April Rain
Off Color Brewing

 

 

 

 

 

 

Foggy burnt gold with a thin fuzzy white blanket.

Spicy cedar and oceanic seaweed pair with lemonade in the frothy medium body finishing cleanly semi-dry. A touch of toffee, wild herbs and yellow apple come out on the exhale.

Appearance: Pours a hazy, pale lemony color with a mild head that fades quickly.
Aroma: Strong fruit aromas. Floral & lemon/lime citrus, with a strong berry presence. Some lime, raspberry, orange, lemon.
Taste: Quite different than the nose. Flavor of citrus fruit with a strong tart and quite appreciable funky finish. Lots of yeast. There's a funky, tart metallic aftertaste that I'm not too fond of, but it's not too overpowering. That might be the white tea and white pepper that I'm unfamiliar with.
Feel: Light and zesty yeast. Crisp & carbonated. Respectively heavy-bodied and flavored for the ABV.

Overall: It's an interesting beer, and not exactly what I was expecting. More white pepper, tea, and funk and less tart or sour. Not exactly my cup of tea (no pun intended), but it's creative and unique. Credit given where it's due.

 

 

This Wild was an event on two counts, one good and one bad.

First, I brought April Rain to a dinner party at the home of friends of my wife because I knew most were wine drinkers and thought this Wild would have some of earthiness of wine. But, I apparently agitated the bottle (it probably rolled around in the car.) You know what happened. Me of very modest social graces popped the top and fountains of ale came forth. (Fortunately, my wife never found out, but still my Bad.)

Second, the Good. April Rain was perfectly fine. Of course, it had a full billowy head (since I agitated it.) It Smelled mostly of fruits and flowers (although as the situation settled down, I also got a light-ish malt in my nose.) I got to Taste this white tea... or at least how it tastes in ale, refreshing with fruitiness and nicely tart (that is, not sour.) Finishes dry, but the fruit still stimulates the buds.

OA: another winning experiment from Off Color. April Rain went fine with appetizers and swordfish for dinner. But my Bad cost me about 1/3 of the bottle. Better social graces to have shared.

another absolutely gorgeous beer from off color, who is quickly climbing the ranks of my favorite breweries. its awesome that more of their beers have been getting out there lately, and this one is a treat, brewed with a pungent asian citrus fruit and some white tea. pale and refined looking to me, heady and elegant. it is more tart than funky, a real clean and very delicate bacterial tang, well short of sour, and without some of the brettiness i have gotten used to in their wild beer. the sudachi is more aromatic than flavorful here, which i think works, its much more robust than white tea usually is, so i think it leaves some space for the tea in the flavor, makes sense, they go so well together it would be a shame to not allow room for this synergy to materialize in the flavor. i also smell a little pils type malt here giving it an obvious european flare somehow, and it drinks crisp almost like a tart lager, so dry and bubbly and fast finishing for how flavorful it is. a lot of neat elements incorporated here. light pepper, floral perfume and botanicals, lemonade tartness, citrus zest, meyer lemon even, and a drying element in the yeast, so so clean at the end. refreshing and summery, feminine in a real attractive way, if this beer was a lady, she would have long hair flowing in the wind, she would be standing in late afternoon summer sun, in a lace dress, in a field of flowers, glowing, smiling, alluring...

edit: cool that this one is back, i didnt see it say april rain on the little bottles label now, but the haiku is here, and this beer still rules. the citrus and the white tea go so well together, so fresh and fragrant and distinctive, and they go super well with the mixed culture here too, funky, tangy, very much alive, and this beer really does taste and feel like spring. a super impressive drink, delicate and memorable all over again!