James Beer
Evil Twin Brewing

Can. A cloudy peach coloured beer. Thin wispy head.
Fruity aroma. The aroma of summer. Strawberry, lemon with hints of the Mediterranean with the olives. Sulphur noted.
Strawberry upon tasting. Sweet and sour. Mild grain and light brine.
Over carbonated but nevertheless smooth. The tartness provides a refreshing feel.
Interesting.

 

And now, without further ado, Welcome to the Third Leg of New Evil/Evo/Evil Beer Sunday (Week 677) - Evil Twin Brewing inna haus! Welcome to The CANQuest (tm), Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø! You may have been a part of the madness before, but today, it is on! I know - too many exclamation points, but which one(s) to cut?

From the (non-explosive) CAN: "Rising stars, established giants and never forgotten legends. This beer is a [sic] homage to great culinary minds with a big appetite for everything tasty. Inspired by a food dish with strawberries and nicoise olives - perhaps enjoy James Beer at a restaurant in Chicago accompanied by a mind blowing tasting menu. Wherever you are[,] we made it award-winningly good and honorable well balanced just for you."

My original CAN was apparently a part of the flawed, explosive batch mentioned by @Dewsby as it has become a part of my examples when presenting on CANned beers. It did exactly as it was designed, first pooching out its bottom from an inverted to an extended position to make room for the growing pressure. It became too much, though, and while the usual fail is a blowing of the vent, this CAN peeled back its lid to reveal its seaming! Wow. I was initially heartbroken, but when another batch arrived for sale, I snapped up a replacement for The CANQuest (tm).

I gave it an in-CAN, pre-Crack! gentle agitation since it was a Weissbier as its base. When I performed the Crack!, however, it really wanted to get out, foaming through the vent. I then performed a quick, unthinking Glug & watched in abject horror as it foamed up unCANtrollably & broached the lip of the glass as I scrambled to get some paper towels. It finally settled into a finger of dense, rocky, bone-white head with great retention. Color was a downright cloudy Straw-Yellow (SRM => 2, < 4). Believe it or don't. I actually smelled both olive and strawberry on the nose, so CANvincingly that I truly believe that I would have identified each on my own. These were not CANned black olives or even green olives for cocktails, but instead, the Mediterranean-style olives that we used to chow on from Mandros' Grocery in our youth. Beyond that, if you don't think that I know strawberry, then you just don't know me. Strawberries, olives & a tart pungency - wow! That was just the nose. Mouthfeel was thin, but carbonated to the point of prickliness on the tongue. The taste was initially just very sour, but once that initial shock & rush passed, the olives reasserted themselves. It was on the finish that the sweetness of the strawberries returned to cut the beer's inherent sourness. Wow! Who'da thunk it? One was plenty & it had me reaching for my asthma inhaler, but even then, this was astounding!

 

Picked up a can of this at Julio's.

A - Poured into my Duvel tulip a nice slightly hazy golden color with a good almost two finger head that faded slowly to leave a thin blanket.

S - Aromas of some light floral sweetness, maybe red berry like so that must be the strawberry. Certainly not assertive. Very light olive brine notes as well, some faint wheat.

T- Taste is quite nice. Good briny salinity going on with a fair amount of ripe strawberries. Fresh berries, not jammy but fresh. I wouldn't say this was 'olive' like but the salt level is pleasant. Tasty with some nice creamy wheat and lacto notes as well.

M - Mouthfeel is nicely carbonated, crisp, clean, lightly flemmy.

O - Overall this was a very pleasant Berliner. The strawberries really elevate this beer. Nicely done.

Serving Type: Can

This beer pours a clear yellow with a very large head ( I have heard of a possible seondary fermentation if cans are kept warm, could be this). The aroma is pungent with lemony sourness and bright strawberries, very much juicy fresh fruit. I think I also get a black olive flesh aroma, it could be suggestion, but there is something herbal. The flavor is bracingly sour, with a mild strawberry notes, very much like the small, non-commercial strawberries that have so much more tartness, with a slight briny finish. The mouthfeel is light and foamy with an astringent finish. Overall this is a really tasty beer - the olive strawberry combo is both intriguing and suspicious, bt it really works here - this is an excellent beer with a lot of pucker.

As I understand it, the batch I bought a 4-pack cans from got recalled for an overactive secondary fermentation that was making the cans explode.

Appearance: Looks great aside from an overly large and frothy head. It has a hay color and foggy haze typical to a Berliner Weisse.

Aroma: Smells absolutely lovely. There is a zing of citric and lactic acid to be had in the nose. It is fresh strawberry forward, and very little brininess from the olives cuts this (thank heavens). There is a slight straw-like smell with a light maltiness that can be detected through the intense sour fruitiness.

Taste: The beer is definitely acid forward, and while much of the fruitiness is from the strawberries, it still possesses a lovely apricot/peach tartness in its profile. The sharp acidity overwhelms most of everything else in the beer, the subtle bready flavor of the wheat is still there, but it really is underwhelming by comparison to the bold lactic acid and fruit flavor at play. Not too much olive is present.

Mouthfeel: The beer is over-carbonated from the uncalculated secondary, but thank heavens this is a Berliner Weisse. It is still pleasant, crisp, and refreshing on the palate. A bit more rich and creamy in body than most Berliners, but this works with the flavors at play.

Overall: For a literally defective beer, this was still a lovely experience. I quite enjoyed it and its excesses tend to be my preferences for the style. I would purchase again (so long as they keep their cans from exploding in the future).

12 oz. can

Pours cloudy hazy pale pinkish amber gold with a creamy frothy white foam head. Smells like jammy strawberries, briny olives, wheat, funky sour lemon, with floral earthy herbal grassy pine. Tastes like strawberries, salt, briny olive, wheat, funky sour lemon, with floral earthy herbal grassy pine. Feels medium bodied, creamy with moderate carbonation. Overall a real nice Berliner Weisse style ale with strawberries and olives.

 

 

 

 

 

L: gold to light amber with a slight haze permeated by streams of rapidly rising bubbles. It kicks up a 1" white creamy head with poor retention.

S: The aroma starts mildly sweet with wheat, olives and berries balanced nicely by the Berliner Weiss tart.

T: sweet berry, layers of sour, fruit and wheat. The olives are in the back at the bottom but come out in the finish. The tart is front and center with the other flavors playing off it. It finishes crisp and dry with lingering olive, strawberry and tart.

F: The beer is light, tart and refreshing.

O: Berliner Weiss is the only beer that olives and strawberries could possibly work in and it works very well and is very complex and delicious.

 

 

 

 

Appearance: Pours out a hazed, bright gold body with a modest, white head.

Smell: It does indeed have a distinctly briney opened olive jar nose, leaving the strawberry note quite secondary. Also, touches of wheat and lactic sourness.

Taste: A lactic layering of creamy wheat blended up with rough chopped olives and a small scattering of lightly sweetish strawberries. I find it leans a bit more towards the briney, salty olive elements, only a minor amount of the berry showing. Finishes fairly dry.

Mouthfeel: Relatively light body. Moderate carbonation.

Overall: Well, that was better than anticipated and not entirely unlikable.