Silly Friar
Hermit Thrush Brewery

A thanks to the commander of the canquest, woodychandler, for this beer. Poured from a 16 oz. can. Has a copper color with a 1/2 inch head. Smell is of yeast, spices. Taste is sour, funky, vinegar, some green apples, very dry at the finish. Feels medium bodied and tart in the mouth and overall it's not what I expect from this style at all.

OMFG! All of my plans have just suddenly taken a turn off of the rails! One unexpected thing segues into the next, into the next, ad nauseum! Jeezum H. Christopher! At least there is one CANstant - The CANQuest (tm)! Viva The CANQuest (tm)!

From the CAN: "One Pint of Craft Ale"; "Belgian Inspired Enkel"; "New American Sours Brewed Responsibly"; "Hermit Thrush Brewery uses historical brewing processes, oak casks, and new green technologies to make exciting beer while minimizing environmental impacts. Using exclusively wild-harvested yeast, we highlight local flavors and ingredients in each of our beers. Cans recycle and ship using less energy than glass, and our wood pellet fueled brewhouse eliminates any need for fossil fuels in our brewing. Are you ready to break free from the flock?"; "Get Beer Off Oil"; "Our enkel (or single) resembles the Belgian pale ales that would often be part of a monk's lunch but have generally fallen out of favor beyond monastery walls. Silly Friar uses a hefty amount of European hops, but focuses primarily on the malts with a touch of yeast funk."; "Proost!"

This is mostly correctly identified as a Belgian Pale Ale, per the above, but it is really an Enkel or Table Beer, neither of which are Style categories on here, so fair dinkum. Just as there are Dubbels, Tripels & Quadrupels, so is there the Enkel. Now you know.

I Crack!ed open the vent & beCAN a slow, gentle C-Line Glug into the awaiting glass since I really had no idea what to expect.

Enkels/Singels/Table Beers are very UNCANmon, partially due to a lack of demand, as alluded to in the Notes, but it may be a self-fulfilling prophesy in that if they were made more widely available, perhaps more people would try them. Even sister (?) site Untappd has a badge for them! I have not had one in quite a while.

It foamed nicely enough, forming just over a finger of foamy, soapy, rocky, eggshell-white head with modest retention, falling to wisps rather quickly. Color was a hazy Golden-Amber (SRM = > 5, < 7) & I wondered if I could have been a bit more gentle in striving for clarity. The short answer is in the negative as I actually left some in the CAN in case of a high yeast presence. Nose had a light funkiness to it, but nothing as intense as with the earlier beers from this brewery. It was just enough that I could not parse the malts from the nose. Mouthfeel was thin-to-medium, a step or two above watery, which was actually rather impressive, given their verbiage. The taste opened with an initial lemony sourness, catching my off-guard in the hinges of my jaw. 8=O Once I recovered from the initial shock, I got a strange breadiness, almost like sourdough. 8=O

I have not made sourdough in a long time, but I used to eat it regularly when I was stationed in the East Bay of S,F. from 1987 to 1989. Best 2.5 years of my life! The galley on N.A.S. Alameda was a godsend to me! I was no longer boxing, but I had my body fat down to single digits & was exercising & running all the time, burning calories as quickly as I took them in. Lunch/Dinner was my big meal of the day & I could spend the full hour in the galley, packing it away! And all for a set price. The ladies loved seeing me load up & eat everything. Mmm.

This beer evoked that quality of "liquid bread", as beer is often referred to as being. The German monks had Bocks & Doppelbocks before sunrise during Lent to sustain them for the day's fasting until after sunset. The Belgians & those of the Netherlands had Singels or Table Beers.

I CAN see this sustaining me at lunchtime. I have been Bro. Woody of The Order of Disorder for some time & I CAN easily identify with my fellow brethren. Now, if I could just get the hang of those pesky illuminated manuscripts … I was really starting to get the hang of this beer. They were spot-on about it, in that once the initial shock wore off, I really got a breadiness from it. Finish was dry, but "super malty" would seem to be a CANtradiction in terms, although the yeasty funk definitely remained.

Interestingly, in looking at the Style Guide, not only does this beer hit the markers for the style, but it suddenly occurs to me where I have encountered something similar in taste - Petrus Aged Pale! That is a tad higher in ABV, but the tastes are about the same. If you like Aged Petrus, you will like this. YMMV.

 

The hazy orange/golden colored beer pours out in to a Duvel glass with a very thin head that soon recedes to a tiny ring around the glass and an irregular thin island of foam on the surface. Sipping creates only a few scattered small patches of lacing.

The aromas are acidic and tart with some woodiness and green apple in the background but not much else showing.

