Motley Cru 2014
Bellwoods Brewery in Toronto, Ontario, Canada 🇨🇦
Sour / Wild Beer Regular Out of Production|
Score
7.44
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Brett Barrel Aged IPA Blend
The 2014 edition is an IPA aged in barrels with Brett for just over 14 months, transferred to a fermentor, dry-hopped with a healthy dose of Citra and Mosaic, before conditioning in the bottle with fresh champagne yeast for another 2 months. Given the long-term aging that the beer went through over most of 2013, it has emerged deeply oaky in both its aroma and flavour, exhibiting bold vanillins and tannins. It’s extended affair with Brett contributes soft smoke and cherry flavours, and a characteristic dryness. And yet, the dry-hopping applied another, strangely complimentary layer to the beer, imparting intense aromatics of fresh lychee and fuzzy peaches. The resulting Cru is beautifully juicy, with a bright orange colour, thick mousse-like head, and muted bitterness.
It ranks very high on the yum scale, can out-perform lab mice in obstacle courses, and may encourage the use of profanities, sometimes even consecutively. Fresh bottles display beautiful dry hop notes -- aged versions have very little hop presence and an intensified brett character.
The 2014 edition is an IPA aged in barrels with Brett for just over 14 months, transferred to a fermentor, dry-hopped with a healthy dose of Citra and Mosaic, before conditioning in the bottle with fresh champagne yeast for another 2 months. Given the long-term aging that the beer went through over most of 2013, it has emerged deeply oaky in both its aroma and flavour, exhibiting bold vanillins and tannins. It’s extended affair with Brett contributes soft smoke and cherry flavours, and a characteristic dryness. And yet, the dry-hopping applied another, strangely complimentary layer to the beer, imparting intense aromatics of fresh lychee and fuzzy peaches. The resulting Cru is beautifully juicy, with a bright orange colour, thick mousse-like head, and muted bitterness.
It ranks very high on the yum scale, can out-perform lab mice in obstacle courses, and may encourage the use of profanities, sometimes even consecutively. Fresh bottles display beautiful dry hop notes -- aged versions have very little hop presence and an intensified brett character.
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7.8/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 6
Overall 8
Bottle - Mandarin, mango, tropical fruit and Brett. Clearish gold with a rich white head. Juicy mango and mandarin. Next to no bitterness and light yeast notes. Well balanced and nice.
Tried
from Bottle
on 12 Jul 2014
at 20:46
7.6/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 6
Overall 7.5
Bottle at Paul’s. Pours orange amber with off white head. nose/taste of hoppy citrus, funk, oak, pine, grass and toast. Medium body.
Tried
from Bottle
on 25 May 2014
at 09:14
8.8/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 9
Flavor 9
Texture 8
Overall 9
(500mL bottle from brewery, consumed April 6) Pours a hazy bright medium orange with a medium-sized whitish head, lots of lace. Aroma really complex: peach, apricot, mango, lychee and more from the dry hops are the most apparent, but in behind there’s a good amount of both oak and Brett, caramel malt sweetness, a little earthy pine. Flavour as complex as the nose, initial punch of peach, lychee, blueberry juiciness backed by caramel malts, vinous, and then oak and Brett funk become more apparent along with a smoky, dry, herbal character and maybe a little sour cherry. On the finish there’s a fair bit of yeasty funk, herbal/medicinal hops, oak, fairly bitter, quite dry. Medium-full mouthfeel with soft bottle-conditioned carb, basically no booze. This beer plays with sweet, tart, sour, fruity and funky and manages to hold them all in check. Hard to write about, much much easier to drink. Here’s to another year of Bellwoods brews.
Tried
from Bottle
on 21 May 2014
at 14:21
7.8/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 7
500mL bottle, sent from wilco (thanks a lot, Mike), pours a hazy orange with a large off-white head. Aroma brings out lots of funky fart, loads of brett, and yeast. Flavour brings out lots of wine, bretty funk, yeast, and slight residual hops. Hugely funky, quite vinous, and slightly hoppy. Really well-made stuff.
Tried
from Bottle
on 14 May 2014
at 21:18