Jeff EgglestonI like dill pickles!
I like beer!
So what could be better than mixing the two together??
Today, the excitement is over the top to review a relatively unique style of beer, a beer brewed with pickles. Martin House Brewing of Fort Worth, Texas is the brewery and I love its mission statement:
Martin House Brewing Company is a team of brewers, explorers and dreamers. We avoid tradition in favor of adventure, both in brewing and in life. We value good ingredients and good people, and each of our beers pairs perfectly with life’s memorable moments. We want to be the handcrafted beer you and your friends choose when celebrating your most recent adventure or planning the next one. Martin House-Made in Texas by Texans
The base for today’s beer is the brewery’s Salty Lady Sour Gose, a tart, salty German-style beer soured in the kettle with a lactic culture, tempered with salt additions and finished with coriander. The additional ingredient that turns this beer into something new is dill pickle brine furnished by the Bestmaid pickle factory, which is located just minutes from the brewery. The final result is a concoction that comes in at 5.5 percent ABV and has a very low, single-digit IBU rating of about 4-6.
A medium pour gives about a finger at most of white fizzy head that floats on the very pale yellow-gold colored brew. The head is gone in the blink of an eye, just like it was never there. Aroma confirms that I am drinking a pickle infused beer, with massive amounts of dill pickle, garlic and onion on the nose. The first taste is overpowering and any hope of tasting what I would call beer is out the window.
There are big, bold flavors of dill pickle, fresh minced garlic and tangy onion. Even though I am a garlic fan, it definitely overtakes and dominates the beer and destroys any other flavors besides the onion and dill pickle. There’s no hint of beer, malts or hops anywhere. It’s like drinking straight pickle juice but the beer is much flatter, almost disappointingly flatter than I think it should be. The mouthfeel is salty and leaves me with major garlic breath. Carbonation is way too flat and definitely takes away from the enjoyment and drinking.
