Tyranena - "Brewers Gone Wild" La Femme Amere

Tonights brew is one that I figured I'd take a chance on.  I had never had Tyranena before and knew nothing about the brewery.  So what better way to get to know a beer and the people behind it than trying one out while poking through their website!

Tyranena Brewing Co. was founded in 1998 and started brewing just under a year later in '99.  They don't have a whole heck of a lot of information on their site.  Plenty about current events and news releases but little about their history.  So instead of focusing on Tyranena's past we will take a good look into what I'm drinking this evening, Brewers Gone Wild La Femme Amere.

I chose La Femme Amere over my other choice at the store, Benji's Smoked Chipotle Imperial Porter.  For some reason peppers don't appeal to me in a beer but I guess thats why its in their Brewers Gone Wild (BGW) series.  "A series of big, bold, ballsy beers... each beer in this series is to the extreme.  Big flavor, wild names and... well... do you need more?" is the description affixed to their BGW page.  Normally this would be a cause for concern since any beer that claims to be an extreme version of something just means that there are too many ingredients included for the brews own good.  And more often than not the beer is overdone and tastes like a syrupy mess of malts and hops.  My hope is that this Belgian IPA will not reinforce the "Extreme beer" stereotype.

This brew is Tyranena's popular Bitter Woman IPA brewing with a Belgian yeast strain.  Should be a fun combination to enjoy!  Very little head with a small lacing left behind in the pour.  Floral, hoppy, fruity, spicy, a hint of black pepper, malty all in the aroma.  Color is orange/amber and clear.  I'm almost positive its filtered since there is no residual yeast at the bottom of the bottle.  Taste... wow!  Very surprised.  Nice and hoppy with a very balanced mild mix of spice and fruit.  So much going on here.  Somewhat difficult to describe.  A mild sweet malt comes through to support the madness of flavors.  Finish is slightly sweet, not cloying, but sweet enough to notice.  Could be a bit dryer.  The hops help bitter it out but not as much as I would like.

Overall 4.8/6.0 - I was surprised.  I wasnt expecting much from this beer but this really came out of left field.  The bouquet of floral and Belgian flavors come together nicely.  The finish could be dryer but only slightly so.  I could drink a few of these and be happy.  Ill be buying this again if I can find more of it!

I'm pretty sure this cheese head is saying "Will you drink a beer with me?"  My French is a little rusty though.

A little story about the supposed journey of this brew.