Gruit
Proper Brewing Co

Bottle from Craig. Amber pour with small ring of head. Aroma is spice, ginger, cinnamon, herbal,. Taste also recalls fruitcake. Both spicy and sweet. Nice!

Very interesting beer to have around the fire on a crisp and cool autumn evening.

this is wonderfully intelligent beer, one of my favorites in recent memory across all styles really, they absolutely nailed this, and made it their own, really special, dynamic, and original brew right here. gruit is an awesome style, done without hops, and the use of some uncommon and traditional herbs like yarrow, sweet gale, and labrador tea, i am not particularly familiar with this last one, but its presence in the beer sure is appreciable. the coolest part about this beer, and there are many cool parts, is that its not some throwaway samey malt bill. usually we see english pale and crystal, maris otter or something, or else an american wheat and pale two row type, letting the herbs do all of the talking, which is fine, i always order gruit when i see it and like the style generally quite a lot, but this beer is built like a dubbel or belgian dark, with a rich abbey malt profile that has elements of brown sugar, molasses, toffee, and cocoa in the nose and taste, it gives a new stage to the herbs, and supports them in a much more interesting way than i am used to in this style, brilliant! the herbs in here range from earthy to peppery to floral, things like lavender and jasmine come to mind, bitter green tea as well, and light notes of citrus and pear. its really super flavorful, and hops arent missed here even a little bit. the bigger malt base really makes the beer, makes it almost fancy like a belgian to me, and the sweetness of the grain is great with the herbs. nuances like mulling spices, peppermint, and even sweet basil come in as it warms, and there is a flattering an unifying yeast ester here as well. subtle alcohol all the way through too almost makes this feel like medicine, in a good way of course. this is magical beer, i wish i had more, but they have really done something incredible here. one of the beers of the year for me so far!