The flavors emphasize the acidic tartness with the the green apple, woody character a bit sweetness along with some slight hop bitterness way in the background

The mouthfeel is on the light side of medium bodied with almost no carbonation to speak off. The finish begins as the tartness begins to fade into the background allowing a bit of the woody character to emerge briefly before leaving just a slight feel of dry pucker at the back of the palate.

Mostly this is a one dimensional beer that focuses on the acidic tartness without much else to offer. I'll not be looking to have a second one. While the brewer describes it as a Belgian Pale Ale for me it's basically a kettle soured beer that has the acidic tartness concealing what else might be going on with other possible flavors and aromas.

 

Hermit Thrush Brewery "Silly Friar"
16 fl. oz. can without production codes or freshness dating
$8.00 @ Capone's Restaurant / Take-out, Norristown, PA

Notes via stream of consciousness: Not unlike the last Hermit Thrush beer I had, the Truthy Cardinal, this one has an orange color to it. It's a little more golden than the Truthy Cardinal, but not by much. It must be the wood adding some color. It also has some head retention to its short white cap which is nice, most sour beers lose their head almost immediately. The aroma is limited to what I call 'tart'. I know you can't smell tartness but you get the idea I'm sure - citrusy, I'll say, without any real distinctive fruity notes. There might be a little bit of wood there, there's something, but I can't really say 'yes, that's oak'. Moving forward the flavor is quite tart, sour even. I wish I had a pH meter so that I could test all of the sour beers I sample and try to come up with a scale for myself. It's puckering. Sour level one, perhaps. The flavor is not too different from the aroma: it's tart and acidic like citrus fruit but without any specific citrus fruit notes; there is some apple to it. I don't get the oak until the dry finish, and there's really not a lot of malt character to it. Well, maybe a very light touch of grain, but tasted blind I wouldn't immediately think grain, it might be fruit based. Although as I've just pointed out, it's not really fruity either. It's light-medium in body and gently crisp with the acidity doing the most of the work to give it a little bite and liven the tastebuds. Not bad on that point, I think too much carbonation might take the acidity a bit high given the malt base. So what does that leave us with? Not much. It's got acidity and a hint of oak but it doesn't have the character of their other beers. That doesn't make it bad, it's just not exciting.

 

This was poured into a tulip. The appearance was a soft hazy burnt orange color with no head or lacing. The smell took in a big funky and earthiness rolling in some lemon to citrus rind and pulls in subtle dry woody aromas. The flavor shapeshifts the aroma into the flavor adding a light sour and tang in there. Light tang in the aftertaste but not overbearing. Quick wet finish. On the palate, this one sat about a light to medium on the body with a fair sessionability about it. Sour/tang/funk shows effect but not burdensome. Gets slightly sticky as it warms. Overall, Belgian styled pale ale, yes, I see it as one with Hermit Thrush adding their "funky" to "sour" take on it. I’d have again.

16 oz can purchased from the brewery, no dating indicated

Opaque, straw colored. Soapy head that dissipates quickly, cider-ey
Smells cider-ey as well. A slightly herbal and a slightly citrus tang that get the mouth watering. Green apples too
Whoa. More tart than anticipated from smell. Fades quickly and ends quite dry. Green apples, lemons, subtle hops. Could use a bit more malt backbone for my palate.
Crisp, sharp carbonation. Gets thicker as it warms
A great, refreshing summer Belgian beer by way of Brattleboro, VT

 

Purchased in a four pack of cans at the brewery on 12/2/16. Tastes like a mild sour. Zero body (which is big on my list) but is apparently their rendition of a "pale ale". Would not buy again, especially at $15 a four pack.

 

 

Not bad

 

 

 

 

L-The beer pours a slightly hazy golden. The head starts off at about a half finger of white foam which quickly recedes to a thin ring.
S- the nose of this beer is all over the place. On one had I get the toasty malts that make up it's backbone, but I swear to god that I got a whiff of diacetyl which quickly disappeared and was replaced with a fruity pear sweetness. Not really a clean progression or melding, but kind of a hot mess.
T- taste and nose are the same. Malts, with that fruity pear character. Again I'm getting buttery character which I don't believe should be in there. Without that the flavor profile is pretty spot on for style. Hops presence may be a bit lighter than it should be.
F-Carbonation is prickly, but lacking after the initial pour. Mouthfeel is smooth and medium overall.
O- I feel like I'm being more negative than the beer probably deserves, but the buttery diacetyl that I picking up now and then makes me wonder if their is a QC issue with this batch. Overall without that the beer does an adequate job for the style. Hermit Thrush has always been hit or miss for me, and this beer is not exception. I'll have to try this again from a different batch to see if the experience is the same.