Serendipity No. 8
Tree Brewing Co.

 

 

 

Never had the pleasure of anything in this series before, so I'm looking forward to this one!
A - deep rootbeer brown, tall tan head retained very well and left plenty of lacing all around
S - mostly nutty aroma dominates with mild hints of wood and whiskey
T - the raspberry ale is pleasantly noticeable right away, followed by nutty and chocolatey malt, mild woody accents, light earthy hops, and a little sweetness to round it out
M - medium body, sweet through the middle, finishes with a nice dry and slightly bitter feel
O - the mix of fruity sweet, malty savoury, along with a little hop kick produces a tasty brew where the different features are free to express their individual characteristics while being fairly balanced, the whiskey barrel again isn't particularly highlighted, but its worth a try if you come across it

 

 

Appearance - Pours a dark copper with two fingers width of cream coloured head.

Smell - Wood, bready malts, whiskey, dark fruit, mild leafy hops.

Taste - Strong flavour of whiskey and wood, along with bready malts and dark fruit. Wood barrel flavour is quite strong where it almost takes over.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. A tad sticky on the palate.

Overall - Glad to have finally tried one of the brews in this series from Tree Brewing. Interesting concept in theory, however in practice, I feel that the whiskey barrel flavour takes over and dominates over the red/amber ale components.

 

Tree Brewing's 'Serendipity#8' @ 7.0% , served from a 650 ml bottle purchased for $7.50

A-pour is amber from bottle to glass with a big frothey off-white head leaving a streaky lace along the pint

S-slight hint of the whiskey barrel aging

T-big hint of the whiskey barrel aging in the initial taste

MF-ok/good carbonation , feels full bodied , yep

Ov-not as good a combination as #7 , butt an interesting attempt

prost LampertLand

 

650ml bottle. Used to be that I had to be in the Okanagan at the right time to grab one of the Serendipity series - now I can buy this at my local bottleshop, word. No idea what kind of beer this is, other than it is aged for over 100 days in whiskey and port barrels - we'll figure that out afterwards.

This beer pours a slightly hazy, dark reddish amber hue, with three fingers of puffy, rocky, and thickly foamy ecru head, which leaves some nice cobwebbed lace around the glass as it slowly melts away.

It smells of strongly woody caramel and vanilla notes, grainy, bready malt, a touch of biscuity toffee, moderately spicy rye whiskey, an ethereal red wine fruitiness, and earthy, musty, and leafy hops. The taste is rather spicy grainy, lightly roasted caramel, rye, and pale malt, wet wheat crackers, a bourbon barrel acrid vanilla woodiness, a faint boozy and tart Pinot Noir black fruit character, an isolated stoney flintiness, and muted earthy, leafy, and mildly grassy hops.

The carbonation is a bit tight up front, but settles to a low-key frothiness soon enough, the body on the lee side of a respectable medium weight, and perhaps a tad thin in its plain, workaday smoothness. It finishes off-dry, the mixed-origin caramel and vanilla still facing a strong and heady rye barrel wood and grain astringency.

As has been my previous experience with these barrel-treated offerings from Tree, it seems here that the base beer suffers from an overdose of less than integrated woodiness. A little too edgy overall to recommend as a pleasant repeat drinking experience.