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Have I had a Jester King beer? I don't recall ever having one, but my brother in Texas could very well have sent me one. If he has, I appreciate it. If he hasn't, he must be the worst brother. That's just the way it works out. Much like the Hipster Repellent IPA, this is someone else's recipe that is being brewed by a local brewery - Yazoo, in this case. For some reason, unlike some of the virtual breweries out there, this is branded as the one that actually produced it rather than the originators of the formula. I think that this was made in Tennessee, but it has Texas on here more frequently than it has Tennessee written. Nevertheless, I'm going to add both labels just to cover the bases.
I don't know why, but when I looked at the can, I kind of assumed that this was some kind of green tea beer. I have had beers brewed with tea before, and they weren't universally terrible. This does not actually say that any tea was used in the brewing of this beer. The color is exactly what I would expect of a modern craft IPA, as it is hazy is all get out, and the head sticks around well enough and leaves just a bit of lacing. The aroma is quite pungent, and the barley seems to be overwhelmed by flowers, melon, star fruit, and maybe cactus?
First sip echoes the aroma almost exactly. The flowers and melons seem to be meshing pretty well, and I'm not sure what that extra flavor is, but it permeates the whole thing. Even the oats barely managed to show their faces (do oats have faces?) between the bars of what I can only think of as cactus-like flavor. And I don't mean like the water that you can theoretically get from a cactus. I mean like the meat of cactus. Mind you, I don't think I've ever actually had cactus, so I don't know what it tastes like, but that's the taste that I imagine this has.
Tip-in is slightly agave sweet and generally pretty mild with a medium carbonation filling the mouth while flowers alight upon the bubbles gently. The middle becomes a river of the mixture of flavors found in the sip while carbonation lightly buzzes above it, and the previously discordant flavors manage to sing in harmony right through the center. The finish is a bitter affair, but it is tempered by the oats and barley well, as grains hold the tongue into the trail off.
Bottom Line: Unique, flavorful, and worthy of two breweries' reputations.
4.25/5
