Patches Harvest Ale
Bull & Bush Brewery

crowler that my homie hooked me up with from his trip, rad beer, even if its not super fresh anymore, obviously these ingredients dont get harvested in spring time, but the beer is awesome. hatch chili peppers and fresh peaches in a simple pale type brew, golden in color, clear and shiny, and fizzy if not holding its head real long. wild combination of ingredients, uncommon for sure, but they go real well together, impressively so. the peach is sweet and mostly up front, kind of subtle compared to the pepper, which smells roasty and green at the same time, super robust, like its going to be spicy as heck, but then tastes more well integrated and honestly shockingly mild in terms of heat, caught me by surprise. it rules how authentic and robust the pepper is in this, these are special pepper and its on display, not just generic chili character, and thats especially impressive. the peach is a little more generic fruity, even kind of candied to me up front, but its an excellent counterbalance to the pepper, which somehow never really gets vegetal at all. the base beer has some pale malt breadiness to it, a light sweetness of its own, and some decent body to support this flavor while also being out of the way. lightly hoppy on the back end, faint citrus to me, compliments the hops well and adds just a bit of bitterness to mellow out the peach sweetness. really different beer, wasnt sure what to expect here, but this is really clever and well done, the aroma and flavor of the peppers is as genuine as can be. nice!

 

Deep golden amber body with a thick, foamy head. Fine aroma of sweet peaches with a touch of green chili; honey. Funky taste blend of peaches with some very faint chili pepper but partially overridden with a sharp, phenolic, almost fusel alcohol note. Medium body; a bit watery; juicy sweet but with an overall dry quality to the beer.

For a chili beer, this one has a great look, especially with the head. The appearance and smell are definitely fine. It's when moving on to the taste and mouthfeel that the beer loses ground. The taste does bring out the peach and Hatch green chili notes but also has a strong alcohol character poking its nose out, especially towards the end of each sip. The body is fair yet rather bland and watery.