Weird Beard: Marble: Bullfinch: You Taste Better When You Are Scared (England: IPA: 6.5% ABV)
Visual: Hazy apricot flesh. An inch or so of off white bubbled head that leaves suds.
Nose: Pink grapefruit. Melon. Light nettles.
Body: Pink grapefruit. Light hop character. Pineapple. Malt drinks. Acrid touch at the back. Peach fruit syrup. Light toffee.
Finish: Malt chocolate. Acrid touch. Pineapple. Fruit syrup. Muted musty hops. Lactose touch.
Conclusion: So, acidulated malt is a thing? You learn something new every day. usually something pointless, but today is a good day. However, for a beer crammed full of hops and acidic grapefruit juice on top of the acidulated malt, it is odd that it feels quite so traditionally malt led.
Don’t get me wrong, the flavor is a mix of pineapple and pink grapefruit – however I’ve had New Zealand hopped beers that tasted sharper than this. mainly Nelson Sauvin single hop admittedly.
There is just such a malt drink back, kind of a touch American brown ale style and it makes what should be a sharp beer actually feel slightly leaden. It tastes ok, but doesn’t really taste like an IPA, in that there is no real bitterness or hop kick, and the tart character definitely lacks against expectations.
As a beer in itself it is ok, slightly tart but generally fairly mellow. Against what it is pitched as it is fairly disappointing. It isn’t bad, but the special ingredients actually seem to contribute less than what you get with a judicious use of hops, and that special character seems to have killed what the hops themselves bring. Heck, straight up grapefruit juice has more of a kick.
An experiment that doesn’t really pay off.
Background: A collaboration! Woo! I’ve run into Marble and Weird Beard a bunch of times now, Bullfinch are a new one on me. This is made with 100KG of acidulated malt – the kind of malt often used for berliner weisse and such like, and is added along with fresh grapefruit juice. So, a grapefruit IPA – of course I grabbed it, I am easily hooked with such things. I have the attention span of a cat near a red laser pointer. Picked up from independent Spirit, and drunk while listening to the ever cool Sabaton: Coat of Arms.
