I grew up in Australia, was born in England and now live in Scotland. This makes for complicated allegiances in sports goings on. For example I support Australia in the cricket and rugby and England in the football. I support Scotland in the rugby as well, as long as Australia aren't involved. Saying all that, I don't really get that jazzed up by team sports - more of a tennis sort of chap myself.
Anyway, the reason I bring all that up has nothing to do with sports really, but because the beer for day 9 of Beer52's advent calendar is called bullroarer. Growing up in Oz I saw many a demonstration of the bullroarer, I may have even made one at one point - there's a vague memory of doing that at least. This begs the question of what a bullroarer is, if you don't know (if you do, skip to the next section, or don't please yourself). A bullroarer is a carved piece of wood attached to a length of string. The wood is carved in such a way that when you spin it around your head by said piece of string, the whole contrivance emits a loud, guttural noise that carries over quite a long distance. Crocodile Dundee uses one at one point. Anyway, to the beer.
Bullroarer
Style - American Pale Ale
Brewer - Round Corner Brewing
Hops - Inconclusively named "American Hops" so could be anything
ABV - 5.2%
The beer
I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty knackered this evening so apologies in advance if the present review doesn't quite live up to the dizzyingly high standards I've already set for myself.
Bullroarer pours well not too thin, not too thick and there's a nice touch of head lingering about which bodes well for the body on this. Bully boy looks good in the glass too, fairly hazy, but not opaque and a colour of good honey - manuka or something like that.
Nice notes of citrus pith coming out on the sniff, quite marmaladey with a touch of must and resin to keep things relevant (this is a 2022 beer - there must be must and resin). What I'm trying to say is, this smells very enticing and after the day I've had, I'm just going to stop trying to over analyse it and just drink the damn thing.
Apart from being long overdue, the first sip is really good. This is more effervescent that the body would suggest, which means that all the flavours burst out in your mouth. If you're looking for a ponderous pint, this probably ain't it, this is full of vitality. That marmalade note comes through good and strong here, counterbalanced by a good whack of mustiness for the back of the mouth and a little sharpness for the tip of the tongue. The bitterness comes through nice and clearly and acts to stop the orange notes becoming too cloying. So, all good in the flavour department.
In fact, I don't have anything negative to say about Bullroarer at all. Everything here works as it should, but not in a by the numbers kind of way. I would have this again in a heartbeat.
Score - 4.5/5
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