Wari
Off Color Brewing

 

7/18/19 bottle @ home

Fairly clear ruby red, maybe a little foggy, with a short fuzzy white blanket.

Soft tingly bubbles bring in lightly tart red fruit flavors that most closely resemble pomegranate to my palate. A little tang and dryness bring out black pepper and a touch of smoked malt before coming to a cleanly refreshing finish.

 

 

Poured from a clear 12 oz. bottle. Has a pinkish color with a 1/2 inch head. Smell is very sour, some berries. Taste is tart, berries, a bit unusual, very dry at the finish. Feels medium bodied in the mouth and overall it's ok, but one is enough for me. I remember a drink called Chicha Morada that I drank plenty of while visiting Peru as a young man, and was hoping for a similar flavor profile, but they are worlds apart.

 

 

 

 

Dark pink in color with decent fizzy head, not much, but present and noticeable. Aroma is malty with a nice fresh berry nose. Taste is sour, almost rotten berries, but still hanging in there Mouthfeel is decent, slightly sour, yet delivers a good punch with the beery feel. Finish is beeries with a bit of an earthiness..

I was intrigued when I saw this on the shelf during a recent visit to The Beer & Beverage Shoppe. Its color made me initially think that a bottle of pop had somehow made its way onto the singles beer shelf. No, instead, it was an example of chicha, a style that I have wanted to try for a while. I first heard of it through Sam Calagione of DFH, who not only learned how to make it from South American natives, but also enlisted his employees to chew corn for a batch of their own! Yeah, it's made from chewed & spat out corn with the saliva helping to break down the starches for fermentation. The comprehensive Notes explain this one.

From the Bottle: "Chicha Inspired Ale With S. mole Berries"; "Chicha de Molle Inspired Ale"; "Gravity: 11 P IBUs: 3ish Malts: Pils, Peruvian Purple Corn, Honey Malt Hops: Yep, there's hops Secret Ingredients: Schinus molle berries, Lactobacillus, Excavation".

I Pop!ped the cap & noticing that it was highly carbonated, I began a slow, gentle C-Line pour into the awaiting glass. True to form, it immediately puffed up, forming just under three fingers of dense, foamy, rocky, pinkish (!) head that looked like fresh-spun cotton candy! 8=O Color was a Pinkish-Amber (SRM = N/A) with NE-quality clarity, although it should be noted that I left a LOT of lees on the punt for a final pour. Nose was highly fecal, reminding me to take a GIRD pill before continuing. 8=p No kidding, it smelled like an open sewer line. Warming, it took on a light tartness, kind of like the cranberry juice that they mentioned, but it was still really stinky. Mouthfeel was thin-to-medium, surprisingly bigger than I expected from such a low-ABV offering. The taste was MUCH better than the nose had led me to expect. It had a mild tartness, very evocative of tart berries, whether cranberries or cherries, but still much tastier than the nose had led me to believe. I also got a corn flavor, but not the unpleasant silage that usually comes as a result of using corn as an adjunct. Instead, it was like Fritos corn chips, a favorite of mine since I was just a wee lad. It had a pleasant corn flavor as opposed to the unpleasantness often found in AALs. Finish was surprisingly tart, dry & very refreshing. I would not want a steady diet of it, but as an oddity, it was actually quite tasty. My only real bugaboo was the smell, which actually lingered in my sinuses. Man, it really stank! My final pour was of the aforementioned lees in the "Waste Not, Want Not" philosophy. This was the distillation or source of the smell. Man, it was like concentrated stink. It also had a softer, more rounded tartness. Interesting.

I love these historic recreated beers. This one is particularly interesting. It is from a clear bottle, and is a wild electric reddish-pink color. Little head on the pour that quickly disappears. The aroma is a little tart-smelling, with some fruit and pepper notes. The taste is semi-dry and interesting. It reminds me of a modern slightly sour brew. Interesting.

 

 

A: Pours a relatively clear medium to dark purplish red in color (not too different than cranberry juice) with light amounts of fine active visible carbonation rising from the bottom of the glass and faint ruby red + purple + raspberry pink + burnt orange colored highlights. The beer has a finger tall fizzy foamy pale pink head that reduces to a large patch of very thin film covering a little more than 75% of the surface of the beer and a thin ring at the edges of the glass. Minimal amounts of lacing are observed.

S: Light aromas of slightly bready malts + corn adjuncts with a light to moderate amount of corn + honey sweetness. Slightly stronger than moderate aromas of lemon citrus + lacto tartness with a moderate aroma of spicy/peppercorn yeast. Light aromas of tart berries as well.

T: Upfront there are light to moderate flavors of slightly bready malts + corn adjuncts with a light to moderate amount of corn + honey sweetness. That is followed by slightly stronger than moderate flavors of lemon citrus + lacto tartness as well as light to moderate aromas of slightly tart/slightly sweet berries. Light flavors of spicy/peppercorn yeast. Light to moderate amounts of lingering tartness in the finish.

M: Just shy of medium bodied with moderate amounts of carbonation. Crisp with a light to moderate amount of acidic prickliness.

O: Not knowing what a chicha is supposed to taste/smell like, it is a little hard to judge how well this ancient ale is executed. It is easy to drink with well hidden alcohol and low ABV. Refreshing and enjoyable. Reminds of a bit of a Berliner Weisse but with some subtle differences.