Biersky – 44.4% abv

Info: It doesn’t seem to have been done before, but it has now! Biersky is a mix of 60% strong beer spirit*, and 40% single malt whisky, developed by Jean Metzger from the Bertrand distillery in Alsace, France. It’s unfiltered.
Colour: Golden, quite light, a little cloudy.
Nose: Fantastically full of flavours for your nose to enjoy, a real depth that you might find with many a good malt. Underneath it all there’s a good malty spirit, along with the sort of smells you might imagine from a rural, stone built warehouse. There’s a handful of sour berries & sweetness.
Palate: On the palate there’s a mixture of upfront fruity sweetness with handfuls of spices, pepper and christmas spices. It feels fairly oily in your mouth with touches of sour tannins.
Finish: There’s some oak, coconut and spices. It’s not overly long, but it’s very enjoyable.
Thoughts: I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, but this is fantastic, nice, flavourful & fun!
Available: No idea! But if you ever see a bottle then grab it, just for the fun factor of something that little bit different. Update: I’m told it’s available here, they seem to deliver to the UK.

*Update: After a chat with Franck it seems that “strong beer” isn’t what I’d think of as a strong beer (a 8% abv ale for example), but a term for a hopped beer that is then distilled and (in this case) aged in a cask for 10 years… so it’s basically whisky, but hopped, a beer spirit if you will. If I have my facts right anyway! Thanks for the extra info Franck and Jean.

Thanks to my friend Franck Debernardi for the sample, sorry it’s taken a while to get to it!