Mortalis Brewing Co. x King Brewing -- Fros'e Hydra Deuce Fruited sour 7.0% ABV; pouring temperature: 51 °F; canning data: unknown 4.38/5 rDev +4.3% look: 3.75 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25 Very strange color, flat reddish-purple, dense and opaque; no lasting head, flat. Intense aroma of fresh baked spice cookies; cinnamon; cookie dough; snickerdoodles. Cherries and raspberries blended with graham crackers and snickerdoodles with the taste; moderate tartness; subliminal sweetness to counteract the tartness. Heavy body; dense and creamy offset with a mild acidity. I would never have guessed I would like this beer so much. Nothing about its ingredients sound like they should mesh, but the brewers' worked some sort of zymurgy magic with this beer. Again, not a beer I would likely buy again, but I am glad to have a second can on hand. A phenomenal beer! ---------------- ...another surprise beer for me...very good and totally unlike anything I would normally buy...
I was prepared to hate this one but I kinda like it. Just like a blackberry smoothie. Seems like it should be healthy to drink.
This is amazing and I love the fruit flavour. But what I can't get over is that it tastes like there's pie or tart crust in there. But it's really, really good homemade pie crust.
Another fun, weird "beer" to drink! The flavor in these beers is intense. I haven't had a jelly donut in years but this tasted like a jelly donut. Look: Think dark cherry juice. Tons of fizz erupted leaving no head. I could hear the fizz like seltzer water. Smell: Aroma was a burst of cherry. Sweet cherry syrup. I think I got a little of the graham cracker and some cinnamon and a hint of vanilla. Taste: Matching the aroma the taste is sweet cherry syrup cut by the fizz and sourness. Halfway through the sourness takes hold on the back of throat. Only from reading the beer’s description do I get blackberry and apricot. My tasting ability would not have picked those out blindly. Feel: Thick, syrupy and fizzy Overall: Good dessert "beer" (I keep using quotes, I know. I just have trouble calling these beers). This is a jelly donut from Dunkin’ Donuts! Tried to think of foods to pair this with but I have no clue. Pie? Jelly donuts? Some kinds of cheese maybe? I haven’t explored this part of the beer world much but these seem to have thick intense flavor that gets cleaned out in the aftertaste by sourness or fizz (co2) that makes it tough for me to say they’re cloying. I want to say they’re cloying but my palate gets pleasantly wiped.
The aroma is quite striking, think of a cherry graham cracker. Vanilla. The taste has more of the other fruits (blackberry/apricot,etc..) and more vanilla, and a moderately low amount of sourness. I think they nailed what they were going for here. Even though this is not something I would drink on the regular, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Looks like a fruit smoothie. Thick and bubbly like a smoothie. Tastes like the best smoothie ever, with the most luscious fruits, vanilla, cinnamon, and a backbone of graham crackers. Sweet but tart, if that is possible. As noted by others, gave a bit of heartburn, but otherwise, one of the best amongst the non-traditional offerings in the box.
It's blackberry vanilla graham cracker deliciousness. Very little carbonation. Wouldn't buy again but enjoyed it. Imagine adding graham crackers and a teaspoon of vanilla extract into blackberry manischewitz. Edit: 2nd pour into tulip was much thicker and smoothie as others have mentioned. Preferred first pour.
Beer #7 for me, and generally the order I'm choosing is satisfying my "best for last" approach to Life. So, that means this is the best one yet (except for Bananas Foster, probably). Again, is this "beer?" Perhaps not, at least traditionally, but that's what Extreme should explore! The first sip finished distinctly with graham cracker, which is very weird for a beer, but absolutely set the stage for this particular beer's intended flavor mash-up. Apricot lays the groundwork for this dark fruity nectar of a brew, and the spice & cookie finish completes the dessert experience. Not for everyday drinking, but another exquisite creation by Mortalis!
