Motley Cru 2018 - Blueberry
Bellwoods Brewery in Toronto, Ontario, Canada 🇨🇦
Sour / Wild Beer - Flavoured Regular Out of Production|
Score
7.17
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This year’s blend -- comprised of sours, brett beers, and wild ales that we picked from both foudres and barrels -- is a particularly significant one because it happens to be the first MC to be brewed, barrel aged, blended, and bottle conditioned entirely within our Hafis production facility. In this setting the barrels slumber in peace, produce better beers, and house a sassy cohort of bugs and yeast that are constantly working on becoming their best selves.
In the 2018 blend we prioritized punchy acidity and bright fruitiness, nuanced brett characteristics, and complex wild yeast derived flavours. We divided the beer unequally into 3 parts, before adding fruit to create variants.
Blueberry Variant: The colour of summer berries, with a beautiful jewel-toned transparency in the glass. Aromatics of blueberry fruit roll up, black tea, and vanilla. Flavours of tart blueberry, mint, and funky brett. Lively carbonation with a dry, tannic body.
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Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
500mL bottle, courtesy of wilco (thanks Mike), pours a cloudy dark burgundy with a small beige head. Nose brings out an earthy black tea character, musty blueberry skins, some brett, and gentle oak. Flavour is medium tart, with an aggressive tart blueberry character, moderate acidity, some funky brett, earthy black tea, and some tannins. There's an earthy black tea-like character on the finish, along with moderate acidity and tartness. Not the most complex Motley Cru variant, but it's well-made as usual.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
Bouteille 500ml, slow gush, gracieuseté de msjpearson, Thanks Mike! Couleur violacée opaque, mousse lilas abondante. Arôme de levures sauvages, bleuet, boisé. Goût de levures sauvages, bleuet, boisé, chair de bleuet. Carbonatation très élevé, corps moyen.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
(bottle) hazy, bright pinkish red colour with an initially explosive white head; aroma of funk, berries; tart flavour with a long, medium tart finish
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
Bottle: Poured a light blueish color ale with a medium size foamy head with limited retention and no lacing. Aroma of tart blueberry notes with light funky notes. Taste is a mix of blueberry notes with some sour notes, light oak presence with hint of acidic notes also perceptible. Funky yeast notes are also prevalent. Body is quite full with good carbonation. Enjoyable but the mix isn’t has great as the other 2018 releases.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
(500ml shared @ the brewpub, Oct 4/18) Pours nearly clear deep pink-to-red with a small whitish head. Notes of pretty tart fruit, berries especially - crushed blueberry is apparent but so is citrus and maybe a touch of tart apple/tree fruit - along with loads of funky hay, fruit skin tannins, touch floral/herbal, some woody accents, tart but drying into the finish, lots of brett and tannins, crushed blueberry, lactic and very lightly acetic hits, hint of yeast. Medium-bodied with soft effervescent carbonation. Not my favourite of the three MC18 beers, the berry quality is nice but a bit soft, and not quite vinous but trafficking in a fair bit of tannin. Quite solid and the base is still a good beer, but it's not quite as good as the blueberry Barn Owl variant was.