Good Listeners
Off Color Brewing

 

 

amazing stuff here, done in collaboration with rowley, using cactus, honey, and prickly pear fruit as well as agave nectar, very much a dessert saison. i love the stuff rowley makes, and this seems like a cool combination of what these breweries both do best, which is to use curious ingredients in fermentation forward beer. the added sweet elements are fermented near dry, a little lush almost eucalyptus and aloe character to it from the cactus still, and some floral aspect from the honey, but perhaps their greatest contribution to this is that that grain is able to be kept super light because these ingredients add so much fermentable sugar. this is really delicate in feel, pillowy with some soft raw wheaty element, effervescent, and dry. the fermentation profile is a weird one, it smells a little new, a little like that dusty cheerio cereal dust i sometimes get in wild ale thats real young, but in the flavor there is a nice pop of citrusy tartness and a little hay and farmy funkiness to it, i dont need anything more from it than this. it does still taste like its developing, and my guess is a year of cellar time would really allow this to evolve into its fullest potential, but its cool now too, very rustic and raw to me. i like the little bit of dragon fruit and prickly pear in this, makes it seems very alive and fresh. some honey with the grain and the tang at the end, lemon, orange, green vegetal character from the cactus, and a hint of white wine or mead. really neat beer, a cool collaboration, and a true one of a kind. nice use of some very peculiar ingredients here!

A draft to close out the Great Taste, and now a 750mL in an Off Color tulip.
Pale orange ample foam and lacing, though it fades after a few minutes.
Aroma is lightly tropical, slightly floral, with a mild wet hay Brett funk.
Lightly tart with some tropical character, likely a blend of the wild yeast and dragonfruit. Prickly pear often tastes like pure sugar, there isn’t any of that. Columbia hops can have a lemon citrus character, there is a mild lemony tartness. What stands out is malic acid, not the cleanest type of sour, though it compliments the Brett. Medium low carb, mild sourness. Overall it’s interesting, though more tropical character and acidic punch would be welcome.