Smuttynose Brett and I

Brewed by Smuttynose Brewing Company
Style: Belgian Ale
Portsmouth, New Hampshire USA

On tap at Dek’s. Aroma of Belgian yeast, spices, pear, lemon, some bittering hops, hint of funk. Funk and hops kick in more in the mouth, but all the more typical Belgian ale qualities remain, no overpowering sourness with the funk. Delicately crafted combination of what seem to be very standard flavors to achieve a very fine whole.

Tap at Lazy Boy, labeled as Small Batch. I talked to the Smuttynose rep though and he confirmed it was this. Deep orange pour, completely unfiltered. Unmistakenly Belgian aroma, clove and spice, lemon, egg. Very complex. Olive branch and yeast in the flavor, very full bodied and quenching. Super dry. Very nice stuff here. The rep claimed the beer is finally coming into its own -- only one batch was brewed -- and that previous releases were still a little weak.

On tap at Dek’s. Pours a light orange with lots of thick white head. Aroma of sweet fruits (raspberry), spices. Smells very good! Flavor of zingy spices, sourness/funk, orange peel, Belgian yeast, apple and other light fruits, and slight bitter hops. Dry finish. A very interesting beer with a lot of complex flavors that seemed familiar to me. I just wanted to keep drinking this until I discovered what lurks in its mysterious depths. Quite drinkable.

Sampled at Max’s American Beer Fest. Pours a translucent yellow/brown with a wispy head. Aroma is very pleasant, lemons, hay, spices. Flavor is sugary, slightly sweaty funk, flowers. Chalky on the tongue. Well balanced in terms of nose and flavor although not incredibly bretty.

Tap at blind tiger. Pours like the blonde- hazy light orangey yellow with a nice lasting white head. Aroma is funky and horsey, not of the wall funk or barnyard, but has some nice hay character, saltiness, light plasticy phenols and some burning wire- reminds me of a natural brett infection I get in some homebrews. Flavor is nice and bready malts, nice blegian salty earthy character with just a modest amount of funk and a light acidity- not fully funked out yet, but could get more funky as time goes by. This turned out a bit better than I thought and was definitely better this time around than the first time I had it about 4 months ago.

On tap at Novare Res. Opaque orange with head. Tangerine and mild funky aroma. Sweet citrus orange with light funk that grows as it warms and mild hoppy finish with light lingering funk. Pretty nice.

Pours nicely clouded gold with a white head. Funky antiseptic nose. Funky edge as well on flavor. Weird and total funk. Thick carbonation and smooth liquid. Leaves a lasting acrid, citrus flavor in the mouth. This is an interesting beer to say the least.

They poured this at the "From Smutty With Love" event at American Flatbread Burlington Hearth yesterday and were having problems with the amount of foam. I managed to get the bar manager to score me a pour. I had to let it settle for about 3 minutes before even thinking about getting near it. HUGE bone white head and golden, somewhat cloudy appearance. Nosings of sour green apple and sour white peach with stone. Some earthy, bark-like notes. The palate was moderately sour and medium bodied. Flavors of Brett and sour peach were wrapped up by wooded notes and an astringent finish. The finish was a little too dry for me, a little too "woody" feeling. A nice effort, but either needs some time to settle out or needs a little tweaking.