Flamingo Fruit Fight - Tequila Barrel-Aged
Bell's Brewery - Eccentric Café & General Store

2022-08-06
12oz bottle served in a footed pilsner glass. Bottle is dated 05/14/2021, so it's almost 17 months old, and it's clearly labeled "Shelf Life - 12 Months" so if I think it's terrible or gone bad, I won't actually enter the review. Received from @FBarber, and I kept delaying consumption until my wife was interested in joining me...but I'm home alone and it feels like the right time.

Pours clear until the bottom of the bottle, when some sediment streams out and clouds up the whole thing. After a few minutes, there is zero head, although there is a little active carbonation. Smell is lime-tart and some vague tropical notes.

Taste is a little tequila, a little lime, more vague citrus, kind of tart, and mostly lacking the kettle sour flavor that rubs me the wrong way.

Mouthfeel is fairly light and fairly crisp. Overall...it's not bad. It probably would have been better fresher, but that's not Bells' fault.

Look: like a hazy IPA, there's even some sediment in the bottom. Golden orange, with some nice lacing on the top of the beer

Smell: CITRUS. Lime, orange, blood orange? Wheat.

Taste: Wooo is that sour. Like a sprite with a Warhead candy dropped into it. I don't get a ton of the tequila...okay now that I think about it and take another sip, I get it. It just reminds me that I prefer mezcal to tequila. Basically if you took a fresh squeezed margarita and dialed the sourness of the lemon and lime up to 11.

Feel: Pretty well carbonated but really coats the mouth well. Maybe my favorite part; it really begs to be swished around your mouth.

Overall: I'm not a big sour, gose, or tequila guy, but at least this is interesting

 

 

 

 

This one pours a completely opaque, cloudy, orange color. Thin, weak white bubbly head forms on the beer but its retention is fleeting. Aroma has notes of passionfruit, lime, lemon-lime citrus, wet wood, oak and tequila. Moderately tart, lightly sweet, with a fleeting impression of booziness from the tequila.

The taste follows the nose with the passionfruit and lime showing off up front. The passionfruit is in and of itself slightly tart. Then there is an underlying malty note of wheat with that moderate tartness continuing through but taking on more of the traditional lactic acidity and tartness. There is a moderate salinity to it and then the tequila barrel character comes through towards the back end providing this woody, earthy character along with the tequila, which is reminiscent of booziness because it tastes like tequila, but is not actually boozy. really delicious with an excellent use of the barrel to provide extra complexity and depth without dominating the underlying gose. Feel has a bit more body (this is the highest abv of the four) but is still pretty crisp and drinkable. Moderate carbonation. Semi-dry finish. The tartness does linger a bit on the finish.

Overall this is easily my favorite of the bunch - the tequila barrel adds a lovely extra layer of complexity, while at 6%not sacrificing any type of drinkability or repeatability.

Bottled 5/14/21

I really love these margarita inspired beers. Aside from beer it’s one of my favorite drinks. Tequila barrel aging always imparts some nice characteristics into beers, and it especially helps those that already have margarita-esque flavors. Let’s dive into it and see what it’s all about

Pours a hazy dark gold with 3 fingers of creamy white head that slowly fades to a thin ring and leaves minimal lacing

Funny, it doesn’t seem like the tequila barrel does much to this one in terms of aroma, maybe just softening things up a bit. I’m picking up on aromas of buttery oak, lightly tart passion fruit, orange juice, bready malt, and light honey

A bit thin in taste as well, but the tequila adds some nice notes to it. On the front end of the sip I’m tasting tart lime, sweet honey, buttery oak, light pepper, and caramel malt. The swallow brings notes of white pepper, toasted oak, lime peel, bready malt, and white grape

A light medium body pairs with gentle prickly carbonation, resulting in a zippy and tart beer. Finishes off dry with a nice sweetness for balance

This beer is quite good but nothing amazing. I like the balance in this one. A nice light drinker

 

The barrel treatment doesn't do this sour any favors - it seems to mute the fruit flavors without adding any distinctive tequila flavors. It adds an element of booze it doesn't need which increases body, exactly the opposite of what you are looking for in a fruited sour - crispness, refreshing, fruity but beer. Interesting try but a miss for me.

 

 

12 FL OZ bottle
Served in a pint glass

This beer pours an orangish yellow color and is turbid. It has no head.

I get lime, cinnamon, and tequila. No passionfruit. Seems odd given its strong aroma typically.

I get lime and faint cinnamon. the tequila is weak like the Ukraine. The passionfruit is there but mostly just in spirit.

Medium bodied with a flat mouthfeel

Not much better than the non tequila barrel aged version. It is okay but not noteworthy.

 

The bottle label did not indicate this beer is a Gose. I tasted nothing but salt.

 

 

Just when you thought that the fruit fight couldn't get any funner, Larry's latest rendition of what's becoming Bell's classic summer ale takes the fruits of passionfruit and lime to a whole new margarita level with a quick aging in tequila barrels. Alright, let the party begin!

Light gold and pale with a hazy chrome austere, the frothy Tequila Barrel-AgedFlamingo Fruit Fight doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, but it does captivate the nose with a spicy, lively and brisk scent of tequila spice, musty oak and those exotic tropical, zesty citrus notes. With a backdrop of sourness, a squint of the eye and a tightness of the jaw rounds out the scent. Light agave sweetness skirts the tongue in a fleeting early taste of powdered sugar, honeysuckle and dry pastry crust.

But the session is all about the fruit. Juicy with slightly over ripened passionfruit and lime, the tangy, juicy and fortified flavor of punch, sangria and bellini come to mind. Taking on a winey, cidery tone, the flavors become quickly spicy with the peppery character of tequila, oak and salt. With a rounded margarita influence, the late taste shines with a nearly buttery, nutty and savory extension from the barrel.

Medium light in body, the ether that rolls off of the retro-olfactory action is warm and spicy as the ale finishes fruity, lightly bitter and with an acutely sour flavor. Its a more mature version of the non-barrel aged version that adds a plethora of complexity along with an added sense of power.