- Mike Riedel
Templin Family - Zinfandel Barrel Aged Grisette (2023): This new beer/wine hybrid from the Templin Family Brewery was fermented with pinot noir grapes, strawberries, Bulgarian rose petals, and aged in Zinfandel barrels You may also notice that it presented in a clear 750 milliliter bottle.
It has a fairly translucent red/pink hue that is inviting like a rosé, and pours with absolutely no head to speak of. It tastes very much like wine. The aromas and flavors here are fantastic: Old World champagne, hay, clover honey, slate and minerals, and all in a really clean and close-to-dry brew, with a light but flavorful pale malt base and the grape influence running all the way through it.
Fermented with pinot noir juice, it brings the essence of the grape, a wonderful hybrid that delivers all the sweet and tangy fruit one could hope for, but also has a really complex yeast profile, a rich new oak mellowness and a light honey sweetness running through it. I really like the light acidity of the fruit, which gives this a wine-like feel to match the flavor, and I appreciate how mature and prominent the barrel is. It's all wrapped up in oak and fruity in its own right; peach and apricot come to mind, insanely compatible with these grapes. The oak unites the beer well, and everything hangs in a cool balance.
]Verdict: This is expert stuff, one of the better wine-forward beers I have had. It comes across cleaner and spritzy-er than a brett beer, with plenty of citrus notes throughout the taste and mouthfeel. I'm not the foremost expert on pinot grapes, but this identifies as pinot grape to me. You get a healthy dose of wine, with the light French oak touch amplifying the white wine aspect. I can't get enough from these guys right now, because everything is so on point, and this is among their best offerings to date.
Grid City - (Sentence Series) Blueberry, Coffee, Bourbon Vanilla Infused Nitro Honey Cream Ale: The aptly named series of nitro beers has a new addition this week. The beer's appearance is heavily influenced by the blueberry, adding a nice purple tone with its thick nitro foam riding atop. The coffee is quite prominent in the nose; the blend from Old Cuss is medium to light roast, with some blueberry notes coming in the background.
Upon first sip, this is a 180-degree flip from the aroma. Now the blueberry takes center stage, adding a big dose of tart berries. You can tell it's real berries and not just flavoring—round and seemingly accentuated by the nitrogen conditioning (which is perfect). A light roasty vibe starts coming through next, with an earthy richness that adds a lot to the relatively straightforward blonde-based brew. The base beer's honey doesn't add much, nor does the added vanilla bean; if it was an attempt to balance any coffee bitterness, they overshot it some. Just when I thought the coffee was done for, it makes a triumphant return towards the end of the brew, offering some of the richness that was so prominent in the aroma. Fortunately, I like the berry flavor, and I like it with coffee, so it works here. It's not just generic malt sweetness, and that's what saves it.
Verdict: I was pretty stoked about this, definitely one of the better blueberry beers I have had in a long time. It's definitely something a little different in the style, and very well-executed.
Zinfandel Barrel Aged Grisette comes in at a very approachable 5.7 percent ABV, and is only available at TF. Grid City's Blueberry, Coffee, Bourbon Vanilla Infused Nitro Honey Cream Ale is exclusive to their place as well, and is only on the nitro tap. As always, cheers!
