Goose Island: Matilda

While Goose Island‘s regular rotating beers are pretty darn good, their special ones are absolutely spectacular. They are well worth the price if you can find them, and this Matilda is no exception. I actually first had this about 6 months ago or so on a trip to Peoria for the annual meeting of ASCLS-IL. A classmate of mine works at the original Goose Island brew pub and gave me a bottle of this to take home. Six months later I finally drank it.

and check out my fancy new staging thingy!

 

Style: Belgian Strong Ale. Similar to a Belgian Pale Ale but with a much higher alcohol content. A highly complex ale with a huge, billowy head. (I can attest to this—there was some spillage…) Fruit and hops flavors balance each other nicely.

Overall Impression: This is really, really good. Somewhat surprisingly, it went well with my spicy Thai peanut pasta. I would recommend sharing the bottle as the alcohol content (7%) is a tad high for a session brew.

Appearance: Beautiful coppery amber color with excellent head that receded into lots of lacing on the glass.

Aroma: Fruit aroma–it tastes more complex then it smells.

Taste: Fruity, tarty, with spicy yeast flavors as well. You taste something new almost every time you take a sip.

Mouthfeel: Light with good carbonation. Smooth as well. Goes down easily.

Try this if you like: Brooklyn Local 1, Dogfish Head’s Faithfull Ale (and any number of Belgian beers but those may take some effort to find)

Irish Stout Homebrew Part 1: The Fermentation

Since my boyfriend and I have begun brewing our own beer, every once in a while you’ll get a photo post of our latest accomplishments. This one is our first beer ever, an Irish Stout from Midwest Brewing Supply. (At the time of publication, this is sitting in bottles in our pantry aging.)

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Bad News for Goose Island Lovers?

Quick post while I’m at work. I mean….

Evidently Anheuser-Busch has bought out Goose Island. They’ve had a minority stake in the company since 2006, and have been helping to distribute it to more people, so this isn’t entirely unexpected.

Hopefully this doesn’t affect the craft quality of Goose Island’s beer. They are one of my favorite breweries and they make some damn good stuff.

Then again, being owned by Miller hasn’t really affected Leinie’s in any terrible ways, so maybe everything will be alright.