Tag Archives: sour

mikkeller – raspberry limbo series

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i think it’s been established over these almost 60 NA beer reviews i’ve done since november (!!) that i’m not the hugest fan of sours, but i’m willing to try them and under certain circumstances, i do in fact enjoy them. i just kinda have to be in the right mood and pair them with the right food. (or no food.) so this limbo series “malt beverage with raspberries” from mikkeller has been sitting in my fridge for a few months waiting for the right moment. and apparently it’s today!

i just got home from work walking dogs all morning in the heat and humidity and intermittent rain of summer in new orleans. it’s only in the mid 80s (feels like 90 with the humidity), which is frankly cool by summer standards here, but it’s still kinda gross sticky weather for physical activity. i’ve logged 10.3K steps already and it’s only midday. i drank nothing but water all morning in the car in between clients (sometimes i bring some NA brews along with but i didn’t today) so by the time i got home i was really craving something more thirst quenching, and something fruity and tangy sounded good to go with my cauliflower veggie frozen pizza that’s in the oven right now.

as you can see, it pours a pretty orange-red color – not quite the color of raspberries to me, but it’s still pretty. nice head, sparkling carbonation, fruity aroma. the first sip was a little puckering, but my palate quickly adjusted. it’s clean, crisp and packs a delicious raspberry punch. as with a lot of the sours and fruitier beers, i’m not sure it really reads “beer” to me, but i don’t care because it’s really delicious. and went nicely with my cauliflower pizza! i didn’t even feel like i wanted or needed to mix it with ginger ale, which is what i did to salvage those untitled art florida weisses that were just way too sour for me. this one is great on its own. very refreshing!

mikkeller lists this as a “flemish primitive ale” and it is of course, like all their NA beers, brewed with their proprietary mikkellensis yeast. ingredients listed on the can are: water, barley malt, hops, raspberry, and mikkellensis yeast. it clocks in at .3% abv but i can’t find any calorie/carb info anywhere on their site or on the can.

there hasn’t really been a sour that i’ve tasted so far that i felt like i would want to purchase again but i think i would buy this again if it was more readily available in the US. i dream of a day when all the NA brews i love are easily purchased somewhere close to me at retail or at my favorite bar or restaurant. i got this one from NA brews, if you are interested to try it – remember to use my code MARGARET893 for 10% off! sadly, mikkeller’s online shop ships from overseas and the shipping is $50+ so i guess until distribution is better around the US it’ll be via NA brews for me!

untitled art – florida weisse

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i posted on my IG about this beer a while back but forgot to mention it here on the blog, so i’m writing a long overdue review and recent revelation.

my original sampling of this beer, after finding it at elio’s uptown – now that pelican craft brands is distributing untitled art‘s non-alcoholic brews around town to bars, restaurants and retail – was a bit off-putting. i knew it was a sour going in but wow, i didn’t realize just how sour! the first time i tried it i brought it out to sunset at the lakefront but stupidly drank it while eating a burrito from felipés – not a great pairing. i could appreciate it for what it was, a very tart and full-bodied sour NA beer, bursting with passionfruit purée and other mouth-puckering fruity goodness. but it wasn’t really my kinda beer. just a little too sour for me. i could appreciate the craft and the quality from untitled art, but had a hard time imagining myself wanting to drink more of them.

so the rest of the six pack has been sitting in my fridge ever since. (i did give one to my friend audra to taste, as she both loves beer and sour things and is into kombucha, so as i predicted, she enjoyed it!) but this morning i had what has turned out to be a brilliant idea: mix it with some ginger ale! i had some reed’s in the fridge, as i caught it on sale recently and do enjoy a little ginger ale from time to time (really the only soda-like drink i will consume), so i thought perhaps it would cut the sour a little and make the florida weisse more enjoyable to me.

and i was right! omg that is delicious! it adds just enough sweet to cut the sour a little, but not too much, and doesn’t really affect much else about the brew. i thought it would make it seem more soda-like but it really didn’t. it just made it easier for me to consume and enjoy. so now i know what to do with all the sours i end up trying and not liking! just add ginger ale! (reed’s ginger beer would probably work great too.)

for those of you who still drink alcohol, this would also probably be great with some vodka or other clear liquor in it. the idea of using an NA beer as a mixer is funny but i think for some of the fruity and sour NAs it would likely work. i won’t be trying it, but just a thought.

regardless, i’m thrilled because now it means i won’t waste the rest of these rather expensive craft NAs! thanks to untitled art for making a very unique non-alcoholic option that i’m sure sour-lovers will enjoy. i need to try their juicy IPA NA and their latest watermelon gose NA next.

brew dog – faux fox sharp raspberry

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i have not historically been a super huge fan of sours or goses but in the spirit of trying to widen my palate and be adventurous, i’ve been trying a few here and there and actually liking some of them. i’d never had anything from the british-born brewery-of-the-people brew dog before, and usually you can tell from drinking one NA flavor from a brewery if it’s worth trying their other flavors – you can get a general sense of style. i’d seen a few good reviews of this one so i thought i’d give it a try. i figured, i like raspberries.

brew dog, while born in britain, is now an international beer conglomerate with breweries in both england and the US, with plans to expand in other countries. in addition, they have 29 brewdog bars serving their beers in the UK and 17 more around the world, with their flagship US outpost in columbus, ohio called the doghouse – a craft brewery/hotel combo complete with a craft beer museum. they have crowdfunded all of their capital so far, are planning an IPO soon, and they claim the entire company is carbon negative. so they seem pretty interesting on paper. i had high hopes.

well sadly, i’m disappointed. as you can see by the head on this, it’s pretty carbonated, with big fat bubbles and lots of them. it feels much more like a soda in your mouth than a beer. this to me tastes more like a beer-flavored seltzer. and while that is a thing now and lots of folks like that concept, it’s not what i was expecting and not what i personally enjoy.

it’s tart for sure – they weren’t kidding about it being a sharp raspberry. but it’s so thin and bubbly i can’t even really enjoy it. it’s got 29 calories and 4g of carbs, putting it in the “diet beer” category with brands like grüvi, partake and surreal. if you are a fan of bubbly waters and fruity sodas, you might like this. but i don’t. as pretty as it is in the glass – and it smells pretty great too – i’m not even gonna finish this one. sorry brew dog.

i have one of their coffee beers in the fridge from my recent sample order, so i guess i will give them another try another day. but this one is definitely not for me. maybe their leaded beers are better?