Barrel Aged Sweet Clover Brown
Scratch Brewing Company

 

 

what i had was dubbed "foeder aged sweet clover" but i have to reckon its this one, maybe an old now neutral oak wine barrel, maybe something formerly funky, heck, in this beer it darn may well be some old high end sherry, its really tough to say anything definite about a dark brown near porter looking brew i expected to be pale, and one thats both sour and weird, that i expected to drink like saison or belgian blonde, so what the heck do i know about anything anymore?! good! a beer that challenges me. this one sure does. some doctor pepper and sarsaparilla elements to the nose, astringent though, with wet tobacco and licorice qualities too, and lots of bacterial weirdness. im not sure where clover is supposed to figure in here. to me, that means the little green weeds intermixed with the grass in your lawn, with the little white flowers with the pinkish purple center that buzzing bees seem to love in july, but nothing about this beer is that delicate or nuanced. at its heaviest, i think of clover as clover honey, which is gooey and darker and more robust than lavender or orange blossom or other common honey types, but still, this is way beyond that. its maltier for one, roasty and cocoa driven and dry but hearty and tart and acidic and packed with suggestions of twizzlers and cola and root beer barrel candy and stuff i overindulged on as a youngster. there is some good and some bad here for sure, but at least we have a beer thats not like any other, and for that i have some love for it, but there clearly must be some element of clover, as a plant, that i do not yet understand. i now seek to know it...