Brewery: Founders Brewing Company
Beer: Sweet Repute
Style: Wheatwine
ABV: 12.6%
Character: It’s 100% barrel aged in maple syrup bourbon barrels and bourbon barrels over 16 months.
Ratings at the time of Review: BA: 93 | RB: 98
Metal Connection: ANGEL WITCH – Sweet Danger
BeerMetalDude Rating: 3.75/5
Alright so here is a weird one for you readers out there. This one was a cellar pull. Sweet Repute was a beer brewed back in 2013 as part of the Founders Winter Backstage Series. Back when I worked for a local Craft Beer bar called Big Hops Gastropub, this bottle was given to me by the owner, as part of a payment for my photoshop graphic skills I did for them for the food menus. I drank this one towards the end of 2015, but wanted to include it as part of the site to give my tasking notes for those of you still holding onto a bottle of this creation.
The label art is very eye catching. The backdrop is a nice blue-greenish tint, with a nice drawing of a lovely long haired redhead. She looks as if she is mid twirl with her long hair flowing in the wind. She is wearing a rose colored long flowing dress that is off the shoulders, showing off her tribal tree shoulder tattoo. To make this drawing even better, she has a nice hop vine as a hair piece. She reminds me a lot of a siren, but instead of winning me over with her singing, she is drawing me in with her sweet beer.
I used a Twisted X Brewing snifter glass for this session. Sweet Repute poured a clear deep copper color, reminding me of maple syrup. The beer was topped with a 1/2 inch wide eggshell colored foamy head, which quickly disappeared, having no retention, leaving no lacing at all down the glass.
The nose was heavy with maple syrup up front, followed by the wood from the barrels. There was a nice bourbon sweet booze, wheat, light caramel, toffee, golden raisins mixture as the body of the aroma. There was a strange bubble gum, licorice, or mint leaves smell that overpowered towards the end, and lingered a bit.
The taste was like the nose. Maple syrup and oak wood were up front with a bourbon sweetness and burn with a mixture of wheat, caramel, toffee, golden raisins, and sweet brown sugar. Again though, that odd bubble gum, licorice, mint leave character showed up again that overpowers all that flavor that came before it, throwing off the overall taste of this beer. The aftertaste was heavy in mint, wood, and maple syrup.
The beer had a heavy body with a mouthfeel that was slick and oily. There was little to no carbonation present. The finish was a sweet sugary mouth coating feeling.
Overall, I will say that I did not hate this beer, nor did I really love it. I am just glad I was able to have tried this rare beer, and have the bottle in my collection. I know what this beer was trying to go for, and I’m sure at one point this beer tasted different closer to it’s release. I know Wheatwines, and such are good to age, but this one aged a bit funny, giving off some odd characters making this beer not the best in my opinion. I still rated it a 3.75 out of 5, which is a passing score, so please feel free to take my tasting notes to mind if you happen to come across a bottle of this 2013 release.
Metal Connection: I am going old school here with this Metal Connection, back to 1980, in fact. London, England’s Angel Witch released their debut self titled album, and on this album there is a song called “Sweet Danger.” This song is a tune about being in a nightmare until you are awoken. This is a perfect example of early NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal). England, at this time was providing the world with great musical acts that we all love today, such as Motörhead, Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest. Angel Witch was running right along side of them, but they never really blew up the way the previously mentioned bands did. Mostly because of line-up problems that plagued the band throughout their career. One listen to the opening riff of “Sweet Danger” and you would believe you were listening to a song from the debut self titled Iron Maiden album, which coincidentally also came out in 1980. Angel Witch’s debut album had such groove, ripping guitar riffs, awesome vocal patterns, and a great delivery by vocalist, Kevin Heybourne. This album stands the test of time, and will always remain a big influential album on a lot of Metal musicians for years to come. So, as rare and collectible as Founder’s Sweet Repute is, Angel Witch’s “Sweet Danger” falls in the same level, as this was a single released from the album, giving this one a cult status. Enjoy the killer tune, and I hope you all find a bottle of this beer to give it a try.
Beer Metal Media 