Here are the two beers side-by-side from a few different views:
The beer on the right if Inkleg's and the one of the left is Beer-lord's.
As you can see, Inkleg's has a more ruby red color that is clear while Beer-lord's is more opaque and has a brownish color.
Beer-lord's glass isn't as full because the bottle was a gusher when I opened it. After popping the bottle it started overflowing immediately so I poured as much as I could into the glass. If this was bottled conditioned it likely churned up the trub into the pour and would have affected the clarity a bit.
You can see the difference in the head. That fluffy head was sustained throughout the drinking and provided some great lacing, too.
Aroma-wise, Beer-lord's had much more aroma. It smelled of Levitation to me, but much more subtle with hints of yeast coming through (again, if it was bottled conditioned this could be because of the churning from the gushing). Inkleg's didn't have much aroma at all - much like a lager.
Both tasted good but neither had that definitive Levitation taste where you get some of the caramel malts + the hop flavor + a hint of bitterness on the finish. When I drink Levitation I get full flavor from start to finish. These were more like cleaner lagers where you get some flavor then a clean finish.
Both were good beers in their own right, but if I'm being 100% honest I would have had a hard time identifying these as Levitation clones without knowing ahead of time what they were.
I've had some stellar beers from you guys that I would drink over mine on most days, but I actually think I like my own version the best. I say that very cautiously as I don't want anybody feeling like I'm full of myself. Maybe it's a water difference but the hops in mine seemed to "pop" more. IT could also be simply the recipe since they did vary a bit IIRC. I know the recipe I use is from CYBI, and I think Paul's was from BYO. Jeff, where did yours come from?
Now, I will say that both of these were very well brewed, meaning there were no obvious flaws that I could taste (fusels, diacytel, etc.) and both were very easy drinking beers that I would gladly down a few of on any given day.
Boys, if you want to get closer to Levitation then I suggest you re-brew and send me more to sample!
As always, I appreciate getting the chance to taste both of these and I did enjoy drinking both of them.
It's never a bad night when you can sit and drink a beer from your brother from another mother - or two.
