Luksus One
Evil Twin Brewing

On tap at Fermentoren, Aarhus, Denmark. Reddish amber colour. Sourish fruity aroma. Very sour flavour, plenty of lactic acid. Not really my cup of tea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

650ml bottle. Brewed with red beets? Is Luksus a Russian restaurant? I guess not, as apparently Scandinavians like them too.

This beer pours a slightly hazy, medium orange-amber colour, with two skinny fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and well bubbly dirty white head, which leaves a bit of calved iceberg profile lace in places around the glass as it quickly abates.

It smells of cold melted plastic, fresh Chinese-made rubber toys, raw beets, underripe lemon rind, an indistinct earthy woodiness, ethereal pale grainy malt, and a dash of salt. The taste is bready, grainy pale malt, a softly phenolic yeastiness, stale lemon, some receding beet/raw potato earthiness, a lesser redux of that estery rubber unpleasantness, sea salt, and a further weird gamey bitterness.

The carbonation is very low-key in its peekaboo frothiness, the body a so-so middleweight, and actually somewhat smooth, after more than a hefty dose of acclimatizing and cognitive dissonance sets in. It finishes mostly dry, the lingering vegetal beet root notes sticking to one's proverbial palatal ribs, amongst some middling sour lemon, and that niggling saline character.

Wow, this is one brew that takes some time to get used to - if I stopped at the aroma (and I nearly did - gag), then I would have been lesser for it. The beet root really does come through, in spades, as does the base Berliner Weiss tartness and crispness. Not sure though, that I'd want to order this on a summertime patio; however, I'm not Eastern European, and there's not a bowl of borscht sitting in front of me.

 

 

 

Pours red-tinged amber with a white head.
Nose shows earthy beetroot notes and lemon.
Flavours include more of the same with big acidity and some light fruit.
Pretty awesome and unorthodox.

 

 

Not as strikingly beetroot neon pink as I'd hoped, but maybe that's for the best. Airy, cream-colored head capping a hazed, peachy pink blushed blood orange body. Pretty! Smells like beetroot. Pickled beetroot. With lemon and dill. Demands oily fish. Weird.

Sour and vibrant. Very lemony and malic acid-y. Like green apple Jolly Ranchers but with beetroot instead of sugar. Tart, dry, beetrooty. Eugenol, lactic acid, geosmin. Underripe raspberries. Figs. Weird.

Very much not for drinking. More for eating, but even then... I don't know. There's a real lack of balance about it and a distinct 'cooking ingredient' feeling to this beer. The flavor is interesting but not delicious – and not even interesting beyond a few sips. What a shame. This is a beer that makes me feel like beer has jumped the shark. A small glass might be nice with the right food, but it was terrible mistake to attempt a bomber by myself. To be honest, this is a borderline drain-pour.

Possible food pairings: mackerel, sardines, trout, herring, Caesar salad.