James Street: Blood Beer (England: Fruit Beer: 4.1% ABV)
Visual: Clear cherry red. Cinnamon rouge bubbled head.
Nose: Cinnamon and cream, Earthy hops. Strawberry jelly. Raspberry.
Body: Cherries. Moderate lime hop character. Strawberry. Earthy hops. Chocolate strawberry sweets. Creamy. Apricot. Hop oils. Raspberry and apples.
Finish: Lime jelly. Crisp hops. Strawberry jam. Banana. Earthy touch. Hundred and thousands sprinkles. Cinder toffee. Light resin and hop oils. Raspberry. light grapefruit.
Conclusion: It seems that the one off beers from James Street are always the good ones, following on from Festivus we get this interesting offering. This is very bright, very sweet in a jelly style, but also with a grounding backing of earthy and resinous hops. The clash of the two is where the fun comes in.
There is a lovely sweet and slightly tart character that I would hesitantly guess as raspberry but there is so much fruitiness in this it is hard to pin down the exact element. There’s also a light chocolate sweetness, but despite all that it does feel like an earthy real ale, with that real dry resin amongst the sweetness.
There are other tart elements and lime like hop notes that show up around the edges matched by banana touches in the finish. All these elements are just minor touches around the sides of the beer, with the big red fruit being at the forefront. It is all very sweet, very party style with the jelly and fruit. All these elements are what make it really need that earthy grounding.
Frankly a party pint, there is even cinder toffee touches for pities sake, but somehow manages to keep the feel of a good pint as well.
Not one to visit often, but great fun and suits the season well.
Background: Time to return to Baths newest Brewpub, this time to sample a beer they turned out just in time to miss Halloween. Though there were no details on the beer, I was sure it was some sort of red fruit beer and confirmed with the staff. Later twitter confirmed that it was a cherry based beer. Oh, also this thing has n awesome tap handle. Very cool.
