Serpent
Thornbridge Brewery

 

Hazy, golden color. Big, white head. Aroma of pickled apples, clove, and some caramel. Sweet, tart, funky taste with notes of wine and a dry finish. Delicious beer, somewhere between cider, champagne, and beer.

Wonderful

 

I am definitely late to this party. Bought off of the remainder shelf at the Naples Total, this copy of the Serpent was bottled over 50 months ago. I can tell the deterioration; but more important, I can enjoy the excellence. Glad I found it. I shared it with two wine connoisseurs and they were WOWed. Brooklyn should bring back this collaboration and they don't even have to improve it.

Serpent doesn't open pretty compared to its BSDA compadres, but it give me all the wondrous fruity Smells of a well-brewed marriage of malt and yeasts. Tastes follow closely, but more complex: mostly malt followed by cider and funk. In my mouth, the lesser bubbles are more than made up for by complexity.

I rarely give a new a brew 4.5 Overall that I have not had with food. I regret not having Serpent with food because it would pair well with much of what I eat. And while I am a big fan of Brooklyn and Oliver Garrett, I have focussed too much on their prominent offerings and too little on gems like the Serpent. Cheers !!

 

 

From the 1 pint 9.4 fluid oz bottle in a snifter. This exceptional ale pours
a lightly cloudy golden color with a fantastic head of white foam that settles
to a thick ring and subtle pooling layer with spotty lacing. Nose of tart apple
cider, cranberries, and subtle acidic vinegar notes with subtle yeasty funk.
Flavors...wow...one of the best if not the best wild ale I have ever tried.
Mildly tart green apples dance to a sweet Belgian candy note with
light wild ale yeast flavors and mild orchard fruit notes that give rise
to peach and pear nuances with white grapes and oak bringing up the
rear of the palate. Flavors are like a hybrid of a good chardonnay
that got in a tussle with a golden ale. Excellent mouth feel; medium light
body, soft carbonation, and a lightly warming finish with a touch of sweetness
giving balance to the tartness.

If all wild ales were like this one I would become a total fan. Excellent!

Cheers

Poured from just under fridge temp. Pours a nice murky yellow. Nose is peach, cherry, and lactose. Taste is sweet, orange creamsicle, floral notes, residual sugar, and cider. Mouthfeel is creamy and good. Overall, a great beer.

 

 

 

 

Pours a hazy, pale yellow with no head. Nose expresses citrus and a hint of wood. Taste expresses whiskey sour notes and a hint of cider. Mouthfeel is light-medium in body (but closer to light) with an pleasant, effervescent carbonation. Overall, solid and interesting, albeit less impressive than I remember. That said, I can't believe how much complexity the yeast imparts on this beer. Bourbon and Brett is not particularly present.

 

750 ml caged and corked bottle. Served in a MadTree Teku, the beer pours a slightly hazy golden color with about an inch and a half white head that fizzled away quickly. Pretty much no lacing at all. Aroma is nice, the brew smells like tart apples, apricots, peppery spice, oak, earthiness, citrus and honey. Taste is similar to the aroma, but with the addition of some funk, tropical fruit, vanilla and white grapes. Tart, earthy and a bit sweet, it's nice and flavorful! Mouthfeel/body is medium, it's a bit slick and is well carbonated. The soft carbonation helps make this easy to drink. I think this is good, glad I picked this one up! $19.99 a bottle.

The beer pours a nice bubbly white head that dissipates fairly quickly while the beer itself is a gorgeous clear golden yellow. The beer looks really great especially with the carbonation bubbles rising to the surface.

The smell is very good and extremely pleasant. The aroma seems to consist of nice apple notes with a light tart and funk to it. The Belgian spices are present but extremely subtle. Other notes include a sharp and light sweet honey with a nice pear note. It smells like a nice cider with a bit more character to it. Technically, the Belgian notes complement the cider yeast.

The taste is good. The notes fall on the more tart and funk side but aren't super strong. It's actually close to a cider and the sweeter notes that seem like honey and pear complement the funk pretty well.

The feel is good. It's a dry beer with a thin feel but still has a good weight to it; similar to a nice champagne. IT has some nice acidic carbonation to it. Despite the ABV, it's a very drinkable beer and is most certainly dangerous.

Overall, this is a fantastic day beer despite the ABV.

Large shared bottle in Atlanta.
Hazy golden body with a weak head.
Fruity and funky aroma south a similar flavor profile.
Light body with medium carbonation.

My pour yields a beer that shows both sides of its heritage. A large, lively, snapping and crackling head emerges as I fill my goblet like a good BSPA. Then it fades like a cider with no lace or trace of covering. A dark straw gold with a bit of cloudiness. No carbonation evident.

Nose has so much going on. Honey and light malt. Funk up the wazoo. Cider, bourbon, cider, horse blanket and white pepper. That's just the first round. Oak, leather, vanilla… you could spend hours picking apart the aromatics.

Taste is so good. All those nose players combine to create a tart, dry, funk fest. Honey and cider up front. Oaken notes sit under a mild bourbon tinged dryness. Floral hops. A bit of tropical fruit. Pineapple and guava lusciousness. Booze is not real evident and what is there is so well tucked into the overall construct that you just enjoy the drinking. Finish is dry and somewhat vinous. Swallows like a Tattinger or a Dom. The complexity is exquisite and delightful. You wind up letting it sit on your tongue and allowing the many layers to express themselves. The cider, the barrel and the excellent malt skeleton.

A crisp feel that is well carbonated but not excessive. Quite a bit of a champagne feel as to goes down the gullet. Surprisingly light for a beer of this abv it still has enough weight to it that you are not gonna slam ti down. In all honesty the flavor and feel would slow you down anyway.

An amazing hybrid beer. Belgian strong pale? Check. Superb cider? Check. Barrel and funk? Check, Bourbon? Yaazzz.
A great beer period.

a beer of remarkable complexity, but compared to the best beers brooklyn makes, i think it seems a little new, and as a result less refined than others, but its well worth picking up, and is not like anything else out there. the brett is newish, adding some cloudy thick funk to this, but the beer remains on he sweet and fruity side, and i suspect the bottle conditioning brett effort is only just beginning to hit its stride. another year would likely alter this radically. there is definitely both a fruity belgian yeast element to this and a sharper white wine side, both of which make this distinct and weird in a good way. the impact of the cider less seems to be a generic fruit sweetness and autumnal vibe, but apple specific is not a real appreciable element. the bourbon is an interesting choice too, it almost makes there be too much going on here, white wine would seem a more natural and compatible choice, but i can dig what the whiskey barrels add in here too, more obvious as it moves toward the finish. on the edge of too many distinctive elements in play at once here, but the are juggled (albeit somewhat tenuously) in a way that the drinker should be able to delight in. i would like to try this a year or so out and see the brett get some more work done, but i like the beer, am inspired by its process, and surprised by how well it works given all involved...