13th Century Grut Bier
Professor Fritz Briem

3.55/5  rDev -7.6%
look: 3.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
by FBarber from Illinois

Pours a cloudy bright yellow color. Fizzy soda like white head dissipates almost immediately leaving no residual head.

Aroma is rather tart with notes of lemon, anise, some light herbal spiciness.

The flavor is super interesting and I cant decide if I hate it or love it. So upfront its very tart, strong notes of lemon, lime and wheat come through. There is a strong umami spiciness reminiscent of A-1 steak sauce ... yea, its weird. Whats weirder is the finish - without the hops its got just a weird empty finish. In the end its like a weird gose with an herbal umami bitterness.

Feel is medium bodied with a definite tartness. Mild carbonation.

Overall its an interesting beer. I don't think I'd drink it again, but it was an interesting example of what a grut bier might have tasted like.

Jun 13, 2020

3.72/5  rDev -3.1%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75
by Nass from Florida

The pour looks similar to lemonade in the wheat beer glass, it has a meager amount of sediment. The taste is sour & herbal. Oh well, at least now I can say that I've tried a Scottish Gruit Ale. There is no date on the bottle. Cheers! B

Mar 22, 2020

3.96/5  rDev +3.1%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
by Harrison8 from Missouri

Pours a translucent golden-yellow with a finger of white foam. While head retention is not good, there is a ring of foam that lingers a long while. Aroma is spices - cinnamon, cardamon, nutmeg, parsley, and coriander. Beyond this is just a touch of young bread yeast and a little bready malt. Focus is really on the spices. Flavor profile is parsley, coriander, nutmeg, cinnamon and onion. Spices are less supported in the flavor profile than the aroma, with the back-end drifting apart. Mouth feel is thin with a watery, very-fine carbonation texture. Overall, seems par for the course for a Grut style ale, with spices coming to the forefront and absolutely dominating each whiff and sip.

Served in a 15.5oz Speigalau tulip from a 500mL bottle.

Nov 16, 2019

3.75/5  rDev -2.3%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
by mothmanscott from Georgia

Pours a thick cloudy ochre (deep gold) producing a rapidly diminishing, off-white head that leaves no lacing. Aroma is ginger ale & A-1 Steak Sauce (I kid you not), sage, mint, lemon & dry grass. Taste is tart, hay/dried grass & weeds, ginger, lemon, sage, wet oak leaves when raked in the fall, mineral & medicinal notes as well as other miscellany I can't pin down. Dry, tart, herb/grass finish with an astringent, weak, rapidly fading lemonade aftertaste. This thing is a wild medley of herby ginger ale, lemonade, marinated in mown meadow vegetation with a dash of A-1! A complex herbal blend, this has the most character of any Gruit I've tried to date. Its one of those things you either like or hate but don't fall in love with. Gruits offer a nice experience but I can't see them becoming anyone's standard brew style. But who knows in today's world there's some of everything to be found when it comes to taste.

Nov 04, 2018

4.5/5  rDev +17.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
by Kurmaraja from California

A beautiful beer in all aspects. Complex herbal bouquet - slightly perfumed and floral, smelling like spring, laurel & bay, rosemary and lemon balm. Flavor adds a mentholated winter green brightness, slight ginger bight, rustic wildness of sage. Slightly mossy and forest edge. Effervescent but not sharp; rounded and soft. All this makes the beer sound incredibly odd. The real accomplishment here is that it's not; its uniqueness is intriguing rather than in your face and challenging. To American palates unaccustomed to herbal drinks, only familiar with herbs as something in your occasional cough drop or medicine, sure; I can see how they may struggle to wrap their minds around this. But for anyone with a modicum of culinary sophistication, this is astounding.

Dec 29, 2016

3.5/5  rDev -8.9%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
by Karibourgeois from Texas

Clear golden pour with a white one-finger head. Very herbal aroma with a hint of honey and ginger. Taste has ginger upfront backed by tea leaf, straw and light lemon flavors. Anise and mint also stand out.

Jan 08, 2016

4.07/5  rDev +6%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
by spoony from Colorado

From a 500 ml bottle to a nonic glass.

A-The beer is clear, but I managed to let a few chunky floaties from the bottom of the bottle into my glass. Color is light yellowish golden; lager like. The head is short and white, and fades quickly. No lacing.

S-The aroma is very herbal with bay leaves and ginger being quite prominent. I also sniff some light pine (although the beer isn't bitter, per se) and caraway, as well as a bit of anise. There is a little bit of lemon-lime citrus tartness in there. Interesting and pretty appealing smell.

T-The taste, like the smell is very herbal with a lot of ginger. There is less bay leaf though, and the overall impression is more like herbal tea. Other flavors include juniper and pine, as well as some anise that gets stronger as the beer warms. A little bready-honey sweetness gives the beer some body against the herbs.

M-The feel is medium to light in heft with a nice, smooth, semi-creamy finish.

