Beer Works LoveFest

Brewed by Salem Beer Works
Style: Fruit Beer
Salem, Massachusetts USA

Serve in Flute

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UPDATED: SEP 14, 2008 Date: 02/08/2007
Mode: Draft
Source: Brewpub, Fenway

Appearance: clear amber, fine beige head,
Aroma: sweet spiced aroma with light ginger,
Flavor: balanced flavor of dry caramel malt, ginger, orange, and a nice even bitter finish, touch of honey sweetness,

Aroma: 6/10; Appearance: 6/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 6/10; Overall: 13/20
Rating: 3.2/5.0
Drinkability: 8/10
Score: **+/4

Tap at Fenway. Pours more of an amber than a brown ale. Aroma is plain straight forward malts- light crystal- sharp caramel light chocolate with some earthiness and fruitiness. Light on the fruit all the way around- more spicy phenolic, and plain crystal malts- earth and tea in the end. Meh.

Draught at brewpub. Cloudy amber body topped by a medium white head with good lacing. Light watery fruity beer with flavours of orange, strawberries and some other tropical fruits. Its most striking feature is a dominant rose water and garden flower taste. No hops flavour whatsoever. A real “lady” beer. “Brewed in the spirit of St-Valentine day” the menu said. The brewer is gay.

Draught pint at Beerworks on 2/2/07
Vaguely brownish-beige colored beer with some dull mahogany and strawberry tints. Dark blonde head sits atop precariously, fading rather quickly to a partial cover and leaving little lacing. Medium-high to high clarity with medium-sized bubbles in the liquid.
Distinct fructose fermentation notes (somewhat sharp and lightly bittersweet with vanillin) are notable in the nose, hovering above a very dry, crusty, brown bread-like maltiness. It seems too lean from the nose. I garner that maybe this was supposed to be a caramel or chocolate covered raspberry/strawberry beer for Valentines day, (seems like raspberries, though the fruit is very subtle and almost wholly fermented out) but the malt is way too lean, leaving only bits of caramel and toffee. Maybe it’s just supposed to be a raspberry brown ale. I guess it reminds me of Lost Coast’s raspberry brown ale, come to think of it. Overly dry, lean, with light vegetal/fruit seed/skin notes. Some sourishness on the end seems out of place and further accentuates the lack of malt character/support. No alcohol noted.
Similar, weak malt profile as the nose, with lots of vanillin and light diacetyl (buttercream). A bit of soft pale maltiness is dashed away by dry/tart fruit acids and crusty/crackery medium-dark malts. Very little actual fruit flavor, just the acids and light vegetal nature left behind. Light body, medium to high carbonation is somewhat prickly without the malt to buffer it. Very dry texture.