free time to to listening to brewing podcasts, reading brewing books, and perusing brewing forums online; all of which helped immensely by offering me some insight into small mistakes in my brewing process that could have been leading to the results I was having. With this new info in my pocket, and a couple of handy tips up my sleeve, I decided to get back into the game. Mission number 1: A cascadian dark ale!

RijzeBrew - "Ragin' Cascadian" Cascadian Dark Ale (500ml, 7.6%)

RijzeBrew "Ragin' Cascadian" in all its glory!
(Photographed beside a full bottle)

I brought the opener to the cap of the bottle, praying to hear that sharp "ppsshhhhttt!!" that wouldPssssshhhhtttt!!! Ahhhh that beautiful sound, well-known to beer drinkers the world-round. The fear of inadequate carbonation almost behind me, I poured the beer into my glass, resulting in a beautiful two-finger, light brown head perched atop the jet-black liquid. My first thought: "Well, this is EXACTLY how I would have liked the beer to LOOK... but does the rest of the beer hold up?"
signify good carbonation, and - hopefully - an excellent beer to follow. Hands trembling, heart racing, and beads of sweat forming on my forehead, I slowly put some upward pressure on the ridge of the cap... ...

I picked up the glass, and - before it even reached my nose - I could smell the sublime aromas of a lightly roasty dark chocolate from the malts mixed with a perfect dose of citrusy sweet orange from the hops (that dry-hopping sure was a hassle in my tiny fermenter, but it CLEARLY payed off here). But I know first sniffs of a fairly cold, freshly poured beer are not always a sure indicator of a good beer. Taking a few more wary, concentrated sniffs, I searched for any off-aromas: any sour or yeasty or oxidized smells hiding behind the wondrous up-front smells. Nothing. It was completely clean smelling, with nothing lurking behind that great "Terry's dark chocolate orange" aroma that I had been envisioning when putting together the recipe some 5 weeks ago. Even as the beer warmed up over the next 20 minutes or so that I took to drink the whole thing, all that happened to the aroma was that it became even more intensely chocolatey and delicious smelling. So far, so good!

The final test of the beer, the most IMPORTANT test one might say: the taste! As the beer slowly flowed out of the glass and coated my tongue and mouth with it's smoothly carbonated liquid, I was immediately met by a deep, dark chocolatey bitter-sweetness on the front of my tongue. As the beer flowed back along my tongue, nice bright citrusy orange flavours started jumping out of it and mingling with the dark chocolate in perfect unison as it made its way to my throat. Upon swallowing, I am left with a subtle, almost coffee-like roastiness on the back of my tongue, along with a very light feeling of orange peel rind bitterness dancing off of the back and edges of my tongue. Within moments, I am left with a clean, pleasantly bitter-sweet chocolate aftertaste in my mouth. 

After a few seconds of stunned bliss at what was seemingly a PERFECT Cascadian Dark Ale, brewed BY ME (I double checked to make sure I hadn't just accidentally poured an extremely fresh bottle of one of my favourite commercially brewed examples of the style), I immediately went in for another mouthful of the delicious beverage. This time I was looking for any HINT of off-flavours, or some kind of unwanted characteristic in the mouthfeel of the beer. Once again I experienced the same perfect balance of roasty dark chocolate and sweet orange, and noted the medium body (not light and watery like a lager, but not heavy or slick like a stout) with the perfect amount (in my opinion anyways) of smooth and bubbly carbonation. Not an off-flavour in sight (taste?)! And again, as the beer warmed, the chocolatey and roasty aspects of the beer became ever more to the forefront.

Conclusions:

Now I'm sure a lot of you are thinking, "look at this guy, REALLY trying to sell this beer as being the 'end-all-be-all' of beer ever produced!". But I assure you, that is not the case. My vivid and excited descriptions of my tasting experience are all prompted by my pure AMAZEMENT at how well this beer turned out, meeting and even EXCEEDING my highest expectations of it! I was starting to believe there was no way to get a perfectly clean tasting beer in a home-brew setting with the smallest, most basic equipment (a pot on the stove, and a small 1 gallon jug to ferment it in in my furnace room); let-alone a beer that rivals or even exceeds by favourite commercial example of the style! This beer came out tasting EXACTLY how I had envisioned it tasting, with the added bonus of it being completely clean and perfectly carbonated. It's also really easy to drink (dangerously so at 7.6% abv.), with none of the "heaviness" you'd expect from both a dark and hoppy beer.

I was really banking on this beer coming out awesome, in order to re-invigorate that spark of passion for home brewing that had gotten tainted slightly by the results of my first 6 brews. I'm now more excited than ever to get my next several beers brewed, and will certainly be re-brewing this beer as my first "signature" RijzeBrew!

With that said, I will leave you all with a quick sneak peek at the "mystery ingredient" going into my next brew...

What could they BE!?

Stay tuned for more beer tasting and home brewing updates in the near future! Until then...

Enjoy a craft brew!!!

- Sid Ryzebol -