Pickleback
Plan Bee Farm Brewery

 

Shimmering gold with a fuzzy film leaving rolling mounds of lace.

Holy hell this works stunningly well. Kicked off by tart lemon-lime, a sort of toasted cracker then meets a pleasant cucumber that works so much better here than many other cucumber beers I've had. A very unique herbal dill accent continues to astonish me as to how nicely folded in all these aspects are.

This perfectly refreshing, lightly tart beer is crisp then airy in feel, finishing cleanly semi-dry with a sort of oceanic exhale.

 

First, my inherent bias - I love pickles. I love picklebacks. I drink pickle juice from the jar. I was, to say the least, prepared for this beer.

On cracking the wax, my kitchen was permeated by the smell of fresh cucumber and light brine - the nose smells quite a lot more savory and sour than the actual taste, which is likely for the best. The beer is surprisingly light, given my expectations based on the nose - it's more of a clean, light, salty pickle gose than anything. I'd expected wild yeast, funk, and lots of sour notes - but that's not exactly so.

Strangely, I think this might actually make a decent palate cleanser between dishes, or even between different cocktails or hard liquors.

I'm a fan. This is quite good.