Hoppeditz Firlefanz KP
Freigeist Bierkultur

 

375 ml bottle, fresh from the brewer. This beer has been aged on Kräuter Liqueur typical of the Düsseldorf area, crafted with over 90 different sorts of herbs, spices, roots and berries. Pours murky, orangeish-bronze to coppery-brown body overlain by well-formed off-white head that slowly sets to a stable cloth. The nose is peppery noble hops with herbal adjuncts (anise, thyme, sage, liquorice, mint and many others I was unable to pinpoint at) that contribute to the complexity and are perfectly melded with other scents, all rolled in rich malts with bready qualities and caramel and chocolate-like sweetness. Flavor is leaned towards bitter, but the apparent bitterness is not that high as it's balanced by malty richness with nice herbal undertones and peppery spiciness from noble hops. Finish is long, dry and bitter, with subtle oak-wood notes and slight astringency. Maturing a beer on oak-chips soaked in herbal liqueur is a complete violation of the German brewing-philosophy. Now I understand the meaning of the chain-breaking ghostly figure on the back label - it is brewer's spirit liberating itself from the handcuff of the Purity Law.