Pizza Port Revelations

Brewed by Pizza Port (Carlsbad)
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Carlsbad, California USA

Sampled at 4th Boulder Strong Ale Fest. Beer pours a clear, light-gold color with an average-sized, frothy, off-white, mostly and quickly diminishing head. The aroma was pretty uneventful: malty with trace notes of husky toasted grain; trace hop notes of flowers and herbs; trace miscellaneous notes of banana, clove, peach and honey. The flavor was moderately sweet, trace bitter with a long, lightly bitter finish. The body was light-to-medium, the texture was watery and the carbonation was lively. The combination of the flat-line flavor and the palate netted out to be something like breathing stale air.

2006 Boulder Strong Ale Fest: Light yellow hue. Big bouquet of banana, clove and light herbs. Sweet malts were cakey, doughy and honey-like. Aromas of vanilla in the background. Little nip of bitterness. Curious and pleasant.

Draught at Pizza Port Carlsbad
Lightly hazy yellow color with thin head and lacing. The nose is ripe with fruity esters of banana and clove, lots of alcohol and bubble gum. Creamy light funky fresh beer. Odd; a bit overwhelmed with esters and other funky weird belgian things.

On tap at Mug’s. Cloudy golden color with a medium sized white head. Sweet aroma of coriander, banana, wet straw. Flavor wasn’t as sweet as I thought, and had the same witbier characteristics as the aroma. Lots of banana, coriander, yeast. I thought this was a wit until I read the description in the bar.

Hazy blonde with a thin white head. Light orange and orange peels in aroma, with some funky barnyard notes. In mouth, smooth sweet malt with nice orage peels, and rich and pleasant body. At EBF 2006.

Mild doughy aroma with plenty of grainy sweetness and banana esters. Opaque yellow body with a low but lasting, white, fine bubbled head. Very sweet flavour with plenty of herbal hops , banana esters and doughy malt character. Medium light body with moderate, large bubbled, somewhat prickly carbonation. On tap at the Extreme Brewers Fest 2006.

Highly cloudy pale golden hue beer with a tall, moderately lasting frothy white head. Emerging yeastiness betrays a young age that borders the unfinished domain with undeveloped estery nature as of yet that seems pretty limited to meringue-like airy, foamy bananas and lemon pie touches. Pinches of hops offer a soft underlying dryness, but dough dominates to the point that it dulls the malt out. Quite heavy on the carbonation, rather expanding big bubbles, yet pretty sweet. Like trying to make a great sandwich with factory sliced white bread.

(Draft: Liars’ Club in San Diego, CA) and (Draft: Pizza Port in Carlsbad, CA) The aroma is predominantly sweet, ripe banana with some wheat. Moderately sweet flavor shows plenty of wheat and yeast, banana, candy, with a light bitterness in the finish. Medium-full bodied, soft and creamy texture, ample carbonation is still gentle on the palate. Golden in color and fairly cloudy. Half an inch of tightly-knit, whitish foam atop the beer is short lived, quickly settling to a small ring. Tasty and enjoyable strong Belgian golden, but it didn’t knock my socks off.