Disclaimer: We will come clean. This review was, unfortunately, written at a time when we were not aware that mats of bubbles are symptoms of a dirty glass. Just because we are Drink Me Dirty, it does not mean it is acceptable to drink from a dirty glass. Clean and rinse your glasswares properly. As better informed drinkers, we now vow to spread the gospel of clean glassware. Read more about this topic here. #DirtyGlassMafia
Name: Amun (2019)
Brewer: Omnipollo (Sweden), The Veil Brewing Co. (United States)
Style: Experimental Beer (Base style: Double IPA)
ABV: 8%
Review Year: 2019
In 2019, Omnipollo (Sweden) teamed up with The Veil, an up and coming craft brewery from Virginia, to create Amun, a Double IPA brewed with 100 liters of oat milk and the hop varieties, Citra, Mosaic, and Nelson Sauvin.
Oat Milk is a dairy alternative made from soaked oats and enzymes. Apparently, there is a big fuss about this vegan-friendly ingredient in Sweden, the home country of Omnipollo. And it seems this craze has reached the craft brewing scene as brewers now substitute oat milk for lactose to enhance the creaminess of beers. This is done by adding the said ingredient straight to the kettle after the boiling phase and is noted to yield a murky liquid with an abundance of sugar for fermentation.
Recommended Reading: Bring On the Oats: Tips on Extract-Brewing Hazy IPA (Craft Beer & Brewing, 2019)
STYLE GUIDELINES
This beer is being evaluated as an Experimental Beer (34C)with the Double IPA (22A) as the base style in the context of the 2015 Beer Style Guidelines of the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP). The most current version of the guidelines can be found on the BJCP website.
TASTING NOTES
Amun is pale yellow-orange under natural light, with some degree of haziness. The nose offers a novel profile of clay, damp rolled oats, and bread/yeast. This oat milk beer was noted to have a medium body and a silky and velvety mouthfeel. The palate initially opens up with wax/ oat-like notes and is accentuated by moderate orange citrus and grassy herbal tones. The finish exhibited a mild impression of unsweetened milk tea and some grass-like hoppiness.
THE VERDICT
If we blind-tasted Amun, we would most likely not have identified this as a traditional Imperial IPA due mainly to the elevated presence of oat and wax-like (not butter-like) characteristics we have noted. We would have probably tagged this as an oat-forward New England IPA akin to the ones brewed by Stigbergets (Sweden) and Cloudwater (United Kingdom). While it has been noted that oat milk may manifest directly in the flavor composition of New England IPAs, we think more hop presence would enhance the balance of this beer. Despite this, the mouthfeel is a noteworthy aspect of this beer.
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