Hardwood Under The Carpet
Refined Fool Brewing Co.

Bomber purchased at the brewery about 2 months ago; dated Apr 12 2017 and served slightly chilled.

Pours a cloudy golden-blonde colour, with one finger of soapy, sparkling white head that fizzles off within the next 90 seconds or so. A loose collar of frothy foam remains afterwards, as well as a filmy cap - very little lace to speak of, though. The aroma is subtly spicy, with hints of tamarind acidity and clove spice on top of a wheaty, crackery pale malt sweetness, with just a hint of orange and lemon citrus tossed in for good measure.

The flavour follows after the nose - wheaty pale malts set the mood with their grainy, crackery sweetness, but beyond that it's mostly just spices/botanicals. Mild tamarind tartness, coriander, orange peel and lemon citrus acidity are all apparent, with clove spice rounding out the back end. Perhaps a hint of vanilla? Tamarind, coriander and clove linger briefly into the aftertaste. Very heavily carbonated, with a prickly mouthfeel that needles the palate relentlessly, much like a soft drink. Easy to drink, given the low abv, but the high carbonation makes it a little too 'bloaty' for session purposes.

Final Grade: 3.73, a B. Hardwood Under the Carpet is a unique brew, I'll give it that. I'm not certain that I've managed to identify all of the spice bill - apparently there's vanilla in this beer, but I barely noticed it (and that's not a criticism, because I'm not real big on vanilla-flavoured beer in the first place). The tamarind, coriander and clove are pretty noticeable though, and I'm pretty sure there's some sort of citrus peel (possibly orange) in there, too. My only real complaint relates to the (unnecessarily strong) carbonation, which might actually be due to the fact that I held onto this for 2 months, instead of drinking it fresh. It's worth a look - the spice flavours are interesting, and complement the base wheat ale very nicely.