Sangria Noir
Cellarmaker Brewing Co. - The Rare Barrel

 

Just added this beer as it was missing. I almost feel it would be better not to add this beer at all, alas, it does exist.

The color is fantastic.

Smell; odd. Cloves, sweat, medicinal.

The flavor seems to, almost want to be palatable. As was in the nose, a flavor of clove is relentless and unfortunate. It seems to be the most prominent flavor i can perceive, aside from it I get what might best be described as 'gym sock'. There is what seems to want to be cinnamon, but it's missing something. Overall this gives me the impression of something a robot might drink.

MF and body are great. I want to say the alcohol flavor is gentle but honestly the overpowered flavors may be masking it. The beer is 10.2% and feels medium if not light, which is nice.

This is unique coming from Rare Barrel. While I haven't reviewed any of their other beers on this site, I will say that they've all been pleasant to me with the exception of this one.
In store, they've felt overpriced to me (probably irrelevant), in-brewery, they were all fresh, bright and enjoyed.

This one feels all wrong and in trying it, I can't help but get the impression that in their tasting of it, they must have known this was a miss and yet still, they canned it and put it to market. I've purchased one 12 oz can and will not do so again.

Per the can, it was made with grapes, oranges, lime zest, cinnamon, and star anise. I suspect the lime zest is where it went wrong; but the anise may be overpowered also.

I suspect this could be a solid beer if they dialed the additions back- way back. I'm disappointed to have chosen this over something else last night. Again, this beer is an outlier in my experience, from this brewery.

If you see it, I advise a hard pass.