Psychedelic Love: Plethora of Fruit
Branch and Blade Brewing

 

So I guess the story of this goes that they made it before with a bunch of unlabeled fruits in their brewery's fridge and really liked it so they tried to make it again? That is an extremely suspect story, and honestly the idea of using a bunch of leftover/unknown stuff in a beer is a dangerous idea considering the plethora (hahahahaaaa...) of allergies and the rising consumer awareness of said allergies and allergens that can trigger them in the world but... meh, I'm not allergic to anything and I was told this is good so why not try it?

The pour is... hmm. Umm, well, it's ugly. I mean, the actual color and structure isn't immediately bad, but as soon as the first sediment hits my glass, well... let's just say had I not been told in advance that it was horrendously-chunky, I would be convinced something was really wrong here. I think the joke with this (which, by the way, is still not really funny) is that they didn't really know what they were doing or something, and that's all well and good (and still dumb), but this is just gross. The color is an opaque ruby-red that would probably be gorgeous with a few rounds of filtration, and the head that builds up and quickly settles to nothingness is a solid pinkish hue that, in most cases, would look awesome. Yeah...

I'm picking up a lot of mango, kiwi, and papaya in the nose with other notes of cherry, redcurrant, and stemmy blueberry picking up the slack that some of the more tropical aspects leave behind. It's actually a pretty damn good smelling sour beer, with a lot of complex fruit elements going on, and tons of character just jumping out of the glass. I'm pretty sure this is based on Electric Love, which is their typical fruited sour series, so there is lactose here, but I swear I also pick up some marshmallow or something too. Honestly, this is one of those beers you almost want to hate but it really smells great so... dang it!

Nailed the flavor too, though I'm not sure exactly what they were going for considering they weren't either. Loving the combo of jammy raspberry/redcurrant with strong leanings towards the more intense tropical side of things. Darker berry flavors with some black raspberry and cassis syrup notes melding with prominent mango. Honestly, this is saturated as hell and super fruity with a nice, mellowing lactose approach that I find more fitting here than in most beers featuring that type of thing. I kind of almost don't want to enjoy it as much as I do, but it feels pretty well done even though they claim they didn't know what they were doing. B&B kinda seem like tricksters though, so it's hard to trust them even when they say they are just being "lol random." I'd say this is certainly worth a shot if you are in the mood for an "undefined" fruity sour beer that packs a lot of unusual charm into a single package. That said, it is maybe a bit dangerous to not tell people what you put in your beer, is it not? I'm all for experimentation, but I also like to know what's going on with what I'm consuming. Outside of that and the aesthetic ugliness, this is very enjoyable.