Purple
TRVE Brewing Co.

among my favorite beers i have had from trve ever, which is really saying something, given that i love almost everything they have done, and have been a huge fan of all the weird ones. this is really special stuff, a raw ale as they call it, which from what i can tell means its not boiled in the kettle. this one is built around a special purple egyptian barley, which i have never once heard of before, but i guess its purple, and even though the beer doesnt have much color to it from this obscure ancient grain, it sure has a lot of impact on the beer. my best speculation is that they dont boil this one so that the special grain can keep as much of its natural flavor and texture intact, without any of the sugars caramelizing, without any of the heat breaking down anything developed in the mash, and with as much of its raw state coming through in the beer, and i think that works. its pillowy soft, oddly baked already, bready and nutritional feeling, some protein too, and fermented with a cool yeast strain or mix of strains that brings some early funk but finishes clean and lightly belgian, also soft, gorgeous with the grain here, kind of wild tasting too, but unconventional to the max. its bone dry and effervescent but has a lot of fluff to the feel, hearty and awesome, autumnal in a different sort of malty way. trve is just killing it right now. my question here is whether or not this crazy barley is malted, and if it is, who is malting it? i have not heard of such a thing before and am extremely curious. dont miss this one, its one of their best and most interesting brews to date!