I'm in the midst of an extended vacation as it is, and it's Christmas Eve for the release of this review, so I thought the title was suitable for publishing today. Black Abbey has a good record, and I need a good beer right now. Will I find it in a simple ale? I should hope so.
The beer pours like it’s a very dark red kind of soda. The bubbles are, similarly, not long for this world, so I had to pour judiciously to try and get the right ratio of head to beer for this picture. Now that I sit down to actually drink the beer, the head is completely gone, and errant bubbles popping up on the sides show that this has carbonation to it. The aroma is berries over what seem like floral hops and an indistinct malt.First sip is berries over a rather banal mix of flowers and
grains. It’s surprising how watery a small sip comes across as, and I know
there are blueberries in here, but the taste for them isn’t as straight-forward
as <sip> “Oh! Blueberries!” Instead, it’s <sip> <squints at
glass> “Well, it’s not raspberries, and it would be pretty dull as
strawberries. What do elderberries taste like, again?”
Tip-in is almost no carbonation and very little taste; a mild
berry sensation of watered-down Capri Sun is about all I’m getting. The middle
rolls with some carbonation before getting pretty nicely vague berries and
vague grains with a whole heap of water. It’s at this point that I think I
understand this as more of a farmhouse ale that is really easy going for proper
swigging. The finish is somewhat dry and bitter as the grains win over what
becomes berry seeds.
Bottom Line: There is something good hidden in there.
2.75/5