Forest Flor
Upright Brewing Company

 

Thanks, Chris and Sam for the bottles.

It's Upright, it's gin barrel aged and it's no nonsense. How could this not be compelling? Lovely gin barrel notes, rich and deep with the Upright house yeast fermentation profile complemented by the nebuleus rich fermentation character. Spruce lends a festive brightness. Fruity. Piquant. Mild lemony acidity and brightness. Lovely.

i mean, its hard to call out an upright beer as the best ever, because so much of what they do is elite, but this hit me hard, like whoa, it has to be close. granted, a gin barrel aged funky beer with spruce tips from one of my all time favorites was always going to be a hit, but this smashes, done in collaboration with nebulous, who is new to me but seems similarly awesome. thanks to my buddy for sharing this bottle, would have never known what i was missing. neat art on the label, golden and near clear frothy headed brew with a lot of carbonation activity but kind of unassuming looking. tart right away, mouth watering, bacterial and zesty, with clean lemon on top of woodsy botanicals, spruce, sage, juniper, green tea, menthol, and chamomile to me, like a wedge of lemon on the rim of a new school gin on the rocks. some wood and funk here too, but really mature and exceedingly fresh at the same time, its wild when its cold but its even more expressive when it sits for a bit, white wine, vanilla, peppermint, waxy green cucumber peel, more citrus, some grassy leafy hops i think. gin ahead of spruce in the flavor, some decent acidity all through it, more of the spruce part at the end with the funk, and the flavor of this comes in waves. some pils malt breadiness i perceive, possibly some raw wheat, minimal on the grain side but there is enough here to support all the flavor. the gin is clean and strong, and it does add an alcohol element to this. definite wildness in the ferment, almost lambic level to me, could even be an aged hop aspect, black peppery too, nice wood profile supporting the botanical character, and then oddly clean on the swallow with a wash of acidity and rushing bubbles at the end. really complex, really good, vinous as it warms, never too sharp, really cant say enough about this, cool recipe and epic execution, the gin makes it really different. loved it!