Beer – #1018 – Garage Project – Verbotene Fruchte

You can’t keep a good man down, and I’ve enjoyed the break from writing about all the beers I’ve been drinking and honestly I’ve drunk a few recently that have been too weird to share. Also I’ve been drinking more growler/fill station beers that are limited in distribution and that’s just plain unfair as they are often on limited area release too.

So a brief interlude where I took a breather, and was then persuaded to continue with some encouragement from unlikely people and a request to contribute to a top 10 beer list.

So anyway here I am again with the Garage Project / Craftwerk / Bitburger Verbotene Fruchte

at least seven contraventions

Garage Project Verbotene Fruchte is a 500ml bottle that is 7.6% ABV, which is around that 228 calories a serve size, and locally this would be 3.9 standard drinks

Garage Project / Craftwerk / Bitburger Verbotene Fruchte that is brewed by Garage Project in the style that is Schwarzbier

I forbid it

For over 500 years the Reinheitsgebot has dictated that German brewers can only make beer using barley, hops, water and yeast.

But what happens when German brewers go on holiday?

Brewed in collaboration with legendary German brewers from Bitburg, Verbotene Früchte is a rich, black dessert lager inspired by the classic cakey goodness of the Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte or Black Forest gâteau and brewed with a lavish amount of sugar, lactose, cacao powder, vanilla, cacao nibs and sour cherries.

We counted at least seven contraventions of Reinheitsgebot, but hey, what goes on tour, stays on tour.

So, What could possibly go wrong?

It has the aroma of a sour ale, then there’s a waft of chocolates and sweetness.

Pour is a light brown mahogany colour with a brown tinge on a fluffy and persistent head, I like a good looking beer and this is a good looking beer.

In the glass that aroma is much the same, a sour beer, with cherries and light chocolate note.

Well, there’s a heap of cherries, a proper heap. Then it’s like you’re having cherries in cream. There’s a full mouthfeel with the added lactose, but I can’t immediately put a place for the chocolate note that I could detect on the nose.

The lingering sensation is odd, I don’t want to say ‘plastic’ but it seems distinctly out of place.

It’s certainly easy to drink, the sharpness of the cherries bounce along on that lovely soft middle pillow, and despite that fullness this is not a beer that has a lot of depth or layers that unfold in your mouth, it’s pretty much as you drank it it drinks.

It remains nice through the whole bottle, the only thing that kicks off briefly a bit is an alcohol burn that isn’t unpleasant and flatters to deceive as it shouldn’t really be there at 7% but reminds you that you’re drinking something that’s been well crafted. It was there then it wasn’t, it is a beer with a lot of transient things going on

I like this despite that oddness of a plastic note that appeared, but that could be adjunct to cherries, i don’t know I’m not an expert, however much I like cherries.

A lovely beer that brought me a lot of enjoyment, I might have let it get too warm, as I think that I prefer my sweetness colder. Also I’m reminded that I have chocolate mousse in the fridge, so tonight has been a bit of a win-win, despite it being a work night.

The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 8 of its things from the thing. It’s a high 8 but not quite enough to tip it to a 9. It is like it says on the label, a decent dark lager with added cherries and sensation of cream and chocolate.

The double dip review

Where did I get it? The local Liquorland had them
Am I enjoying it? Yes I rather am, I like cherries and cherry beers of course. This is a nice middle ground.
Would I have another? Yes, although I think that that boat on getting one might have sailed
Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? Totally yes, this is so much like a dessert that it would be mad not to share this around and pick and pull it apart, I defy you not to think this is like cherries in cream and a lot like a Gateau is, or at least the ones that pass for Gateaux around our way

Music for this: ”Better Oblivion Community Center by Better Oblivion Community Center, Phoebe Bridgers, Conor Oberst on the Spotify Player

Bit of harmless indie pop music

SCHWARZBIER

Dark brown to black. Medium body. Roasted malt evident. Low sweetness in aroma and flavor. Low to medium bitterness. Low bitterness from roast malt. Hop flavor and aroma, “noble-type” OK. No fruitiness, esters.