O-I wasn't sure what to expect with this beer, but it turned out interesting and drinkable. I don't know that I would pound this all afternoon, but with the right food, I could see this pairing really well.

Dec 17, 2015

3.51/5  rDev -8.6%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.5
by ONovoMexicano from New Mexico

500mL bottle poured into a mug.

A gentle pour creates a quarter finger of foamy, pale white head. Slight haziness dulls the golden body a bit and obscures the steady carbonation. 4

Such a strong herbal aroma emanates from this beer. It's clove-like, heavily woodsy like juniper or some other spicy and woody tree and has a resemblance to a strong herbal tea. There's a hint of tartness and something that suggest lemon to me. Smelling this beer blind, I'd think it was tea for sure. 3.5

Everything from the nose carries over to the palate, resulting again, in a tea-like flavor, but with more body and a spritzy carbonation. Each sip offers an herbal and slightly spicy spruce or juniper flavor that gives way to black tea. A light lemony character drifts in and out throughout this medley of flavors and then a menthol-like flavor drops in on the finish and lingers, numbing the tongue along with the flavor it provides. 3.5

Light in body, with a highly carbonated mouthfeel, tea-like in how it drinks at points, and at other times more like what you'd expect from a light lager. The finish will linger in a tongue-numbing fashion as will the herbs. It's a bit much for the mouth, I'd say. 3.25

I tried this over 2 years ago and was wowed. Drinking it now, I'm not as enamored, but I still find there's some appeal in drinking this for the sheer uniqueness of it all.

Aug 27, 2015

4.04/5  rDev +5.2%
look: 4 | smell: 5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
by Premo88 from Texas

16.9 oz. bottle poured into nonic

L: cloudy yellow, almost pineapple juice-like, pushes up a bit of a head, maybe 1/4-inch of white foam; lots of sediment and hard to keep in the bottle and out of the glass; relatively clear considering the amount of sediment, perhaps 70/30 clear/cloudy-misty; the yellow color has just the slightest hint of orange in it, almost peach

S: minty ... and sweet, like spearmint gum ... and it must be coming from a mix of things with ginger -- the ginger/minty aroma is so strong you can smell it as you pour; basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme with basil and rosemary being the most prominent; about as interesting as anything you could put your nose to, as many as 10-15 different notes at different times

T: ginger root ... very bitter, earthy, no sweetness whatsoever; a slight lemon tart note peeks in, offering a bit of a break from the bitter root taste, almost like chewing the bark of what we called "medicine trees" growing up; wow, the palette seems to be adjusting quickly, because some of the mint is showing, offering a bit more of a break from the bitter root, just a hint of sweetness; the aftertaste is still full-on bitter bland tree root; as it warms, the herbs begin to show up much more, rosemary and basil with the lemon/mint sweet/tart notes still in there

F: all-around solid, lightly carbonated but a good midweight heft ... comes off much like a standard lower ABV farmhouse ale and definitely feels like a beer

O: what an experience ... it's not for the light of heart, because that first sip tastes like liquified tree root, very dirty bitter and I don't mean English fuggle hops -- I mean stick your tongue in a dirtpile dirt; but as it warms and your palate adjusts, a slight lemony sweetness and mint help balance the strong ginger root presence and make it very drinkable; a truly herbal drink

Aug 23, 2015

5/5  rDev +30.2%
look: 5 | smell: 5 | taste: 5 | feel: 5 | overall: 5
by pat61 from Minnesota

L: Pours straw with a slight haze under a thin, white foam cap.
S: A bouquet of spice, most noticeably rosemary, caraway, ginger and anise.
T: A lightly sweet with a hint of sour backgone provides a playground for the spice. Many are hard to pin down and come in and out of focus. Anise and rosemary definitely with a does of ginger heat and flavor that lingers long into the aftertaste. Some background chamomile.
F: Light, refreshing with some sparkle.
O: This is a unique, fragrant, perfumey, herby, light and real fresh beer, well worth hunting down and drinking.

Jul 21, 2015

4/5  rDev +4.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
by clayrock81 from Florida

Poured a clear orange body with minimal head and little lace. Aroma is spicy and not something one usually finds in a beer - anise and ginger stick out. Medium bodied beer that is a little sticky and sweet, yet balanced with spices like anise, ginger and rosemary. Clean beer, easy to drink, nice finish. Not your typical beer (i.e. ipas, stouts) and was well worth trying.

Jan 31, 2015

4.6/5  rDev +19.8%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
by seedyone from New York

From bottle at Rattle n Hum, NYC. You think you know beer? Nah ha! This will open your eyes. Nose says lemon-ish, Bay leaves? Yesiree, Bob. Not only are all those ancients present they exist within harmoniously. I`m left with a feeling of want & deprivation because there are no more in the cellar & I want.

I`ll stop here because I'm afraid my praise will distance me from my next bottle.

I've said too much.

Jan 17, 2015