Killer Grove
Talisman Brewing Company

This was another beer that I picked up last year while out in Utah, as I never had anything from Talisman before. Expected this to be be sweet and juicy and indeed, this lived up to that billing as it was a fitting brew for this warm night. In the end, this didn't even feel like beer as it easily slid down the hatch...

A hazy, somewhat muted orange hue topped off by a ton of head filled my glass as the suds took quite a while to settle. Very little lacing remained once the bubbles faded as that was an indication of how thin this was. Honey sweetness, overt blood orange, and wheat filled the muted nose as the taste closely followed suit. Quite floral, a bit medicinal, and plenty slick, the carbonation was light with the end result, as another user noted, was a bit like a sour. If you like the tangy nature of that style with the hint of sweetness countering that, than this beer would indeed be for you.

No date was to be found anywhere although this held up well during the long journey back to my neck of the woods. There was enough to like here as the honey and orange make up for the lack of complexity that could have elevated this. As it was, this was a fun brew that easily fit the profile of a session beer. Worth a go once even though it could use some tweaking...

12oz can. No dating information found.
Pale gold with orange tint colored body. Cloudy. One finger of off white colored head. No lacing.
Aroma is faint with toasted malt and blood orange.
Taste is tangy wheat joined by semi-sweet orange, plus a layer of honey sweetness. Quick fade in the aftertaste.
Medium mouth feel. Drying finish. Good carbonation.
This beer tastes like eating a slice of semi-sweet blood orange, followed by a teaspoon of natural honey.

Draft at Hops & Bottles. Dark golden pour, small head. Aroma is light blood orange,citrus. Taste features a robust, bready malty flavor with just a tinge of the blood orange. Nice weight and feel.

LOOK - Pale orange with 1-2 finger head - head dissipates quickly - larger bubbles - some lacing continues and a ring of foam sticks around - very hazy
SMELL - Sharp smell of citrus (orange, grapefruit, slight pine, slight pineapple) - hint of malt/biscuit/cracker
TASTE - Huge bite of blood orange - very tart (almost a sour) - other tropical and citrus fruits pummel their way in (lemon, orange, grapefruit / mango, pineapple, granny-smith apple) - sweetens up for a brief second or two, then dries out and there's a nice tang left over
FEEL - medium bodied but on the lower end - carbonation mostly goes away after half the bottle
OVERALL - this is a really good brew here - i didn't expect it to be as fruity and flavorful - pleased with this one and would purchase again - aftertaste is nice as it leaves a grapefruit and slightly smokey wood flavor - very interesting!!

Beautiful hazy orange, small head
Aroma is fruity funk, couldn't tell if good funk or bad funk until the taste and
Taste is definitely a good funk, slightly sour and orange juice comes right across augmented by the clean wheat taste

a blood orange honey wheat beer here, flavorful on tap for the restricted alcohol content, a lot of brewers around utah have gotten good at this, but this seemed pretty unrefined to me, in need of some cleaning up and some better finishing touches to make it a better beer. its almost flat from the tap, no head whatsoever, and its quite hazy, orange, and almost lifeless. aroma is nice though, i get the sweetness of the blood oranges and the honey, along with a cool floral note from it, and the wheat malt supporting it is obvious. the flavor is pretty good too, a little sweet, not quite fully natural on the blood orange to me, but close, a pretty hefty cerealy wheat base that keeps it tasting like beer, and a bit less of the honey than i was hoping for, the sweetness is there but not the flavor as much, more of this would be cool. it comes together pretty well, but its woefully under carbonated, and doesnt ever really finish, a longer linger here than i generally like in my wheat beers. overall this is a beer (and really a brewery) with a lot of promise, but the full potential doesnt seem to have been realized yet...

edit: a little better on tap at the brewery, but still not all the way there. so much potential, but the execution is a step away...