|
 Grozet Gooseberry Wheat
by erik lars myers
 Brewer: Craigmill Brewery, Strathaven, Scotland
Imported by: Legends, Ltd.
Style: Wheat Ale with Fruit
My memories of gooseberries are of these little green things that used to grow in back of my grandmother's garage in Fort Kent, ME. She used to make jam from them. Imagine my surprise when they showed up on the label of this beer. It was like a mixture of two things that should never have seen the light of day together. I didn't even know gooseberries were real.
Well, they have and they are and... it's not bad.
What you've got here is your basic wheat beer. It's cloudy, it's wheaty, it's light...ish. This beer has a darker pallor than most of the wheats you'll see. I can only blame the gooseberries.
To smell it is to get a very faint smell of dusky sweetness. Almost as if you had a jar of gooseberry jam hidden somewhere under the table upon which you were keeping your beer. It's there, but it's faint.
To taste? Is that what gooseberries taste like? I wish I could remember. It's good! It's sweeter than I'd expect from the nose, and a little sweeter than I'd like in a wheat beer.
The aftertaste gives you a slight tang, as if you'd just popped a berry in your mouth, and now you're left with the residual taste of the skin. Not unpleasant, but definitely, again, not quite what I was expecting.
My recommendation? Get some and try it, for the pure novelty value if nothing else. I have a feeling that a second approach would produce better results, as I wouldn't be half-surprised by the taste of gooseberries. On the other hand, I think this one falls in the Sam Adams Cherry Wheat category for me. Good for a couple, but I couldn't stick with it all night -- especially at the current $1.99/11.2 fl oz bottle.
|
