Wild Beer Co: Spicy Crowd (England: Spice Beer: 5% ABV)
Visual: Pale gold. Some carbonation. Moderate white bubbled head.
Nose: Sharp lime. Sulphur. Lime cordial. Damp bread. Bombay mix. Fresh nan bread. Mild garlic. Peppercorn sauce. Boiled eggs. Ginger.
Body: Lime. Pepper. Kiwi. Watery texture. Prickly hops and greenery. Lime cordial. Bready backing. Peppercorn. Boiled eggs. Light dried apricot.
Finish: Lime cordial. Lots of black pepper. Musty hop character. Dry feel. Chai spice. Mint leaves. Bready.
Conclusion: Ok, sometime a spiced beer is basically a big wet bag of spice, owing little to the beer, and lots to the spice. This is one such beer. Basically this tastes like spiced lime cordial mixed with an American Pale Ale. Not a very standard beer then. It is, however, hard to say which of the many spices is most dominant.
Initially a Bombay mix and a Thai spice style really push out in the aroma, with ginger developing over time. So, very much a mix of spiced curry house styles. The body though is more peppery and touched by greenery – less well defined but with more intense flavours. That is odd as the actual body feels watery in mouthfeel, which is a wild contrast to the more intense flavor.
Finally the finish is into a chai spice and mint leaves style – soothing night drink style to send you to sleep with. The only common thread between the three parts of the beer is the lime cordial used everywhere.
Beer wise, it has that dry APA character- bready and with slightly muggy hop bitterness, but little else. While I am not overly taken by this beer, for what they are doing the dry APA style seems a good choice. It makes the spice very visible and yet manages to have a body that doesn’t make it overpowering.
As a beer it just feels like a grab bag of spice with no real theme or coherent character – and the lime cordial notes are over present without adding that much. Not a horrible beer, but not really leading anywhere – just a lot of spice floating around.
Not the best show of what Wild Beer can do.
Background: So, the second of the beers Wild Beer Co put out to promote their crowdfunding for a new brewery. Again this was grabbed at Independent Spirit. This is the odder of the two beers, being a pale ale made with galangal, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, peppercorns and birds-eye chilli. As of such, I feel it is more representative of the odd stuff that Wild Beer co regularly comes out with. Anyway this was drunk while listening to more of the madcap, over the top metal that is Evil Scarecrow.
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