Enjoying some great time after the International beer contest - Sofia.
After the very exciting Saturday, when I received 2 prizes (first and second place in 2/9 categories) it was a very sunny and calm Sunday, when I had some very enjoyable time with my girl. Of course, we went to the close-by beer shop Nosferatu in Sofia to have some refreshing beers and celebrate my victory!
Well, I will write my story about the experiences during the contest day in my #beersaturday post.
I cannot be more happy to have these:
The first place is for my Manzanilla, Lemon and Black Pepper Saison, named "Freshness in Rome"
And the second place is for my Smoked Oatmeal Stout (SOS). The other two beers - the Brett Raspberry Stout and the Raspberry Oatmeal Stout also got some impressive scores (43 and 42 points out of 50 - BJCP 2015 rules) and this makes me happy as well. There are not many beers receiving this high scores, and these go towards the "world class example" barrier of 45 points.
The celebration started with two beers - A Brown Easter Ale, brewed by Rhombus Craft Brewery - Bulgaria and a Saison by Nøgne Ø - Norway.
The brown ale definitely reminded me an Easter holiday bread, cooked with some dried fruits. Combining with the malty sweetness it was a little bit too sweet for this hot spring day. The Saison is maybe my first beer in this style, which is brewed by some Craft brewery and I have the chance to taste it. I liked it a lot, and definitely found it to be very similar to my Contest winner, except the lemon and the manzanilla extract! LOL
After these first beers the time had come to choose the second pair. I spotted the beers by the newest Craft brewery in Bulgaria - Brothers Brew Team! They brew their beers in the Bulgarian sea capital - Varna, and released their first beers before 2 or 3 weeks ago.
I was very curious about this Raspberry Chocolate Stout, having brewed a very similar beer for the contest. This one was with added cocoa, and it was a bit stronger than mine (8,2%!!!). Maybe it needed a little bit more time for aging, because these quantities of alcohol definitely need time! It was a bit harsh in the aftertaste, but very pleasant after all. Raspberries are left in the background, while the cocoa stays in front. It's definitely a good beer.
Their second released beer was a Rye IPA. Maybe my first Rye beer to try. I maybe need a bit more aromatic hops to complete the complexity of tastes in this beer. We have the bready Rye taste and a lot of hop bitterness. I cannot say, that this beer was bad. Having in mind it's among their first released beers, I must say, that this is a must-go beer. The brothers definitely know their job.
So... Tomorrow is the big day with the #beersaturday weekly post. Just until then, make sure to leave your comments down here.
Bye and cheers!