Such was the nature of the final delivery of samples from Boatrocker – both large in number and manifold in choice – there was no obvious way of deciding in what order to take them on. So this trio can be categorised as "Where Crafty's taste buds took him on Friday night."
With Flux Capacitor, it's hard to think of a more honed example of seeking a target market. Sure, the Back To The Future trilogy has formed part of The Crafty Pot's ongoing movie education (this year's Christmas movie night was Gremlins), but even if Sr wasn't coeliac, they've got a few years until they're of beer-drinking age. Which means taking the stylings and a key element of a trilogy more than three decades old is going to appeal to a certain niche within the craft beer community; that said, you have to imagine the Venn diagram of craft beer-drinking Back To The Future fans and lovers of old school, 9.2 percent ABV double IPAs is reasonably circle-esque. Crystal clear, copper enough to tell you there’s some caramel / toffee malt flavours for the hops to tuck into, and with nothing wantonly candied in the fruity or tropical sense, Flux Capacitor is more about dank, piney hop flavours and a bitterness embedded deep within.
Wildeberry 2022 is another Flanders red variant from the Braeside crew, one featuring raspberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants, sour cherries and boysenberries, which give the impression of taking the Belgian-inspired beer and swirling it with a jammy jus. There's a palate-awakening acidity of note that heralds a beer with chapters and dimensions awaiting discovery within its dense, stewed and ripe fruit body. The array of fruits doesn't just add layers of flavour, but also textures that go well beyond berry juice.
The cherry cola sour Mojo has been around before, but not only does it have a new skin for 2022 but it also seems distinct enough to my original notes to be worthy of a fresh write-up. It's quite a discordant experience, in fact: it pours a bright crimson yet has a more obvious Coke character than first time around; it would be interesting to taste test on someone wearing a blindfold. It means the cherry is an adornment as much as anything in what’s pretty much a sweet soft drink that just happens to contain booze.
James Smith
NB If you came to this via the social post, yes, I did absent-mindedly crush the Flux Capacitor can before taking the photo, but it kinda feels in keeping with how the later versions of the machine worked. Ahem...
Published December 18, 2022 2022-12-18 00:00:00
