Beer – #741 – Garage Project – Beyond The Pale Fringe Fruits Edition

Beyond the Pale, and the Fringe Festival. Garage Project can be hit and miss, more hits than misses probably but you never really know. This though seem to have the current brewers favourite of cucumber in it, the comedy fruit.

…Weird but strangely delicious….

This is a 650ml bottle of a beer that is a lowish 4.4% ABV, meaning that it is only about 136 calories a serve size, and 2.25 standard drinks in the bottle

Brewed by Garage Project in the style that is the catch-all :Spice/Herb/Vegetable and they’re in Wellington, New Zealand

Could be one step too many

Beyond the Pale, each year a new brew, something special, a little ‘out there’, even a bit bizarre for the New Zealand Fringe Festival.

For this year’s avant grade offering we present Fringe Fruit.

At its heart the same malts, but this year we’ve soured the brew and infused it with cucumber, finger limes and mint.

It’s certainly strange, but it’s also uniquely refreshing.

Brewed well outside our safety zone, especially for the 2016 New Zealand Fringe Festival.

So, what could possibly go wrong?

I thought the aroma was more like that yeasty aroma of uncooked but fish made bread, then again it could be like peeled cucumber skins too,

Pour is a cloudy lemon thing, with no head at all, but it is carbonated because you can ee the bubbles milling about at the top . Very cloudy beer though.

Aroma in the glass leaves you in no doubt which of the fruits gets top billing, it’s heavy with cucumber aroma.

Seems to be initially this is a tad sour and has an uncomfortable earthy finish, the cucumber is front of course, I’m sure the Mint and the Limes are doing their bit to keep the flavour balanced, but it appears that this trio is out of practice and it’s a bit uneven.

Also despite the lack of head this is terribly fizzy on the tongue.

I went away and came back, an encore, the lime is pickable in this, it’s a bright point in the taste profile

I also though that this tasted salty too.

MrsPdubyah grimaced at the smell and pulled ‘that’ face on taking the smallest of sips. I don’t think it’s for her either, but at least I didn’t get “It smells like beer”.

this is not a beer who’s aroma improve with warming, and the taste isn’t showing an improvement either, it’ not like you could get used to it in a hurry.

As always I’m loathe to bag a beer for the sake of it, because I don’t like it I can opine as I like. This, for me, is clumsy, and unbalanced, but with thought and tweaking could possibly be quite nice. Thankfully though it’s a one off thing and not a regular beer for them – I hope – unless they re-jig it as something else.

There seems to have been a spate of Cucumber, watermelon, and sundry fruit based Gose and similar beers. I’ve tried to avoid them, they’re not beers that I’d pick as something to entertain me, not to say they’re all bad, and I think I’m open minded enough to try most beers, I think.

This though might just have been beyond the pale

The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 6 of its things from the thing, which makes it ‘average’ at best. Clearly will have fans, clearly will divide a few people . I don’t hate it, I just wish it’d come in a smaller bottle to get it over with quicker.

The double dip review

• Where did I get it? Liquorland in Forrest Hill got a limited number of them, they’ve probably got some left.
• Am I enjoying it? Not really no, it’s confusing and not really something you’d write home about.
• Would I have another? Nope.
• Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? Unless it was comedy beer night no.

Music for this :  “Sea Pinks ” and ” Soft Days” on Spotify  A band from Belfast inspired by sea glass, bleached grass and ghost guitars

SPICE/HERB/VEGETABLE

Any ale or lager made with herbs, spices or vegetables. The additive should be distinctive in the aroma. See beer description for flavor. Body, color, hop character and strength vary depending on the type of spice, herb or vegetable used.