The Nihilist
Paradox Beer Company

 

the nihilist is a brown ale brewed with munich, pale, crystal, and belgian specialty malts, and hopped with fuggles, then aged in oak red wine barrels. it is part of the bandeau artist trip series of beers from paradox. hazy amber brown color on the pour and a decent inch of slowly fading head. the nose on this is odd, lots of acid from the wine, or maybe an infection, its hard to ever know with these guys. the malt smells more like an amber ale than a brown, not much chocolate or roasty qualities, but plenty of copper and caramel. some fruit in the taste to go with the grain, cherries maybe, but its subtle. the wine barrel has done a lot to this, oak notes sure, but also a whole lot of acidity that sort of clashes with the malt profile, not nice. the finish is all acid, and here i get the suggestions of infection, metallic in the throat, and quite difficult to get through. fuller body and good bubbles. paradox beers continue to baffle me, they all sound so good but are done so unevenly. some are great, some are awful, and some, like the nihilist, are just confused.