Salzspeicher - Raspberry
Freigeist Bierkultur

 

500ml bottle - very German-looking label, with an English name.

This beer pours a very dark, amber-highlighted brown colour, with one finger of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly tan head, which leaves some decent roiling sea wave lace around the glass as it quickly blows off.

It smells of gently soured, grainy and bready caramel malt, faint raspberry puree, a musty yeastiness, and some subtle earthy, weedy, and floral noble hop bitters. The taste is gritty and grainy caramel malt, some free-range char, saltine crackers, an ethereal black fruitiness, weak cocoa powder, rather mild sour yeast, and more understated musty, herbal, and musky floral green hoppiness.

The carbonation is quite laid-back in its insouciant-seeming frothiness, the body a so-so medium weight, and sort of smooth, with some meek tartness maybe taking things down a wee notch or so here. It finishes off-dry, the malt and now thoroughly generic fruitiness carrying us on out that door.

Overall - yeah, this is a Porter, all right, but the other two characteristics of titular renown are conspicuous by their near-absence. Not much sour or raspberry to be found here, and not really worth the elevated craft brew import price, IMHO.

Faint raspberry can be detected from behind a light soapiness. Malt and roasted malt are also present, though the aroma overall is strikingly mild. Warmth teases out prune juice.

The flavor is tart and, in my opinion, off target. Raspberries, while clearly present, are subdued along with other dark fruits. The finish is brief and modest, leaving a slight lingering flavor of sour milk.

Soft carbonation lifts the medium body. Alcohol is as expected. There is a metallic undercurrent.

This beer has a similar effect on the palate as does pairing orange juice with toothpaste. While not that extreme, the effect is far from what one expects or desires from this style or from any beer for that matter.

 

 

 

2016-08-07
10oz pour in a tulip at Engine House Number 9.

Pours black with a medium creamy head, strong retention, and little carbonation. Smell is raspberries, roastiness, and chocolate.

Taste is sour fruit, slight chocolate. Mysteriously empty.

Mouthfeel is creamy and silky. Overall, not a bad beer, but everything is a bit too muted, and the sourness is odd somehow.

 

Not so hot. Very acid

 

 

 

Bottled
Pitch black body with surface grey bubbles
Full on black forest gateau aroma
The flavour profile is similar but with a salt water taffy aspect as well
Nice car
This was my birthday beer
& a good birthday it was

500 ml bottle into tulip glass, no bottle dating. Pours nearly opaque dark brown/black color with a 1-2 finger dense khaki head with good retention, that reduces to a nice cap that lingers. Nice spotty soapy lacing clings around the glass. Aromas of big sour raspberry, red grape, dark fruit, milk chocolate, cocoa, toasted dark bread, light licorice, sea salt, hay, straw, pepper, light red wine vinegar/funk, and yeast/roasted earthiness. Nice aromas with good balance and complexity of fruity/acidic yeast, dark/roasted malt, and raspberry fruit notes; with good strength. Taste of big sour raspberry, red grape, dark fruit, milk chocolate, cocoa, toasted dark bread, light licorice, sea salt, hay, straw, pepper, light red wine vinegar/funk, and yeast/roasted earthiness. Good amount of fruity/tannic tartness, roast bitterness, and yeast spiciness on the finish; with lingering notes of sour raspberry, red grape, dark fruit, milk chocolate, cocoa, toasted dark bread, light licorice, sea salt, hay, straw, pepper, light red wine vinegar/funk, and yeast/roasted earthiness on the finish for a while. Good balance, robustness, and complexity of fruity/acidic yeast, dark/roasted malt, and raspberry fruit flavors; with a solid tart/bitter/spiciness balance and some light-moderate bitter astringency lingering after the finish. Moderate dryness from acidity/spiciness as well. Light-medium carbonation and medium body; with a very smooth, moderately acidic/sticky, and fairly creamy mouthfeel that is good. Alcohol is very well hidden with minimal warming present after the finish. Overall this is a pretty good fruited sour porter style. All around good complexity, robustness, and balance of fruity/acidic yeast, dark/roasted malt, and raspberry fruit flavors; and very smooth and easy to drink even with the bitter astringency. A fairly enjoyable offering; the cherry version was much better and more balanced.

I tried this from the bottle in a stout glass chilled.

The color is black with opaque clarity and thick band of medium tan head that settles with fine bead. The smell is like fresh raspberry puree -very sweet with floral and light tangy scent. The feel is interesting in that it starts tangy with moderate carbonation and mild roasted middle with a slight salty element and very sour finish almost astringent.

The taste is very good -nice amount of raspberry flavor with fresh juicy quality with a nice roastiness in the malt backing up the fruit flavor with a slight mineral essence not really salty flavor but bitter like dark roast coffee in the dry finish with sour residual taste. This is a decent tasting raspberry porter with sour and roast combo duking it out -great if you don't mind the contrasting tastes

 

This is a little disappointing as the cherry version of this was so good and this was rated better, besides my personal preference of generally liking raspberries more than cherries. Here the raspberries dominate the aroma, can barely pick up the malt. Flavorwise, the sharp tartness clashes with the raspberries and the malt is broken vehicle for it with only a hint of balancing malt to round.

500 ml bottle, no dating on the bottle that I could find. Served in a Unibroue tulip, the beer pours dark brown with about a half inch cola-like light tan head that fizzled away quickly. Not much of any lacing, either. The brew smells like raspberry jam/syrup, dark fruit, roasted malt and tootsie roll chocolates. It tastes like tart dark fruit, sweet and tart raspberries, and tootsie rolls. Mouthfeel/body is light/medium, it's a bit slick and has a low amount of carbonation. Seems a bit watery at times. It's not bad tasting, but I think this could be a lot better beer overall. The aroma and taste isn't bad, but the body/mouthfeel isn't there, it reminds me of a brew that's just sat around for too long. It's worth a try once, but if another batch of this is made in the future I'll have to try it again if they ever start bottle dating (or at least putting a best by date on the bottle/label).

 

It's a lightly carbonated chocolate raspberry tart and it is delicious.