Melbourn Brothers Strawberry

Brewed by Melbourn Brothers (Samuel Smith)
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Stamford, England

[Sampled in 2005 at Carlsens.] A rare brew from the illes. A "belgian" beer. Fresh, but lowcarbonated. Could be good on a summer day. Okay flavor.

pours dark reddish brown with small head...huge strawberry and sugar aroma, with subtle hints of lambic sourness..flavor is of sugared strawberry puree, nothing more...not bad, but not a lambic...make this non-alcoholic and lessen the price and this would be a great summer drink

As soon as you crack one open, the strawberry aroma is thick, which isn’t bad. Reddish brown in appearance, some bubbles, little to no head. The strawberry taste is thick- almost like a spritzer. I just wondered where the beer was, all I could taste was strawberries. Not a bad dessert beer, but nothing to do back flips over either.

This one pours golden brown with a slight red tint to it. On the first sip, I think your senses are a little bit shocked by the presence of strawberry in your brew (unless you have had a bit of fruit ales in your tastings). I felt the flavor was pretty firm and not weak at all. It’s smooth and well crafted, at least better crafted than other fruit alesI have tried.

Pours really fizzy, with a small but lasting head. Color is somewhat copper/pink in appearance. The Strawberries domiate the aroma, along with a sour/tart note to it. Flavor is tart with the strawberry coming through in force.

Is it pink with orange higlights, or red with pink hues, or...too hard to tell, but it is very pretty, glimmering with slowly rising carbonation, like breaths of expelled carbon dioxide rising from a crystal clear lake at sunset. Lacing is adequate, though unlike the other two Melbourn beers I’ve had, the head here is resistant to diminishing and leaves grand swathes of foam everywhere. The aroma is thoroughly refreshing, but loses one point for its restrained nature. Sweet whole strawberries collide with a barrage of complimentary scents, a force wrought from a quirky combination of lightly toasted grains, light brettanomyces, oak, pepper, unrefined sugars as well as powdered sugars, cookie and honeycomb. Mild acids sting the nostrils. The flavor is just wonderful, so much better than expected, even with high expectations after dabbling in the aromatics. Strawberries are seedy, pulpy, fresh and vibrant, like they were just picked from a prime location. Sweetness is high but not as much as the other Melbourn offerings. Light tartness and even lighter sourness quench with dramatic precision, in spite of the diminutive part they play. Acidity is notable enough to further the refreshing qualities and astringency is just right, soft but everpresent. The finish develops more depth and communicates a sour side not yet seen in one of this breweries’ offerings. Strawberry juice lingers, sugary and spiked with light yeast. The mouthfeel is softly though plentifully carbonated, medium bodied, lightly sticky, a pleasure to sip. This beer is easygoing and great fun to dissect, an assimilation of all notions preconceived. Wonderful.

Melbourn Brothers beers are classified as fruit lambics, though that is solely due to a base lambic beer, a beer that sees little light of day in the experience of the final product. The reality is that these beers are fruit beers, and when enjoyed as such, are very rewarding: intense flavor, true flavor, a dessert without peer. No implication is made that these are the best fruit beers, just that there is really nothing else available that is like them, and that is something that deserves commendation, as the aroma and flavor are wonderful - real wrecking balls of intensity.

Poured a deep, hazy bronze color with a thin slightly pink head. The aroma was of strawberry and not much else. Initialy the flavor was strawberry, followed by more strawberries and finished with, you guessed it! strawberries. However, there is some mild beer bitterness that peeks through in the finish. Fun and drinkable. Not as tart as lindemans. Still, I can’t drink more than one a night.

12 oz. Copper red with a large and lasting head. Aroma is strawberries and cream. Flavor is sweetened version of the same, with some acidic drying on the finish. Palate is sticky and medium bodied. Tasty, but the syrupy sweetness could be thinned out with some more alcohol.