Angry Peaches
Garage Project

Quite enjoyable, enjoyed at goldings in Wellington. Caramel gold in color with a strongly hoppy stone fruit hop not of apricot and white peach, with pine in background.

Taste is full bodied, effervescent, and a load of stone fruit flavor, plum comes to mind with peaches, slight bittersweet caramel malts, baking spice, almost a very robust peach cobbler, but with a lot more bitterness. I liked it quite a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

Format: a 375mL can poured into a pilsner glass at The Fork and Brewer in Auckland during Beer Week. Great-looking label / can per the Garage Project norm.

Appearance: colour is a clear mid-dark orange-copper with fine carbonation, a thick white head lasting at one finger. Decent lacing as it drops to a half-finger.

Taste: as expected, plenty of big peaches here with some other tropical fruits behind. A solid backbone of sweet malts. The peaches are quite natural, which is nice.

Aftertaste: again plenty of peaches with the sweet malts. Quite mouth-filling without being saccharin.

Mouth feel: the sweetness hangs around for a time, without becoming too bitter. The malts drop away some, but are still evident.

Overall: this beer is much better than I was expecting, since most stone fruit beers tend to taste quite artificial and saccharin. This one is clean, crisp and has a lovely natural flavour. It is expensive in Australia - the best I found it for was AU$19 for a 650mL bottle, but it's worth it for one every now and then.

 

 

650ml brown bottle purchased from Oak Barrel in Sydney.

Pours a clear but deep coppery colour, with a fine head of off-white that dissolves into large pancake bubbles fairly quickly. Lacing is tight and intricate, which is good to see. Body is a little bit light, and the carbonation is coarser than I expected. Not bad though.

Nose is a nice blend of slightly nutty malt characters and indeed something of a stonefruit hop aroma. If not angry peaches, then perhaps some slightly miffed apricots. There's something a little grassy as well, which isn't unpleasant, but again detracts a little from the peach aroma that was clearly the goal. Still, it's quite pleasant all up.

Taste is very nice. Clean and pleasant through, nicely balanced between that nutty malt structure, a slight uptilt of booze and a clean bitterness that works with some of the fruity flavours. Back is clean, but with a crisp linger of hop acids to give it a sting in the tail. Yeah, I like it a lot.

Feel is fairly smooth and clear, without getting too heavy or rich. It works well.

Overall, a very nice brew from Garage Project. Were it not sold on the premise of aggressive, absurd stone fruit, it would just be a very fine beer in its own right. When you're looking for peaches though, you may end up a tad disappointed—better to just appreciate this beer on its own merits, of which is has many.