Strawberry Rhubarb Tart
Perennial Artisan Ales

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

750mL bottle poured into a tulip glass.

Appearance-Medium golden-blond with just a touch of blush and a bit of haze. Tall white head has good retention and shows some nice lacing.

Aroma-Harsh, plasticy phenols are the most apparent aroma. Other phenol character is apparent behind it, with som medicinal, clove, and spice notes as well. Faint suggestion of strawberries lies underneath the phenol mess. Wholly unpleasant.

Flavor-Similarly egregious. Slightly tart and plasticy up front-there's almost no fruit at all to be had here. Plastic takes over again in the finish, once again accompanied by traces of other phenolic flavors. Not necessarily harsh or astringent, but it sure doesn't taste good.

Mouthfeel-Medium body with moderate to moderately high carbonation. Carbonation could be higher. I'd also expect a little more tartness from this beverage as opposed to the phenolic dryness.

I was really excited to try this one. I had heard good things about perennial and I loved the few rhubarb beers that I've had, but this is just plain awful. Perhaps it's a wild yeast problem, perhaps it's just a bad strain, but the plastic phenolic notes are overwhelming and kill anything else the beer had going for it.

750mL bottle served into a tulip glass

Pours a light blond color with decent clarity through the body. There's plenty of head -- two fingers at its peak -- composed of medium-sized bubbles collected loosely. The lacing is spectacularly clumpy.

This beer has an unconventional aroma, that's for sure. The overwhelming smell is of plastic. This is like sticking your head into a barrel of PVC pipes that is also itself made of PVC. There's an element of rhubarb on the back end of the astringent phenolic aroma. Strawberry wafers too: both that strawberry-inspired flavor and the light & sugary wafer are detectable. There's a lot of coriander in this witbier too. More than there should be , or maybe the coriander just doesn't play well with whatever is causing this beer to smell so much like plastic. A misstep.

On the palate this beer is also quite plasticky, but the other flavors are prominent enough to balance it out. It has a heavy coriander-meets-PVC flavor that isn't at all a desirable quality. But then you have the rhubarb meets strawberry hard candies flavor that is, at the very least, interesting and original. It's pretty drinkable to me despite its flaws, but I'm also a fan of phenols in general so I might be more disposed to enjoying this than other drinkers. All in all, this tastes like a below average wit to me.

The carbonation level is very active, which helps this beer go down in large gulps. It's a pretty dry beer, which is fine with me. Overall, this just doesn't smell or taste good. It has unique qualities but that plastic flavor really affects this beer for the worse. Is this a beer that needs only be tasted fresh? This bottle is at least a half-year old; maybe this beer doesn't age well. I've had two beers by Perennial and neither have impressed me. I have friends who swear by them, but I haven't had their best efforts yet, I guess. I need to trade for Heart of Gold or Abraxas, I suppose.

Served this 750 mL brown bottle in a Tripel Karmeliet glass. No date listed. The body was rich, straw colored with a modest white head that was loose and frothy.

The smell was plastic. Dirt and a little fruitiness. The plastic dominates. It was so off putting I considered pouring it but I decided to let it mellow for a little time. It did dissipate some, but not enough.

The taste was tangy with a nondescript tartness. Maybe a bit of coriander? Mild spiciness and ever so light strawberry flavors. It dried as it warmed a little.

The mouthfeel was medium to thin with an initial prickle that faded to flat pretty quickly. This is one mess of a beer. It is by far the worst smelling beer I have ever tried.

 

750 mL bottle poured into a tulip.

Pours a turbid rose-tinted bronze, very lively, with a big, fluffy and frothy white head.

Nose is distinct, with a pretty strong vegetal rhubarb note up front. Fairly standard witbier notes in the middle, musty and spiced with bready, yeasty aromas, and an occasional temperamental fleeting whiff of fresh strawberries. More strawberries would be a plus.

Fruitier on the palate, but as in the nose the specific strawberry note is difficult to pin down. I suspect the berries added more in the way of fermentable sugars than flavor and aroma characteristics. Rhubarb flavor is present but well-blended with the fruit, giving less vegetal funk. Fresh, with a bit of musty spicy witbier funk, but not very tart. Mild on the whole.

Light bodied and soft, with just a touch of puckering tartness. Finish is mostly dry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tan to yellow and mostly clear with tons of rising bubbles, large white fizzy head that didn't go away and left sticky lacing.

Lightly sweet and slightly fruity smell, a little bit dry bread smell wafts through as well.

I don't know if it's the rhubarb or not, but something's a little strange smelling, just slightly, and also is notable on the initial taste, but goes away after you drink a few sips. Now I know I'm a really lousy critic of specific flavors and smells and I'll never be the food critic for the NYT, but I'm thinking "modeling glue."

Once I got away from the initial impression of the smell/taste here, it wasn't so off-putting. There's a light strawberry flavor and some indistinct fruits, I presume from my not really knowing much what rhubarb tastes like. Fruity though. Also it's much like a saison, dry and crisp with yeasty flavors.

Body is very light and heavily carbonated, lightly yeasty aftertaste, again, much like a saison. Quite dry, slightly yeasty and almost spicy in the finish.

For the style I'm not very impressed. This is like a saison with just a touch of oddball fruit additions. Honestly I think more fruit and less saison-dry qualities would improve this beer. Either make a saison (and their saison is quite good) or make a fruit beer, but this one isn't really a good blend of the two, leaning towards an off-funky saison.

Thanks to JRorie for the trade for this

Pours a bubbly clear gold with a finger white head that dissipates quickly leaving just a layer of foam. Pretty good lacing down the glass.

Smells pretty yeast almost like a normal witbier which is the base for this. Subtle hints of strawberry and slight earthy funkiness although I get little rhubarb in the nose.

As I taste it I wonder if somebody didn't switch out my beer. Absolutely no fruit in the flavor at all. Just a yeasty witbier base that is very watery at that. An ever so slight spiciness. Not really much going on here.

Consistency of water with fairly good carbonation levels.

This is neither strawberry, rhubarb, nor tart. In fact nothing about any aspect of this beer leads me to believe it contains rhubarb and only the smell had strawberry. Just a mediocre witbier.