Spencer Brewery
Microbrewery in Spencer, Massachusetts, United States 🇺🇸
Established in 2013
Closed in 2022
Contact
Description
St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts, is home to a community of Trappist monks and the first American Trappist brewery. Following the Benedictine tradition of ora et labora (prayer and work), the monks pursue a simple life of contemplative prayer, manual labor and hospitality. The brewery helps support the monks and their charitable outreach. The brewery, being far into the abbey's land, is not open to the public for tours or tastings.
6.5/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 7
(330ml bottle from SB) Massive gusher. Pours hazy medium orange with a huge lingering fluffy white cap and lace. Aroma is quite sweet and quite yeasty with baked apple, some cooked pit fruit, banana, lots of floral notes, a bit grassy, some sweet bread, sugar. Palate is light to medium sweet and quite yeasty with floral notes, some light spice, citrus peel, a bit of apple and pit fruit, grains and bread dough. Drier and soft bitter on the finish with herbal notes. Light to medium body, carb is fairly soft as expected post-gush. Pretty ok patersbier-type Belgian, but definitely nothing very exciting or deep here. Balance a bit off.
Tried
from Bottle
on 15 Feb 2016
at 15:20
6.3/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 6
Small, faintly cream-coloured head, over hazy orangeish beer, not very visible - but audible - carbonation. Creamy, aromatic nose with pale malts, herbs, almonds, banana, clove and 4VG. More banana/clove like a Hefeweizen. Also slightly mineral/DMS. Faint sourishness, not-quite fruity (the banana excepted), but kept diminutive by the clove. Very little sweetness, bit harsh from a resin-like component. Rather fizzy feel, medium bodied, resiny astringency. 4Vinyl guaiacol bomb, like few German Weizens dare display. Trappist Simple version? Very disappointing.
Tried
on 05 Feb 2016
at 10:58
6.5/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 7
Bottle shared late-nite during RBWG 2016. Pours unclear gold with a creamy white head. Lots of doughy malt in the nose, some Belgian yeast, old tangerines. Medium sweet flavor with more doughy malts, yeast, grain husk, hay. Light to medium bodied with average carbonation. Sugary finish with some damp grains, dough, wheat, yeast, dry banana. So so. (3 February 2016, score: 3.1)
Bottle shared at the 2015 edition of the chriso Pre-GBBF tasting - London. Cheers! Pours hazy gold with a creamy, white head. Big Belgian yeast aroma, some wheat bread, lemon peel. Medium sweet flavour with notes of bubblegum, light bitter hay, grain, lemon rind, yeast. Medium bodied with average to lively carbonation. Lightly bitter to close out, with more yeast, wheat flakes. Nice one overall. (August 2015, score: 3.5)
Bottle shared at the 2015 edition of the chriso Pre-GBBF tasting - London. Cheers! Pours hazy gold with a creamy, white head. Big Belgian yeast aroma, some wheat bread, lemon peel. Medium sweet flavour with notes of bubblegum, light bitter hay, grain, lemon rind, yeast. Medium bodied with average to lively carbonation. Lightly bitter to close out, with more yeast, wheat flakes. Nice one overall. (August 2015, score: 3.5)
Tried
from Bottle
on 03 Feb 2016
at 00:39
6.2/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 6
Bottle shared at RBWG 2016. Thanks to Ferris. Hazed golden yellow coloured pour with a lasting frothy off white head. Aroma is sweet and jammy fruits, honey, caramel. A lit but rough. Flavour is composed of sweet rough caramel ??, honey, spicy hop, jammy fruits. Palate is sweet, grainy. Highish carbonation. Meh.
Tried
from Bottle
on 03 Feb 2016
at 00:38
6.5/10
—
Appearance 4
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7
Bottle split in the hotel lobby, RBWG ’16, thanks to Ferris, 02/02/16. Hazed golden orange with a moderate off White covering, some floaties on offer ... no looker. Nose is sticky toffee, yeast esters, candied fruit peel, light spice. Taste comprises fruit cake, candied fruit peel, clove, banana, caramel. Medium bodied, prickly carbonation, semi drying close with sweet licks. Decent enough for style.
Tried
from Bottle
on 03 Feb 2016
at 00:35
7.5/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 7
[backlog] 01-02-16 // bottle at home. Pours amber orange coloured. Nice malty sweetness along with some light fruit aromas. Well carbonated and balanced. Tasty.
Tried
from Bottle
on 01 Feb 2016
at 22:30
7/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 6
Bottle. Hazy mango juiceish with a thick white foam, dissipates quickly. Aroma is bready and sweet, pear, sugar, staleish. Taste is also on the sweeter side, malty, bread, honey, pear, slight hoppy finish. Full body, high carbo.
Tried
from Bottle
on 29 Jan 2016
at 14:49
7.3/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 8
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 8
Bottled 33 cl from Systembolaget Nordstan, special release, on January 22, 2016.BB 21/08/2016.We opened 5 bottles for the group, every bottle had a large sediment in the bottom and all 5 bottles were gushers.Cloudy golden color, fizzy off-white head. Sweet, apricots, herbal, spicy, sugary, floral, yeasty scent, also rose petals. Sweet, herbal, spicy, yeasty, alcohol taste. Medium to fizzy mouthfeel, medium bitterness. Spicy, herbal, slight bitter aftertaste.
Tried
from Bottle
on 24 Jan 2016
at 17:12
6.9/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7.5
bottle deep golden hazy good head yeasty ester bit phenolic medium malty note honey spicy finish oro carico velato buona schiuma buona persistenza lieviti esteri un po di fenolico discreto maltato mieloso amaro. Medio Finale speziato
Tried
from Bottle
on 20 Jan 2016
at 10:09
7.1/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 4
Overall 7.5
Bottle @ Joes. Hazy yellow colour with a medium sized white head. Smells barley wine, sweet, malts. Tastes malts, sweet, barleywine. Not bad but too heavy on the carbo. Medium body.
Tried
from Bottle
on 16 Jan 2016
at 17:53