Beers in Review: Asheville-Best of Bhramari and Twin Leaf
Tonight continues the look back at the beers of Asheville, North Carolina. We'll be covering two different breweries in this entry.
Starting off is Bhramari Brewhouse, a newcomer to the Asheville scene that is essentially split in two: a standard restaurant and a much more stripped-down taproom and patio, where you can drink within feet of the tanks. Everything here was a little bit off the beaten path, in a good way. One of our drinking experiences was their Carolina Common Ale served both "as is" and infused with apples and star anise. The straight Common uses locally-sourced malt, just like the Highland IPL I tried in Monday's video review. It pours pretty orange color, and was fairly sweet (many of their beers were on the sweet side) with caramel notes and a bit of grain and toasted malt. The infused Common was also quite sweet and yielded a caramel apple flavor, along with a mild black licorice kick (from the anise). On my palate, the entire flavor profile kind of melded into cherries and strawberries at the very finish. Again, these beers were pretty sweet, but just stayed on the tolerable side.
The Night Sauce Stout was a big hit with both my parents and myself. Super tasty with lots of chocolate and a hint of coffee. I also caught notes of roastiness and caramel and just a bit of black pepper as well. Complex and tasty, this was a great stout.
We also tried their Lorelai American IPA. Sadly, I don't have a many notes on this beer, except that it was a bit of a tropical fruit bomb. I enjoyed it, but my dad, who is quite the hop-head, did not. There was also a Black Goze that combined the coffee notes of a porter or stout with the lemon-sourness of a Goze. It didn't work for my personal palate, but I expect they hit their own target perfectly.
Our next stop was Twin Leaf Brewery. They weren't doing flights, which was just fine, as after several beers each at Bhramari and Wicked Weed (discussed previously), we were more than happy to throttle back a bit. I spent most of the time teaching my mother about Cards Against Humanity, so I may have created a monster there. I had their White Noise Witbier. I found this to be a really well-executed wheat beer. It was crisp and clean, with clove, wheat, and even some spicy notes. There was also just a hint of citrus, probably orange. Again, really solid in style.