Infinity Mirror
Halcyon Barrel House

My First try at a Brett IPA. Beautiful golden amber pour, nice head with with great rents Timon and lacing.
To me this took about 10 minutes to mellow. At first I was disappointed but as it warmed a little and mellowed it showed a nice balance of hops and yeast,

 

Serving: Bottle
Blend No.: 58
Bottled: Nov-6-2018 (Consumed Oct-30-2019)


A:
Pours a cloudy milk.yellow with an okay dirty white head that settles to a decent film. Some lacing. (3.75)

S:
Lemon oil, some bretty funk, old fruit. (3.75)

T:
Light fruit esters, earthy rustic hops and malt mix with a lingering assertive bitterness. (3.75)

M:
Dry with fluffy carbonation, a hoppy bite and medium-llong finish. (4)

O:
This is a fairly tasty Brett IPA overall.
It is about middle of the road as far as the "style" is concerned in my book. The look, smell, flavor and feel are about what should be there without more or anything too flashy. The brett could be more complex and the hops could do likewise, but I don't know how easy it would be to get both to do both at the same time due to the individual natures of each. Anyway, not bad. A little pricey, but I will definitely try some of the other beers from this project/brewery/Beau's off-shoot/whatever as I come across them. (3.75)

Not my thing
September 20 2019

 

 

 

Lemon yellow, slightly cloudy with lots of carbonation, topped with a finger of white head. Left the look of a Petrie dish surface after the head melted.

Smells of funk and Brett, earthy, leather, and a hint of lemon zest.

Tastes of Brett, a hint of lemon, spicy, and complex fruity and floral notes.

Medium to thick, chewy body, with lots of foamy carbonation.

Had in Stratford at my Brother's house, July 12th, 2018. Really good brew.

 

Pours clear old gold with a frothy thick head and good lacing. Aroma - musty old honey, barnyard, cider vinager. Flavour - complex - barnyard funk, hay, old musty honey (but not really that sweet - finish notes of green apple and apricots. Really dry - envelope gum. Not for the faint of hear.

Hazy orange, elegant white foam.
In the smell the brett are dominant, with some flowers, hay, a bit of geranium. Apricot and peach. Good.
The taste is pleasantly light, despite the strong bittern end. Some vanilla and light woody notes. And again the brett over all.
Perfectly balanced, good brett, interesting botterness.
Very good,

 

 

 

 

Bottle: Poured a hazy yellow color ale with a large white foamy head with good retention and some lacing. Aroma of fruity ester with light funky Brett notes with some floral hoppy undertones. Taste is a really flavorful mix of fruity ester with nice Brett notes with dry undertones with light floral hoppy notes. Body is full with good carbonation. Solid Brett IPA with plenty of balance and loads of fruity ester.

750 ml bottle served cold into a pint glass. Purchased from the LCBO for $10 CDN. Bottled June 1, 2017

Appearance - Rich golden color, some hazy, loads of expressive carbonation and a mountain of fingers as a head. Very good looking beer. Impressive staying power too.

Smell - Earthy, barnyard funk. Hints of sweetness and subtle suggestions of apples and possibly peaches. Candi sugar. Good nose, but doesn't really smell like an IPA. Much closer to a saison.

Taste - Apples and yeast with that earthy and sweet barnyard funkiness. Subtle suggestion of wood. Finishes with a more assertive bitterness than many in the saison style, but certainly not that far off. Not sensing any IPA characteristics here.

Mouthfeel - Body is a touch sticky, feel is really light and carbonation feels airy but the finish is bone dry.

Overall - I'm confused. It's a brett IPA? Brett I get, barrel aging, I even get a little of that, but where are the IPA characteristics. Better labelled as a hybrid. Nice beer, as usual not quite worth the hefty price tag, but can we just get some sort of consistency with labeling? I understand brewers are constantly inventing, but much better labelled as simply a Brett Ale or barrel aged saison to match up with our preconceived notions. What's next, a beer that is a pale ale, but since it was brewed at the height of the recent solar eclipse it will be labelled as a dark ale since the beer appeared dark for some short timespan in the brewing process? For anyone expecting an American style IPA with a brett infusion of some sort, this is not what you are getting. Nonetheless, enjoyed it enough that I didn't want to detract from what its does do well for too long.

10oz glass at the Underground in DTYEG - been a long while since I darkened this doorstep - it being summer and all.

This beer appears a mostly clear, medium apricot amber colour, with one skinny finger of wispy and bubbly dirty white head, which leaves some sparse island group lace around the glass as things slowly sink away.

It smells of gritty and grainy pale malt, a lesser edgy wheatiness, somewhat sour vinous red grapes, some gentle Brett funkiness, and a small dose of earthy, leafy, and floral noble green hoppiness. The taste is bready and doughy pale malt, some cereal wheaten graininess, still pleasantly laid-back Brett funk (always the best scenario), ephemeral red and white (the Nelson Sauvin, likely) wine barrel essences, and more citrusy, leafy, and herbal green hop bitters.

The carbonation is fairly benign in its bored-seeming frothiness, the body a solid middleweight, and generally smooth, especially given the Brett kind of lurking about. It finishes off-dry, the mixed fruitiness and lingering malt helping stave off any more of that yucky funk.

Overall - I have vowed of late to eschew funky brews, but of course there are always exceptions. Something like this from Beau's falls into the latter category, and comes off as approachable enough in its earnestness. However, the shitty final score is a reflection of the basic lack of IPA character here, which is a cardinal sin to me, especially when it claims to be otherwise.