Pink Slip
Cerebral Brewing

 

My first crack at cerebral brewing is a trio of beers. The first one is Pink Slip which is a breakfast sour that takes a unique approach with maple syrup. The color is great but the concept was a bit off.

 

Clear ruby with pink tinting and a pinkish cap. Huge aromas of slightly tart blueberry and sweet maple, impressed how much it extracts from the adjuncts, hints of brown sugar and vanilla behind. Taste is surprisingly balanced with the maple, blueberry and general sweetness. Stops short of taxing the palate too much. Feel is light, thin, leans sugary, tartness is playful, easy drinking. Pulled off the vision well. The wife liked it

 

a bizarre sour beer with blueberry and maple syrup, intensely flavored on both counts, and honestly nothing more than a novelty to me, even as a huge maple syrup fan, there is no balance to this, its liquid candy, and i think it was a misplay to make it a sour, as a blonde it would be a better beer, the acid is awful weird with all the sugar, and in the end, while i didnt hate it, i really didnt want to drink very much of it, couldnt imagine anyone really would. that said, its also pretty creative, and the combination of blueberries and maple syrup in a beer that isnt a huge stout is pretty cool. they call it a breakfast sour on the can, but i could never want this at breakfast time, its very acidic, more like lemon than orange juice, which would have been more breakfasty i think, but the blueberry tastes like candy not real fruit, the maple syrup is fragrant but just sweet in the flavor, and the unity between the elements and textures really isnt there for me. like, the maple builds up the body, the sourness breaks it down, the maple makes it sweet, the sourness goes the other way, there is an unresolved internal struggle here thats annoying. itsa lso just so darn new school and trendy that i cant help but kind of roll my eyes at it. cerebral has somehow become one of the cool kids around, and their beer is starting to get a little funny in my opinion, hype going to the head maybe. i wanted to like this, and conceptually dig it minus the sour part, and i guess the execution is fine as well, this was just never going to be a hit for me with the acid and the maple together in the same drink. pretty color, long flavor, appreciable maple in the nose, but diabetic in terms of sweetness here, and a can i was glad to be sharing around a couple of ways...