Oscar Orchard
Ørkenoy

Pours a pale yellow with a slight haze, a billowing head of foam that recedes quickly without any lace.

Wheaty aroma with some lemongrass and mild herbals.

Lemon, lime, herbal character, slightly floral. Pleasant blend of flavors with a backing wheatiness. Light bodied, fairly low carb towards the back half of the glass. Any effervescence just peters out. It could be a little drier with more carb, and more assertive flavors. The idea is good, hope they continue to improve on it with future batches.

Paired with Okenoy's mushroom melt, the ale and the sandwich made each other delicious.

Oscar doesn't Look like much; but neither does the style if I remember correctly. (Of the 10 gruits I've had, seven are from Williams Brothers who does not seem to get distributed here in Chicago anymore for many years.) Oscar's Smells are subtle; mostly a medley blended of flowers and sweet malt. Not detecting any new ingredients, Tastes are largely the same and balanced. In my mouth, this is a light body... but it is supposed to go with their food; and it does.

Just so you know (because I didn't), yarrow and Huacatay are flowers that commonly are used in the kitchen. But the dish was not common; it was spectacular with this gruit. The sourdough stood up to the melted cheese that had smoked mushrooms on top (a good contrast with the sweet flowers) and the slaw with apples that cut the cheese's fat. Because the gruit was subtle, it let the sandwich's strong flavors develop; but the gruit also knew when to emerge to keep the sandwich from stealing the show.

I will have both sandwich and gruit again. Together.