BeerMetal Rating: 4.5/5

20-SchlaflyGruit-WM

As most of you know, I now do most of my beer reviews on my podcast. Well, I have been on a break from the podcast since November of last year. I was already recording content for my newest episode when the world went to shit with this Coronavirus thing. I decided to scrap the content I had recorded and decided to start all over again with the episode. Here is the first beer that I originally had on the now scrapped podcast episode. I decided to post the written out review here on the site. Enjoy!

I was gifted this beer by my friend Gabe. He used to live here in San Antonio and moved to San Diego, CA. We still stay in touch through social media. Well before he moved to California, he had visited St. Louis, MO. When he returned to San Antonio, we met up and he gifted me a few beers, which included this beer. Alright, well here are my thoughts on the Gruit.

Right off the initial pour of this beer, there was no head at all, but this beer was definitely active, as bubbles were rising in the glass the entire session. This beer is a very clear dark golden color.

A very interesting aroma on this beer. Traces of honey, pomegranate, and other fruits like pear, even some apple. There is a good fair share of spices and herbs in the nose, very floral and plant like. There is also an overlaying tartness as well. In fact, I can pick up a light grape, or red wine in the aroma as well. As I said this one is interesting.

The taste though is even stranger. The pear and apple notes really shine out to me. The grapes and red wine flavors also show up. I am getting a little bit of lemongrass in the taste. Grains, herbs, spices, and floral tastes are also present. The aftertaste for me is pear, pomegranate, apples, and red wine.

The mouthfeel is smooth, yet crisp and the finish is like if I just drank a dry red wine. it even makes my teeth feel dry after each sip.

Overall, I am giving this one a 4.5/5. Excellent beer. I enjoyed the complexity of this one with all of it’s flavors shining through the way they did. I have been impressed with all the beers I have had from Schlafly so far. I look forward to getting my hands on even more in the future.

Metal Connection: For Schlafly’s Gruit, an Ancient style beer, it was a bit difficult to find a Metal Connection that fit the beer’s name, brewery name and all that. I could have gone with the brewery’s location as the connection, but I wanted this one to be a bit darker. Since a Gruit is an Ancient style beer, I paired this beer using the word Ancient, and in fact the band I chose for this Metal Connection is ANCIENT, and they were created in Norway. Back in 1992, the band member known as Aphazel started ANCIENT as a one man band. In 1995, Aphazel moved to the United States and recruited a whole line up here. 3 years later, he moved to Italy, but now he lives in Greece. ANCIENT has released 7 full length albums in their career. Our Metal Connection song is called The Ancient Horadrim and it’s taken from the band’s 5th studio full length, Proxima Centauri which was released in 2001 on Metal Blade Records. Let’s see, according to the relocation timeline, this is when he was living in Italy. So here is the Metal Connection for Schlafly’s Gruit. This is The Ancient Horadrim by the Black Metal band ANCIENT.