6.9/10
—
Appearance 10
Aroma 7
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 6.5
750mL bottle, batch 12, bottled 11/20/13, drunk 1/7/14.
Peachy-amber hued beer has plentiful, well-retained off-white head and there is a very healthy layer of sediment on the bottom. Small bubbles rise rapidly in the mostly-clear liquid.
Very peppery nose! I saw on their website the first batch didnt go very well as they didnt crush the peppercorns. Well, they’ve certainly crushed a lot in this batch. Sweet, doughy, pale malts attempt to balance the nose, with light vinousness coming through on the end. Rosemary is there, but not overbearingly so. Plenty of powerful things going on...not sure how cohesive this is though...
So with not much of an idea of what to expect, I dive in to the glass. ROSEMARY. Like dunking my head in to a bath of it. Wow. It barely leaves any room for the peppercorn at first and seems incredibly overdone. The finish finds room for some maltiness, moderately attenuated, full of honey dough and sweet cream. It’s helpful in balancing the rosemary, but may be a bit forceful itself sweetness-wise. Thankfully, about 15 minutes in to the bottle, or so, my palate adjusted to the rosemary and I was getting far less of it and quite a bit of a vanilla-yogurt-like flavor. Far more enjoyable, but still backed by the slightly overbearing maltiness.
A strange beer, for sure. Seems like they just need to age the beer (off the peppercorns) a little longer. This one still seemed too rough around the edges. And tone down the rosemary, for sure. Otherwise, the mouthfeel, bottle conditioning and general production of the beer were fantastic. Looking forward to more from these guys.
Tried
from Bottle
on 09 Jan 2014
at 21:08