Hessian in Paradise

Tons of lime up front, mouth-puckeringly tart

Can shared in Hackney - thanks to Bruce. Pours unclear yellow-gold with a minimal, white foam head. Interesting spice in the nose, some citrus zest, pale bread. Light sweet flavour with a bit of lemony acidity, wheat flakes, orange peel, peach, salt. Light to medium bodied with average carbonation. Quenching finish, more lemon, grapefruit, zest, straw, salt, tart citrus. Great stuff. Super drinkable.

Draught at Ginger Man Boston, 6/21/17.
Thoroughly hazy, copper-to-gold body is topped by a small, thin, off-white head showing low retention, no doubt in good part from the spices.
This sounds about as bad as it gets on paper but still had to give it a shot. Juicy, even salty, lime-like notes perk up in the nose as lactic acidity builds just in time for the spice to hit. For how powerful and astringent both cinnamon and nutmeg can be, it’s surprisingly not-overdone here and has an almost horchata-like similarity to the nose. Milky/yogurty notes are nicely developed and and the spicing deepens things and gives it more richness without adding acidity itself. Clean and with no flaws.
If I was surprised by the nose then the flavor was even more impressive. Juicy lactic and lime-like acidity are matched nearly perfectly by the rich, yet tastefully-done spicing. It doesnt come off as just individual notes of lime, lactic acid and cinnamon, but rather has actual strong integration and does seem like a fruity, lime-accented, sour horchata. And add bad as that sounds, it’s actually quite pleasant. Carbonation is low but fairly engaging, while there’s enough texture from the wheat (and probably some thickening from the spice) to balance everything going on here. Lactic acid is nicely integrated and there’s no flaw or alcohol and most importantly, no astrigent spice character. A ballsy experiment and they pulled it off about as well one could hope. Giving a little extra credit score-wise for how difficult this would be to brew well.