Just Tapped - Botanic Ale
Deschutes Brewery

 

Clear pale yellow, fresh head

Floral notes, coriander

A lot going on here, ginger, coriander and other spice notes atop a light fruit background

Crisp mouthfeel

Not usually my thing, but this was nicely done

Packaged 5-29. Pours a cloudy light gold with thin head. Smells of honey, caramel, and apple juice with plenty of spice...nutmeg, coriander, something else, and some floral qualities. Taste more or less follows. Medium bitterness and a little astringency, very different from hop bitterness. The base is thin and lacking in substantial malt quality, almost as cider like as it is beer like. Not a bad taste though. No booze, surprised it's 7%. Carbonation is high.

 

Packaged 3/26/19
Opened 10/19/2019

Freshest "within 4 months", the bottle claims. Oh, well then I guess this one is bad. I'll send it back...

Looks brutal; like the brewmaster had mad dandruff and just stood over the brew tank scratching flakes into the brew. Brew brew brew brew brew. (Just trying to hit some weird quota I set for myself) Twirl the glass about and the chunks stay pretty much in place, giving the brew a gelatinous look. It's not pretty. Smells of floral honey & biscuits. Smells really nice, to be honest; hell of a lot better than it looks anyway. Taste follows, though not as sweet as expected. Dry finish. I like it; provided I don't look at it too closely.

 

12 oz. bottle - "Packaged on 05/29/19" "Freshest within 4 months" printed on the label. (I cut it close, but made it.)

Pours slightly hazed golden amber with a wisp of a head. MInimal lacing.

The smell is of some caramelized bread with oranges and strong floral notes. Vague rooty spices.

The taste is of lightly caramelized bread with floral, rooty, herbal notes. Tough to point out individual floral spicing though I'm guessing orange blossom and perhaps hibiscus?. An orange-like note is present. Somewhat medicinal, especially as it warms. A touch of apple juice mixes with earthy notes in the finish.

The feel is good - lighter bodied but not thin. Alcohol relatively well-covered. Despite the look, there's plenty of
carbonation.
A sipper - Nothing I would choose to "session" or have with any regularity, but it is interesting. It is botanical as advertised. Good enough for something occasional and different. Plenty of interesting rooty, floral, herbal notes. Bumped up the overall a bit more than originally planned. Grew on me a BIT and it does have a complex, yet approachable character to it.

12 oz bottle served in a lager glass.
Pale golden body that's hazy and has a good white head. Limited lacing.
Unusual aroma and flavor reflecting a variety of botanicals. The result provides a suggestion of herbal tea.
Near medium carbonation an body.

 

Deschutes Brewery "Just Tapped Series - Botanic Ale"
12 fl. oz. brown glass bottle, "PACKAGED ON: 04/22/19"
$2 @ Wegmans, King of Prussia, PA

Notes via stream of consciousness: It's got a somewhat hazy golden body (it's bottle conditioned) beneath a short head of white foam. The aroma is a little hard to make out. I get sweetish malt and a hint of something herbal and floral but that's it. I can't say where that's coming from. Does it list on the label what they've used? No, it only states "MALT BEVERAGE WITH NATURAL FLAVORS". I assume it's a malt beverage because there aren't that many hops in it, but the natural flavors is surprising. Does that mean that no actual botanicals were used in their "Botanic Ale"? Let's see what it tastes like... I don't feel that my assessment in the aroma was wrong. It's sweetish and fruity, and there is some floral and lightly herbal character to it, but not much. It's good though. It's a little sweetish, and there's a little bit of sweetness left sticking around in the back of the mouth but I'm not sure it will build on you. It's just a touch spicy as well. I like the fruitiness, it's like apples, pears, grapes,and berries. At this point, and it actually happened much earlier, the head has completely disappeared and there's no lacing left on the glass. I got lacing on the glass with my last beer and I only rinsed it out with water so I know it's not the glass itself. In the mouth it's medium bodied with a moderate carbonation, which at least partially explains the lack of head retention and lacing. If there's no head there can't be any lacing, can there? OK, so what to say about this? I liked it a hell of a lot better at the very start of the glass. Beyond that it's become kind of boring; and OK beer, but nothing special. Meh. I'm going to call this one a take it or leave it beer. If there's nothing else on hand I'll take it, otherwise I'll leave it.

Review #6,657

 

Golden filtered with almost no carbonation and a finger of fast disappearing head.

Smells of malt and cardboard.

Tastes of malt and cardboard and some green leaf. Some sour stone fruits. What is in this?

Light body, lots of carbonation.

I got this in Reno, NV, and am drinking it in Redding, July 24th, 2019. Na.

 

 

12oz bottle. Poured out a clear, golden amber color with a small, white head of foam. It smelled of flowers, herbs and toasted caramel. Nice spicy taste with sweet caramel and a sharp bitterness.

The clear dark golden yellow colored beer pours out into a Duvel glass with a 1/4” white head that recedes visibly to a ring and a thin layer of foam on the surface while leaving behind some foam around the glass. Sipping creates a couple of arches of foam and lots of medium sized patches of lacing which mostly cling to the sides of the glass.

The aromas are filled with juniper, some lemongrass, coriander and a bit of black pepper along with a bit of toasted malt way in the background.

The flavor is similar to what is expected from the nose with the juniper, lemongrass, coriander and black pepper. There’s a bit of malt sweetness in the background but there is also some slightly citric and herbal bitterness that seems at first almost hidden by the blend of other ingredients.

The mouthfeel is medium bodied and a nice blend of both smoothness and light prickliness from the persistent finely bubbled carbonation. The finish is quite long and begins as the early touch of sweetness fades to let the juniper, lemongrass, coriander and black pepper emerge and then as they begin fade the slightly citric and herbal bitterness becomes the focus as every thing becomes dry and bitter in the ending as it moves to the back of the palate.

Overall this is a reasonably drinkable beer with a fairly complex aroma/flavor profile that basically also changes over time with its very long finish. It’s reasonably refreshing and worth giving a try to see if you like it. Personally for me it wouldn’t be a regular but I would like to try a few more so I could do a better job of figuring out what they’ve put in this beer.

Poured from a single serve bottle into a tulip.

Pours a hazy but not cloudy light yellow, nearly straw gold. Very little head, but good lacing.

The aromas are rather Belgian in inspiration, with clove, banana, green apple, white grape, white pepper, and spicy yeast wafting over the rim.

The flavor is actually somewhat muted compared with the nose, but is still tasty. Banana, clove, coriander, white grape, white pepper, pale malt, yeast, a fair measure of green apple, grass, lemon. The brew becomes increasingly medicinal as it warms. A touch of booze.

The brew is medium-light to medium. Decent carbonation keeps it lighter.

Overall, a unique brew that melds wit, saison, pale ale, and tripel flavors with herbal notes. Drink this one colder, as the medicinal notes get more rugged as the brew warms.

Not a fan of this at all. And I am a big fan of deschutes. Ginger is very prevalent. I guess I expected more floral/herby. This has a little bit of spices and wheat like profile but ginger is dominating