Not Stirred: Smoking Bishop
Springdale Beer Co.

 

Not quite holiday time, but night before Halloween with a bunch of sticky wet snow and ice, then freezing, I felt it was close enough for this.

Pours a light fizzy airy pinkish head with lower retention, mostly clear but dark ruby to maroon color, a bit of legs, no real lacing

nose is quite interesting, a lot to take in, with base Springdale sour that is nice, good funk, bacteria souring, fair acidity and tart funk, some dark fruits as well like a fig plum, and a little orange peel but not a lot, the spices also start off on teh lighter side but some on stronger as it warms, not a ton overall, a bit of buttery oak and some red wine notes

Taste brings the big base Springdale sour out front, nice souring bacteria and funk, quite a bit of acidity, nice funk overall as well, tart dark fruits again like sour plum, some cherry, and a bit of fermented sour orange juice, adding to the acidity as well, spices come on in waves, cinnamon and nutmeg at first, then some cardamom, then more of the orange juice late, a bit more grape skin and wine notes, and a tart cranberry interestingly, and concord grape juice later, a bit of buttery oak rounding it off, finishes with a lot more acidity and surprisingly only a little flemmy tartness,

Mouth is med bod, a touch of alcohol warmth, plenty of acidity and tartness, only a touch flemmy

Overall a lot better than I expected, the spices were interesting and mostly background, the base sour is always great, plenty of nice dark fruits, quite enjoyable

I always make it a point to grab something from this series when I see it after having had the Paloma. I’ve never had a smoking bishop, so I can’t really comment on how accurate this is to the cocktail, but I’ll do my best nonetheless

Pours a glowing maroon with just a finger of pink tinted head that quickly reduces to a ring of bubbles and leaves no lacing

This smells like I walked into a church. Tons of clove and cinnamon mix with citrus, very reminiscent of an herbal tea. A touch of sour cherry as well. I can’t really say I enjoy the aroma, but it’s well executed

On the front end of the sip it’s very tart. Lots of lemon and cherry. On the swallow, the spices come through way more. Tons of cinnamon, cherry, oak, and ginger

A surprisingly light body, especially for the abv. Combining this with pretty intense tingly carbonation leads to an easy drinking and super tart beer

This was kinda polarizing. It did not start off very strong, but throughout the sip it developed into something very tasty