What Is That, Velvet?
Funky Buddha Brewery

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

so with ballast point and funky now doing one of these, both on nitro, this is apparently a thing, and to be honest, i dont mind it! cocoa and vanilla in this nitro red ale, ive now seen it before, but its as good here as anywhere else, and if one were ever to like this sort of thing, this is probably the example of it to turn them on. one of, if not the only nitro beer happening at their taproom, creamy looking, but light and thin, especially next to the ballast point edition (draft, not the bottles, those look like crap in the glass). i like the cocoa bit, its earthy and natural, not as sweet, but identifiable in a great way. the vanilla, along with the grain, takes care of most of the necessary sweetness and dessert elements, which normally i avoid but they work out well here. the texture is in fact a little thing with the nitro, but, the flavors work so well, that i almost like it being light, i can drink more than one of these, i think, and thats cool. its easy for a beer like this to get lost in the shuffle, but it doesnt, and there is something to be said for that too. vanilla all the way til the end, some more grain caramelization than expected, still beer flavored. these guys seem to do basically nothing but flavored beers, and they are intense for the most part, but a handful of them, this one included, strike a chord with me, and i am as stoked on this in the end as anything they do. cool beer, even if it has peers now...

 

 

Beautiful garnet brew; off-white head with excellent retention.

Aroma features vanilla and chocolate, even a touch of nuts. Smells quite a bit like cake.

Up front, there's plenty of grainy malt, followed by chocolate and vanilla. As the brew warms, there's a nice balance of earthy hops and grainy malt coming through, but that's the closest to a traditional red ale this veers. A very tasty brew and a nice experiment.