Rating
Price:
Circa £35
In a Nutshell:
Beer whiskey… beersky? Starts off with the honeyed sweetness and the olfactory kick of a whiskey, but finishes with the unmistakable hop taste that beer drinkers know and love. Quite unlike anything else I’ve ever drunk. I guess it does what it says on the tin. Points for ingenuity! Blind taste test it on your friends.
Tasting Britain Gets Broadside(d)
Adnams Southwold’s Copper House Distillery does not shy away from experimentation and creating pretty unusual spirits – The Spirit Of Broadside is a perfect example. Distilled from Adnams’ own Broadside Beer, this amber spirit is what they’re calling an ‘eau de vie de bier’…a ‘water of life of beer’ (lol).
It supposedly retains some of the hop flavours that you may come to expect from a beer, but at 43% and with 12 months ageing in heavily charred (’toasted’) Russian Oak casks… well, I am expecting something similar to (but not exactly like) a whiskey. it can’t be too similar to a whisky in some ways, because (as I understand it) there’s a period when whisky starts as a beer (before being fully distilled).
It was released in May 2012 to coincide with the 240th anniversary of the Battle of Sole Bay – the start of the third Anglo-Dutch war, which took place not too far away from where Adnams Southwold are based (somewhere in the channel I think). Make crazy distillates, not war!
Anyhow, national pride at stake, my body is ready….
We Drink It, Stuff Happens
Nose:
First impression: Well, it sure smells a lot like whisky – no hops, some honey, nuttiness – those oaky smells. And a little alcohol evaporating right up in my face. There’s also something a little eccentric going on here: is it…rubber? The nose does not give anything away that this a distilled beer.
Palette:
OK, so now you get that hoppiness that you’d expect from a beer. I don’t drink all that much of it so I couldn’t tell you if it equates to a particular ale or lager. It’s a somewhat sour note.
The nose promises a sweet caramel maltyness that is spirited away (see what I did there) pretty fast. The taste kinda starts like a Speyside malt of some sort: honey, caramel and sweet smoke – 6-10 seconds later the hops…’hop into’ your mouth (*audience groans, Jack ducks a projectile*).
It is about average in harshness/drinkability. There’s not that warming feeling you expect from a whisky – the sensation on the tongue is more the ‘cooling’ bitterness of a beer, even at the beginning (before it’s all turned to beer)
Finish:
That hoppy feeling definitely lingers. If you’re hoppy and you know it, clap your hands! (*ducks another projectile). Feels a little like you’ve been sessioning beers – lots of beers. It’s an ultra long finish. The hops last longest but the honey and caramel sticks around for quite some time. I have to drink it slowly lest my tongue be crowded out by those ale flavours.
Verdict:
Extremely distinctive (well, in comparison to a number of other spirits, I have never tried other varieties of ‘eau de vie de biere’). Easy to drink, all things considered. The finish will be polarising like an 100 megatesla magnetic field. I come down on the ‘positive’ side – but will you?
Want the aftertaste of having consumed multiple pints without having to actually endure speed drinking said paints, and the bloating that may follow. Well this could be for you. Want to possess a drink that will confuse a lot of people when they try it? This could be for you.
Very ballsy, Adnams. A whiskey for beer and/or real ale lovers, and further proof that we have some serious distilling talent in England.