Bad Seed Brewing: Spiced Blueberry Oat Ale (England: Fruit Beer: 5% ABV)
Visual: Clear pale gold. High carbonation but only a small head.
Nose: Real full mulled spice. Ginger. Cardamom. Turmeric. Pepper. Bubblegum.
Body: Blueberry. Bubble gum. Cinnamon. Nutmeg. Pepper. Very wet feel. Chalky texture. Blueberry pie. Elderberry.
Finish: Bubblegum. White pepper. Blue berry. Oatmeal.
Conclusion: My obsession with odd beer ingredients continues with this very summery ale. It reminds me of some of the odder Belgian beers in the ingenuity, though they are very obviously different in style.
It is very, erm, well slick really. That I slick in mouthfeel not as a random positive adjective. It is very light in feel, but just slightly chalky. It does feel like it has been designed for ease of drinking.
You get more of the spice, aroma wise, than the blueberry – and I shit ye not, it even goes to a mulled wine like place. The spice domination continues into the body with pepper and nutmeg leading the fray. The spice comes in strong enough to be palette refreshing and wanes before it can become an assault.
The blueberry by comparison, feels slightly like a let down. It is there, but lighter than I would wish, feeling more bubble gum like than natural fresh fruit. It does still come through though, and the feel of it does help that easy drinking summer beer styling, but I feel pushing up the emphasis on the blue berry would not have hurt the beer.
As it is, it is an interesting summer beer, and that oatmeal influence that pokes through in the finish is pretty much the only thing that makes it recognizable as a beer rather than a trendy summer spritzer. It really does have that high carbonated feel, light fruit injection and slight noticeable texture.
It really isn’t much more than intriguing rather than actively good, but it isn’t actively bad either. Even on a hot summer day I don’t think I would return to it often, it needs that bit more than just the clever use of spice. I do feel that this may appeal more to people who are not traditionally beer drinkers though.
Background: AHH THE DAYSTAR IT BURNS! After leaving Small Bar I managed a few halting steps through the light of the evil nuclear reactor that burned above before running to the Beer Emporium and its shady cellar respite. I’m a Yorkshire man ok, the sun is my enemy. In its cool air I saw this – A beer from good old North Yorkshire, how could I resist. Yes I’m biased towards Yorkshire. Also, seriously this is called Spiced Blueberry Oat – are you telling me you would just ignore that? Drunk while reading the first of Julian May’s Rampart World books.
