Brewery: Jester King Brewery
Beer: Colour Five
Style: American Wild Ale
ABV: 7.1%
Character: brewed with Hill Country well water, barley, wheat, and hops. It was fermented with our unique mixed culture of microorganisms, which includes farmhouse yeasts, naturally occurring wild yeasts harvested from our land in the Texas Hill Country, and native souring bacteria. After extended fermentation and maturation in oak barrels, Colour Five was refermented with Texas blueberries over the course of several weeks. The final refermentation of the beer occurred in bottles, kegs, and casks.
Ratings at time of Review: BA: 88 | RB: 85
Metal Connection: VIO-LENCE – Colour of Life
BeerMetalDude Rating: 5/5
It’s not every day that I get to get out to Jester King Brewery in Austin, TX, so each visit is special for me. On my last visit earlier this year, I was able to pick up a couple of bottles of Colour Five, a special blended Wild Ale with Texas Hill Country grown blueberries. I was very happy to have obtained these for me and one for my California buddy, Jorge Espinoza of AnimeBeers.com. I know he enjoyed the beer as well. Since Jester King is such a hot item, I won’t keep you in suspense any longer on my thoughts of Colour Five.
For this session a tulip style glass was used, which is good for Wild Ales. Colour Five had a clear reddish, blue-purple color. Very similar to Blueberry juice. On the initial pour, the beer had a small bubbly purplish head, which quickly disappeared. Absolutely no lacing left on the glass with this beer, but that is OK, as with most Wild Ales.
There was obvious sourness upfront on the nose, followed closely by oak wood, blueberries, farmhouse/barnyard smell, mixed with some notes of lemon peel, and light vinegar. I really liked the fact that other characters were picked up besides just the sourness.
The taste has all the characters of the nose, minus the vinegar. Blueberries are definitely present, and dominates the palate along side the sourness. Behind the fruit flavor, there is a body of oak wood, farmhouse hay, and some notes of lemon peel. Very excellent cast of characters on this one. The blueberries do come back in the end and lingers in the aftertaste.
Colour Five is on the lighter side of a medium body with a tart bite, low carbonation, acidic fruit body and a dry finish.
Overall, I was highly impressed with this beer, as I am with most of Jester King’s offerings. As I said before, I do not get to make it out to all of their special bottle releases. I am usually working on the weekends. Getting to the brewery to get this bottle was both a challenge and an honor. If you can still find this one out there with a hoarder/trader, get yourself a bottle. If Jester King does more batches, get out there.
Metal Connection: Here with this Metal Connection I went the vault for the song chosen. I went with the Thrash Metal classic, Vio-Lence for this Metal Connection. Vio-Lence began as Death Penalty in 1985, but quickly changed it’s name to Violence, then to the official spelling of Vio-Lence later that same year. The band has seen it’s share of band members before splitting up in 2003, which includes Eddie Billy (brother to Chuck Billy of Testament), Phil Demmel and Robb Flynn of Machine Head). The song chosen for this Metal Connection comes from the band’s 3rd full length album, 1993’s, Nothing to Gain. This album would be the band’s last album released. It’s their lowest rated album of their three full lengths. Some of the songs on this album are not my favorite, but I really do enjoy this song here, Colour of Life. It reminds me of older material from the band’s previous albums. So Thrash it up and drink some Jester King, if you can! Cheers!
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