Smuttynose Hanami Ale

Brewed by Smuttynose Brewing Company
Style: Fruit Beer
Portsmouth, New Hampshire USA

Pours a orange color with a thin head. Aroma is yeast, musty, herbal with a hint of cherries. Flavor is tart with tangy sour cherry and citrus with a grainy finish. very strange

Draft at HDG. There is something seriously wrong with this beer. It pours okay, clear amber with a decent head but as soon as you smell it, you just know it’s gonna fuckin blow. Maybe it’s got a pomegranite aroma or maybe it’s just Robitussin. There’s just no way I can see anyone drinking more than two ounces of this. I’d rather suffer through a Lindemanns Framboise. I really expect more from a brewery I hold in very high regard.

Reddish/amber appearance with a small, off-white head and modest lacing. Briarish, slightly vinous aroma. Tart, acerbic taste focused on the advertised cherries, with a metallic aftertaste. Medium bodied mouthfeel with flavors that really stick to the roof of the mouth. Tart, dry, lingering finish.

Fresh 2007 bottle drunk on 3/16/07
Cranberry-cherry juice colored body has darker cola and lighter beige tints swirled in. Clear and force-carbonated, with a feeble off-white/beige head flecked with pink. Little/no lacing.
Very acidic malic/citric acid combo produces a bright tartness/sourness in the nose, though it softens somewhat towards the end, gaining a light vanillin-like base maltiness and a bit of fruity waxiness or plastics (seem to always get this note from fruit fermentation). Darker cherry sweetness and some spicy, black pepper-like phenolics are quite prominent as well, though I like the focus on the fruit acids. Aroma is medium to medium-strong, with no alcohol perceptible and very little malt. The beer smells extremely clean other than the fruit-derived phenols. I think that’s why Belgian yeast works so well with fruit beers, as it adds some depth/intricacy to fill the void left by the overly clean American yeast. That’s ok, though, this one is simple and focused enough on the cherry acids as to be pretty enjoyable.
Fairly basic flavor is quite tart, very acidic (malic acid) and rather exposed (lack of a strong malt backbone). No doubt they didnt want much, if any, malt apparency. What’s here shows just the slightest vanilla-like sweetness and a soft hint of nutty graininess. Cherry flavor continues on the finish, atop a very light body. Creamy carbonation would really improve this beer and add a better medium upon which to display the cherry flavors. As it is now, it’s a bit bubbly/watery and thin. Still a pleasant sipper. Very clean.

Aroma has some belgian-like dusty musty yeastiness accompanied by some acrid cherry and vineous sweetness. Flavor has a malty, caramelly background with sour, bitter cherries. Aftertaste is woody and acidic with some lingering sweet malt. Decent but I would still prefer SA Cherry Wheat even if it has inferior ingredients. *wanted to amend this-drank after a few other beers and the cherry flavor really stood out-tasted like it was paired with a brown ale--malts stood out more-cherry was still a tad bitter and acidic but was much more cohesive when drank in proper succession

(12oz bottle, best by July 2007) Small off-white head atop clear amber body. Aroma is medium sweet, spicy, some cherry and cherry sour, light orange, tin. Taste is mild sweet, sour cherry, some wood, earthy/spicy, light metallic. Light-medium body, light acidity.

Tastes somewhat spicy, and a bit fruity with its cherry-like essence. But it is mixed up and unbalanced. It’s a fine looking beer, but the taste is totally unexpected. Kinda crappy and strange....there are no real flavors in this conconction that befits a beer. I also taste that pelletized hop flavor usually found in the crappier microbrews. This is the first disappointment I’ve had from Smuttynose.

FIRST TRIAL: Bottle from Murray’s. This is a tiny bit interesting, but not nearly as interesting or as unique as I was expecting. To tell the truth, beyond the name, there’s just really not that much to it. I enjoy the Smuttynose Big A IPA and their regual IPA is fine, but the more of their products that I try, the less impressed I am. The beer pours a red copper with a reasonable sized head that diminishes very quickly to just a slight ring around the top. The aroma is almost reminiscent of a plain amber/brown ale, with just a faint hint of cherry. The taste is similar... not much cherry, not much anything at all. The aftertaste is subtle-y bitter with a hint of sourness. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing that I had this beer right after the Rubaeus. It might be good because I can compare two different fruit beers back to back, but then again I may not be tasting all that well after the very fruity taste (relative to this beer) of the Rubaeus. I can’t really imagine recommending this beer.