Alakazam Szechuan

341ml bottle. Pours a hazy yellow-orange with a large, frothy, long lasting, white head that leaves curtains of lace. Spicy aroma of peppercorns, lemon, ginger and musty yeast with bready malt in the background. Sweet, spicy flavour of grainy pale malt, peppercorns, ginger, lemon, orange peel, floral and yeast with a dry, slightly bitter finish. Light to medium body with a smooth, oily texture and soft carbonation. Ok.

Draught at the brewery
Hazy blond color. Soap and ginger aroma, dry mouthfeel, a bit spicy (coriander), shallow final, and no character that could be recognized as Szechuan pepper.
Boring.

Light amber with a touch of haze. Thin head. The aroma is more gingery than anything else. On the palate the same...tons of ginger, some sticky plasticy stuff with floral esters...the base beer isn’t exactly on point. The description says nothing about ginger, so I wonder if the peppercorns are just coming across as ginger. That would be disappointing not to get the unique character of the hua jiao or the ma jiao.

On tap at Central City Beatty, pours a cloudy yellow blonde with a small white head. Aroma brings out saison yeast, light esters and spicy peppers. Flavour follows the same path, with lighter peppers, saison yeast and lightly sweet esters. Inauthentic but pleasant enough.