Crystall Brett
Devils Backbone Brewing Company

 

Golden to coppery in color with a 1 1'2 finger off white head.

The aroma is of spice and earthy yeast. Fruity, the green apple is strong with this one. A little musty.

Taste is fairly dry, just a hint of malt presence. Spice is even more evident here with a bit of light funk. Lemony. with occasional hints of caramel.

Medium bodied and lightly crisp with good retention/moderate syrup.

A great beer. Well rounded. A sipper, but easy to drink.

 

A - yellow/amber, clear, effervescent; small head quickly dissipates; decent lacing
S - smells like a saison, with some citrus; smells great
T - spicy/peppery; tastes like a saison; don't get the funk taste described by others; pretty good flavor
F - Pretty thin overall, but good for being refreshing
O - Not bad; I'd buy it again.

Pours a hazy gold color. 1/4 inch head of a white color. Good retention and decent lacing. Smells of floral hops, citrus hops, pale malt, hint of caramel malt, floral notes, esters, and a hint of alcohol. Fits the style of a Saison / Farmhouse Ale. Mouth feel is smooth and crisp, with an average carbonation level. Tastes of floral hops, citrus hops, pale malt, hint of caramel malt, floral notes, esters, hint of banana, and a hint of alcohol. Overall, banana/floral esters and yeast dominate, brett characteristics are lacking, but decent blend and aroma.

Poured from the bottle into a tulip glass. Boned March 8th 2017.

A mostly clear body color, with some very interesting colored appearance. Depending on how much light it appears anywhere from light copper orange, to deep lemon yellow entirely. Quite a neat effect actually. Head creation is a little more than a finger, white creamy bubbles that dissolve to a thin puck and basic collar.

Good nose. A malty sense but with light touches of farmhouse. Hints of light hop like herbality, a bit of sweet sage, some spicy mint quality a little too. A bit of sweet Belgian sugary quality that seems to pull more of the malt into a sweet direction almost caramel but not quite.

Palate is sharp. Sticky light sweet malt but big strong funk. Large peppery notes in the mid palate contrasted by malt sweetness. Large minty mid palate, and a good amount of hop herbal bitterness on the finish that really lingers. Faint touches of berried fruit, really nicely accented making it tart with the tangy brett action. Real nice contrasting and bold flavors.

This sort of reminds me of an amped up Biere de Garde in a way. Pretty solid.

Pours a yellow amber color. Lots of brett in the taste, Belgian yeast, cloves and spices, apples, and bready malts. Light tart citrus. Medium body and moderate carbonation.

I liked this one a lot; a good summer beer if you like brett.

Look: Poured with an active head but not much lacing. Color tends towards yellow gold.
Nose: Slight Fruit and Bread, earthy.
Taste: complex and funky. Upfront Banana and hay? Slight spice some fruit. I get the juicy fruit thing. Very enjoyable.
Body: medium/light with plenty carbonation. And yes... Silky smooth.
Overall: one of the best saison/farm house ales I have had. I will look for this one again.

 

12oz bottle poured into a pint

A- pours a clear deep amber color with a creamy white head that has great retention and leaves some nice lacing behind

S- spicy and earthy yeast, lemon peel, dried hay, toasted malt

T- spicy yeast up front with some phenolic notes, lemon peel, earthy hop undertones, yeasty finish

M- medium body and carbonation leads to a creamy mouthfeel that continues into a silky finish, high drinkability

O- good saison that goes down easy, but not picking up any Brett

 

Poured from a 12 oz brown bottle into a clear glass tulip. Bottled on 04.12.17 on bottle neck.

A: Slightly hazy copper with 1/2 finger off-white foamy head with average retention but substantial lacing.

S: Banana with some background grassy, haylike herbal qualities. Mild spiciness in the hopping along with the herbal, hay character.

T: Flavor overall is subdued but pleasant with some general juicy fruit gum quality with banana and a faint earthiness in the finish. Low bitterness. Hopping is lightly spicy with some grassiness. A little bland but nothing problematic.

M: Light-medium body with high carbonation and lightly dry finish.

O: Kind of run of the mill

 

Second bottle from the variety pack. Bottling date is March 9th, 2017, so this is almost three months old at this point.

This beer has a nice color to it -- dark gold, bordering on amber-orangey. It's mostly clear with a bit of haze and some slow rising bubbles. Formed a thin layer of foam upon pouring, which has thinned out a bit more since but not faded away entirely.

Smell is a mix of fruitiness and yeasty funk -- there's something banana-like, some sweeter miscellaneous fruitiness that I can't quite identify, and just a bit of a "barnyard" sort of thing mixed in, like hay and some nonspecific funkiness hovering around in the background. I'm guessing the Brettanomyces have become more present since the time I had the first bottle, as I don't recall as much of the funkiness, it all seemed more fruity the first time around. It's overall a very pleasant smell, the funkiness is more of a slight background note rather than something more "in your face" and the combination works well, as odd as "bananas and slightly funky hay" might sound at a glance.

When I first took a sip I thought that the flavors must have shifted away from the fruity ones I picked up the first time I tasted this beer, but nope -- they're still there, they just don't become prominent until the end of a sip. The Brett funkiness comes out first, but just a bit -- sort of a semi-sour leathery funky hay kind of flavor, if I had to try putting it into words. I recognize it from the time I had an aged bottle of Matilda, though it was much stronger there than in this beer! After the initial burst of funk, things shift more into the sweeter, fruitier range, with banana and that other mystery fruit I detected in the smell blending together very nicely. Burps are very fruity as well. I haven't had Crystal hops in another beer as far as I'm aware, but I know the banana thing is generally a Belgian or hefeweizen yeast thing and I know the funkier flavors are from the Brett, so I'm guessing the mystery fruit must be coming from the hops. About 2/3 of the way through the glass I'm noticing a bit of a spiciness on the end which is pretty interesting -- may have to bump up my taste score just a bit for that.

The feel is relatively light and bubbly, goes down pretty easy, though seems to sit maybe just a tad heavier in the stomach than I'd like for this sort of beer -- seems I'm feeling unusually full drinking this, though it could just be a carbonation thing since I'm noticing it's making me burp quite a bit too. Despite the sweetish fruity flavors present, the beer overall is very dry, as expected of a beer with Brett present.

Overall, this is an interesting beer -- it doesn't have a category listing on the bottle (just described as "a Brett beer with Crystal hops"), but I'd say the saison/farmhouse ale style fits it fairly well since it's a yeast-driven beer with fruity, spicy, and funky characteristics along with a dry and fizzy feel. Not my favorite of the style so far, but still very tasty -- if six-packs of this existed I'd buy one, and I'd be interested in seeing what an aged bottle of this would be like since the Brett funkiness is already becoming pretty noticeable at just three months of age -- I imagine this could seem like a very different beer in a year's time!

 

 

 

Clear golden in color with plenty of carbonation and a filmy white head that dissapates quickly. Aroma is spice, lemon and a bit of funk. Taste is of malt. citrus, pepper and has a relatively clean finish and crispness.

A: A pale golden amber in color with a light tan head.

S: Lemony with notes of pepper and a touch of earthy goodness. Definitely a touch of funk in there, but nothing too outlandish.

T: orange zest, a touch of cilantro, some lemon zest, and a little bit of earthy funk. A touch of pepper, and hints of Belgian yeast characteristics.

M: Medium in body, carbonation is high, but not blistering.

O: Overall interesting, but I feel like the flavor profile could be amped up. It almost tastes like a blend between a saison, and a pale ale.. Nice for summer drinking, albeit a little dull.