Brewery: Jester King Craft Brewery
Beer: El Cedro
Style: Saison/Farmhouse Ale
ABV: 8.0%
Character: Hoppy Cedar-Aged Ale with Brettanomyces
Metal Connection: DEMOLITION HAMMER – Human Dissection

Rating: 5/5

I love Jester King Craft Brewery. So far everything I have had from them, I have enjoyed. I remember going to the brewery on their grand opening back in 2011, and I was instantly hooked on their beer. I am not going to lie, I was a fan of their beer even before I ever tasted any due to their awesome artful labels, and the main reason I was hooked on them so early is that they have a beer called Black Metal with a dude in war paint on their label, looking a lot like Immortal or something. But we are not here to talk about Black Metal the beer. We are here for El Cedro, one of Jester King’s newest creations. This beer seems to be a favorite among some of my fellow brothers in the craft beer world, so I was eager and excited to try this beer. As taken from the Jester King website: El Cedro is a Farmhouse ale hopped with piney, citrusy American hops, aged on Spanish Cedar spirals, and bottle conditioned with Brettanomyces yeast. Unfiltered, unpasteurized and naturally conditioned.

Using a Ranger Creek Brewing Company pint glass, El Cedro poured a very nice looking, hazy, burnt orange, wood color with a nice fluffy off white head, which retained throughout, leaving a nice thick lacing on the glass. This is a beautiful beer!

The aroma of the beer is very complex. There is a cactus or plant like smell mixed with a bit of orange and lemon zest and wood. The citrus is light on the nose, while the cactus like smell hits you mid smell, and the wood is in the background. As you can see the aroma is covering all bases, and is a heavy dense smell. This is making me think this beer would feel heavy, but it really isn’t that heavy of a beer at all.

El Cedro has a nice medium body that is crisp and bitter. Taste is full of orange peel and lemon zest with a noticeable hop flavor. A woodsy taste is present and appears in the background of all other flavors here. There is a slight alcohol bite to this with every drink, leaving a very nice spicy aftertaste. There is a right amount of carbonation here as well helping with that crisp bite.

Once again, Jester King did it! They made a fantastic beer. For me, these guys have done no wrong yet, and I look forward to every beer I get from these fine people at JK! Since I do give this beer my highest rating, I wanted to make sure when it came to the Metal Connection that I chose a band and song that are right up there in my favorites. Here is DEMOLITION HAMMER and their song “Human Dissection” from their 1992 album, Epidemic of Violence.

Raise your glass and hail the awesomeness that is El Cedro and Demolition Hammer!!

Dissecting Humans and Pounding Beers, BeerMetalDude!