Hair of the Peach
Block 15 Brewing - Southtown Tap Room

 

2024-03-31
500ml bottle served in a few sample glasses. 2023 vintage.

Pours hazy dark amber, basically no head, some visible carbonation. Smell is cooked peach, some woody astringence, maybe some booze, but not strong.

Taste is dry peach juice. Very peachy, but not sweet. Wood, alcohol are noticeable. Something fruity that I can't name. Fruit skin and stem bitterness.

Mouthfeel is dry, light, surprisingly thin. Overall....it's not bad, but it's more interesting than good.

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a medium golden orange with a fine, one finger white head with great retention and solid lacing. Aroma of candi malt, apricots and over-ripe peach. Flavor is Belgian pale malt, apricots, peach, citrus rind, hints of wild yeast. Medium bodied with light creaminess. A unique take on a fruited barleywine (not too unexpected from a HoD collab). I'm not getting much of the caramel malt base of the Fred, but never had a chance to try the peach version, so do not know what its contribution is. This rather tastes to me like an American barleywine (lighter fruit rather than dark dried fruit) mixed with a mild wild ale, giving it a little funk as well the a fruit notes. The apricot and peach lean to under ripe, somewhat tart profiles. I kind of is reminiscent of the aged Fred from the Stone I had years ago, where the aging had cut the deep caramel and produced lighter stone fruit and citrus character. This is interesting, but a leans a bit too close to a fruited sour (but not as intense nor acidic) for my taste. I enjoyed trying it and admire the expertise and creativity that produced it, but does not suit my palette.