2nd to last can. One lesson from this box, i am not a Fruited Kettle Sour drinker. Happy to have gone down that path several times with this box but simply not my style.
This may be my favorite from the box so far. I've enjoyed most sours I've had from Mortalis but LOVE Kings Brewing. I could tell from the taste it was a collab with them. This beer was amazing with the cherries and vanilla. Its so sweet and decadent.
4.04/5 rDev -1.2% look: 3 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4 by ovaltine from Indiana Pour a thick grape color with no head - as in zero - and there are ….. globules of stuff in the body. Not the most attractive beer I’ve seen. The nose is filled with cherries, blackberries, some vanilla, and a subtle graham cracker note. It’s more pronounced on the taste and helps balance the tartness of the fruit. The mouthfeel is very full and substantial - there’s some gravity to this beer. Overall, this is a very enjoyable sour - I just wish I hadn’t seen it.
I was prepared to not enjoy this one when I cracked the can and smelled it. It's way too sweet and dessert-ish in aroma, there's really not much fruit there. However, in taste it bounces back a lot, balancing tart cherry/blackberry/etc with the graham cracker and vanilla. Pretty good stuff 3.99/5 rDev -2.7% look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
There is a lot going on in this smoothie sour and I appreciate the way the sweet cherry offsets the blackberry with the apricot playing the role of mediator. The graham cracker and vanilla bring a pastry element while the cinnamon is a stroke of genius.
This is freaking delicious! Nice balance of sweet and tart, and they absolutely nailed the cherry cobbler aroma. The thickness makes it tough to finish the full 16 oz. but I’ll find a way to muddle through.
Drank this one tonight - posted my thoughts over in NBW: https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/new-beer-weekend-86.665735/page-4#post-7482080
My 3rd beer from the box: 4.23/5 rDev +3.2% look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25 A: Pours an opaque murky thick sludgy deep reddish purple in color with light amounts of fine carbonation rising slowly from the bottom of the glass and moderate garnet red + ruby red + blackberry colored highlights. The beer has a finger tall fizzy sudsy dark pinkish purple head that quickly reduces to a very thin ring at the edges of the glass. Minimal amounts of lacing are observed. S: Moderate to strong aromas of blackberry + apricot + sweet cherries over moderate aromas of sweet vanilla + graham crackers and hints of cinnamon. Light to moderate aromas of slightly sour wheat malts with significant amounts of lactose sweetness and a light amount of lemon citrus lacto tartness. T: Upfront there are light to moderate flavors of slightly sour wheat malts with significant amounts of lactose sweetness and a light amount of lemon citrus lacto tartness. That is followed by moderate flavors of sweet vanilla + graham crackers and hints of cinnamon. Finally there are moderate to strong flavors of blackberry + apricot + sweet cherries which linger well through the finish. M: Medium to full bodied with light amounts of carbonation. Thick and chewy like a smoothie with a light amounts of acidic prickliness. O: Easy to drink with well hidden alcohol and a thick sludgy smoothie mouthfeel. Enjoyable with light amounts of tartness and lower carbonation along with tons of fruit and sweetness - I like how the graham cracker + vanilla + cinnamon complemented the fruit reminding me of a fruit cobbler.
Catching up on past tastings. This one was a thick raspberry color. Smells a little like chocolate. Tart & fruity flavor. Spicy. It has a little of that funky forest floor experience that I got with other Hydras. Citric tartness and a little gritty on the finish. Excellent otherwise. Not a favorite out of the box, but a solid extreme beer.
Finally got a chance to crack open another one, and it's another one of these... ha ha. Takes a bit to get used to these crazy kettle sours. It's basically blackberry pie or cobbler to me. The interesting thing was the smell... even without reading the label, I got the vanilla, cinnamon, and graham cracker. Also appreciated how present but not unpleasant the vanilla was to taste. The spices complement the fruit very well here. It's also not overly sweet or tart, which is a plus. Another weird and wonderful success that certainly fits the label of extreme.
