March 11, 2009: Left Coast Asylum

Earlier this month I tried a beer from Left Coast Breweries called Great White Ale which I enjoyed immensely. Anytime I try a craft brew from a small, family run brewery I always eager to try their whole line of products if I like the first one that I try. I was shopping for some new beers in Bevmo! the other night, when a fellow beer enthusiast mentioned Left Coast Asylum in passing. As you can see on the label that's printed on the bottle, there's a pretty cool graveyard looking scene that gives Left Coast Asylum an air of intimidation. I knew from the get go that this was the kind of Belgian style ale that was going to kick my ass, and I couldn't wait. That's not a misprint on the bottle; if you look closely, you'll notice that this beer is 11% alcohol by volume, which is more than twice the standard 5% that you'll find in most beers around the world. Left Coast Asylum is classified as a Belgian tripel ale. Belgian ales have traditionally been classified into one of three categories by strenght; enkle, dubble, and tripel, with tripel understandably being the strongest.

I am self admittedly a bit of a baby when it comes to beers with strong levels of alcohol. As much as I love the taste of good beer, I'm not such a fan of the taste of alcohol. One of the biggest challenges for a Belgian tripel ale is to make a brew that packs a punch with a high volume of alcohol, but also to make a brew that masks the unpleasant sting of alcohol. Left Coast Asylum predictably had all the bite that is typical of a Belgian tripel, but unfortunately for me that was all I could taste. I couldn't really put my finger on all of the other flavors in Left Coast Asylum, because the taste of alcohol was absolutely overwhelming for me. I've definitely had stronger ales in the past, but usually the complexity of the flavors of the brew is enough to make the beer drinkable. With Left Coast Asylum, alcohol was all I could taste. I tried to be a man about it just power my way through the beer, but by the end it was almsot undrinkable. A heavy and bitter Belgian tripel like Left Coast Asylum may not be the best choice to sip by the pool on a hot day, but if you like strong ales that are guaranteed to put hair on your chest, then Left Coast Asylum is probably a good fit for you.

Cheers,
Ian

http://www.leftcoastbrewing.com/

P.S. In an earlier post, I referred to Asylum as being brewed by Lost Coast Brewery instead of Left Coast Brewery. The posting above has been edited to reflect the real facts. I would like to apologize to both Lost Coast and Left Coast for the error.