I once tried Brooklyn Brewery's Sorachi Ace Saison several years back and the first thing I got from the beer was the taste of dill, I was absolutely shocked that dill-like flavour in a beer would be damned tasty! So since then, I've wanted to see an actual dill pickle themed beer out there.. so I guess my wish was finally granted..
From the label: Pickle Pale Ale - A refreshing amber hued UK style pale ale spiked with pickle brine. Peppercorn and a sour tartness are balanced out by a clean hop nose.
Appearance: Amber coloured ale with a good amount of clarity to it, light amount of carbonation in the body and only a few bubbles here and there for the beer's head.
Aroma: Dill. Pickle. Seriously. The first impression I got from this beer was that this smelled eerily like Old Dutch's Dill Pickle Chips, it has a full on dill aroma to it, a LOT of pickle brine so it's got a good deal of sourness to it, a bit of peppercorn to give it a bit of a spice, and even a bit of a saltiness that reminds me of when I used to like OD's Dill Pickle Chips when I was eight years old. The aroma is very much in-your-face. The dill pickle aroma masks just about everything else in this beer so I can't really get much of anything else.. maybe a bit of a light caramel aroma from the malt? I have no idea.
Taste: Dill. Effing. Pickle. The first few sips I'm having from this beer, all I'm getting is the taste of dill pickle brine, dill and a bit of peppercorn. The briney taste is kind of vinegary and sour, the dill is well.. dill, etc. I'm seriously cringing from sipping on this beer, I should pour this beer out already but no, I got to get through this beer for you, the reader! Once my palate SOMEHOW gets over the fact that this beer is probably 50% pickle juice, making it a Manitoban-style Radler, my taste buds start to just ignore the pickle juice taste to it and I start to get a bit of a caramel malt presence to it with a tad bit of a toasted malt to it. There's a bit of a bitter hoppiness that I'm only getting for aftertaste, leaving behind a light piney presence to it.. oh and there's also some dill pickle in there too. Vegetal notes of pickle pop up in my burps once in a while.
Overall Thoughts: So Cody, sometimes you shouldn't always wish for something because your wish may come true and end up being much worse than ever expected.. like this. I really thought a dill inspired beer with Sorachi Ace hops would be absolutely amazing, but this isn't the style I was hoping to see nor did it use Sorachi Ace. So now, I just want to see a good Honey Dill Saison (NO MAYO!) that's brewed with honey, dill, Sorachi Ace hops and Belgian yeast.. I think that could be tasty, if any breweries are interested.. I'm willing to be a guinea pig!
While this beer doesn't exist anymore as I picked up one of the last remaining cans in the entire province, who is this beer for? Honestly, this would work well as part of a beer caesar (AKA Beersar) - Lots of Manitobans love mixing Clamato juice with beer as it is, so this would probably work really well for that.. but no thanks, I'm good.
1 comment:
I'm a huge fan of pickle everything so I had to try it. It was ok but beer is not my choice of drink to start with. I decided to put it with Walter's Ceaser mix well now that was tasty. Love it!!!if I come across pickle beer again I'll grab it to have on occasion for sure.
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