Tooth & Claw
Banded Peak Brewing Co.

 

473ml can poured into tulip.

Pours a a pinkish amber with a thin cap of light pink head that leaves scattered bits of lace as it recedes.

Smells of cherry juice, grainy caramel malt, black pepper, cloves and soft leafy hops.

Tastes of grainy bread with caramel, more peppery Belgian yeast, tart cherries and more gentle hop dryness.

Feels smooth and mild. Medium bodied with laid-back carbonation. Finishes off-dry.

Verdict: Recommended. Nothing spectacular, but pretty tasty, and with enough booze to warm you up a bit.

Appearance - Pours a blush pink with two fingers of bubbly white head.

Smell - belgian yeast, clove, cherries, spicy earthy and floral hops, sourness, and bready malts.

Taste - belgian yeast, clove upfront then quickly goes into the tart cherries. The spicy earthy and floral hops, sourness follow suit. The brew is finished off by the bready malts.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Finishes smooth and tart with the cherries lingering.

Overall - A cherry saison that delivers on the cherry flavours. I like how tart the flavour is from the cherries. A respectable and enjoyable saison that pays homage to nature's brutal hierarchy as the can indicates.

473ml can - made with the juice of three different cherry varieties, apparently.

This beer pours a clear, medium salmon amber colour, with three flabby fingers of puffy, chunky, and rather fizzy pale pink head, which leaves a bit of random blotchy lace around the glass as it lazily sinks out of sight.

It smells of gritty and grainy cereal malt, some estery Belgian yeastiness, muddled dark fruity notes, a hint of earthy spiciness, and very, very tame leafy, floral, and herbal green hop bitters. The taste is bready and doughy caramel malt, a lesser spicy wheatiness, some mildly tart lacto, a weak cherry (sure) fruitiness, faint earthy yeast, and more well-understated herbal, musty, and dead floral hoppiness.

The carbonation is fairly restrained in its ennui-stricken frothiness, the body a decent middleweight, and generally smooth, with perhaps a touch of fruit acridity making a minor dent in the surface sheen here. It finishes off-dry, the malt and generic frooty character presiding.

Overall - yeah, if you didn't tell me beforehand that it was cherries that were the guest ingredient, I would be hard-pressed to identify their particular flavour, as such. That said, this isn't bad, and the elevated booze factor is quite expertly integrated. I feel like this needs to be served mit Schuss, to deliver on the promise in the name.