Bar Series: 13 Hours On A Bus
Bridge Road Brewers

 

Pours a dark, dark shiraz colour. Off-white head is thin, but with decent lace. Not bad.

Smells just lovely; tartness, bit of funk and a bit of chocolate sweetness. Touch of lychee and plenty of berry. Just gorgeous. I'm loath to grant the taphouse staff a perfect score but dayum!

Taste is saisony, a bit dark. Lots of berry, raspberry and strawberry. Apple as well. Touch of cinnamon. Pepper, some roasty chocolate. Touch of citric hop as well. Oh yeah this is some beer. The bridge rd saison strain comes through all the hop notes, and darkness exists in beautiful conplementary balance. Yum. This is the best beer I've had since my last Bridge Rd beer.*

Bit of pull on the mouthfeel. Verges on sharp. Not bad texture though.

Lovely style-bender. Bits of everything in there but none of the junk. Great brew.

* The Aurora Borealis, about half an hour before this.

A collaboration between Bridge Road and the Local Taphouses, this is a Black India Saison, pretty much brewed with everything: juniper, nutmeg cloves and a stack of Australian, Kiwi and US hops. Tried on-tap the the Taphouse in Sydney.

Pours a deep, ruddy red-black colour with a surprisingly clear body. Weight is decent, but it stays quite fluid. Head is a beige to off-white colour, leaving a fine persistent ring. Lace is bubbly and streaky. Looks decent enough.

Nose is wonderful: candy-like it gives a sharp sweet/sour blend, hints of apricot, fragrant fresh, fruity hops, green lollies and a sharpness like cola and wintergreen. It's awesome: very different, but it works really well.

Light hint of fungus on the front, with a crispy, buoyant vivacity. Some sharp hops come through that drop just before the mid palate. Here there's some rosewater, more suggestion of cola and a vegetative bite. It drops out a bit at the end of the palate, but by then it's done a pretty decent job all up.

Feel is slightly thin and light, but it works well enough with the style.

It's a really fun beer. It's amazingly drinkable and really quite refreshing. Definitely a bunch of strangeness to it, but it works, and provides something that's not only tasty, but tasty and unique. That's a really great thing.