May Flowers
The Bruery

 

12.7 ounce bottle, 2025 edition, bottled 04/07/25. Served in a Bruery tulip, the beer pours a somewhat hazy reddish/amber color with about an inch and a half off-white head. Head retention and lacing are both pretty good. Aroma is nice, it smells like rose hips, hibiscus, bready malt, cloves and some peppery spice. For the most part the taste is pretty much like the aroma, but there's also some honey, pear and a bit of a general red berry flavor noticeable too. It's floral, but not perfumey floral tasting. Mouthfeel/body is medium, it's a bit coating with a moderate amount of carbonation. I liked this one, certainly worth picking up if you come across some!

Clear red pour crowned with a huge, pink‑tinted head. The aroma is showing Belgian yeast character alongside hibiscus and floral notes. The flavor is malty and distinctly Belgian in profile, finishing on the drier side with moderate bitterness. Remarkably easy to drink for a beer sitting at 12% ABV.

May Flowers pours a reddish color, with a big, long-lasting, frothy head. The aroma is sweet, earthy, with lots of rose. The flavor is sweeter, drier, earthier, with lots of rose and hibiscus notes and a boozy kick. Good feel. Overall, very delicate, and full of flavors, very earthy, sweet, and dry.

A: Poured into a tulip glass to a deep reddish brown beer which is topped by a dense and slightly rocky two fingers of cream colored head which fades slowly to a collar around the edge of the glass with some lacing
S: Smells of caramel malt sweetness with some orchard fruits and some slight spicy yeast. Smells like the hibiscus is bringing some fruity notes in as well.
T: Taste is slightly earthy and bitter. there's some definitely cloying sweetness at the back end along with some orchard fruits and spice notes. The finish is caramel sweetness, lingering fruitiness, some lingering earthy notes, and some slight orchard fruits.
M: This beer is fairly full bodied on the palate with a slightly syrupy feel. Carbonation is adequate but struggles to be known at times while the beer has a drying finish.
O: Overall this isn't a bad beer. I might have sat on this one too long though as it's from 2020. Good flavors, some nice complexity, but to me it comes off as a bit disjointed at times. It does homogenize as it gets warmer though.

 

Review: 2294
Name: May Flowers
Brewery: The Bruery
Location: Placentia, CA
Style: Belgian Golden Ale
ABV: 12.5%
Canned: 03/04/2020
Date: Dec 29 2024
Returning to my cellar, I am sipping on May Flowers, a Belgian-inspired beer with flowers. I am using a tulip glass and serving the beer at 42 degrees. The pour created a frothy, creamy, one-fingered, white head with above-average retention. The somewhat slow dissipation left chunks of lacing on the glass. The color is a rusty brown with a pinkish hues, not sure if I would chart it anywhere on the color scale, and the clarity is slightly hazy. The appearance of the beer is average for this style.
Nosing the glass, I first smell roses, floral, lightly toasted malts, honey, cloves, light white pepper, and herbal. Smelling the beer again, I notice a light funk and earthiness. The beer is simple with lots of floral notes.
Sipping the beer, roses, herbal, hibiscus, lightly toasted malts, honey, floral esters, white pepper, and cloves was what I initially tasted. A light funk, bananas, lightly toasted bread crust, earthiness, and light papaya note.
The body is medium and has medium carbonation. The mouthfeel is astringent and tannic finishing dry.
I was unsure what I was going to get with the rose hip and hibiscus, but the combination created this lovely beer with a firm malt backbone. The floral is not too overwhelming, making it a perfect sipper on this Sunday night.