Funky Buddha’s Fire In The Hole
And here we are. Day two of the Man of Beer Man apology tour. I can hear it now. “He'll never make it. He's a big let down” To which I respond yeah probably. But I am doing this for myself. And I'm doing this for you. And I'm doing this because I have a shit lot of beer in my fridge to drink and I will drink it all. Anyway, this was the beer I was originally going to drink for my penance review, because it has habanero in it, and while I like spicy things, beverages are not exactly an appreciated vehicle for spice. I feel like it's going to hurt. Twice. Cuz I got hemmorhoids for days son. I am just dragging this out at this point so I'm gonna just go ahead and drink this. Ugh. Here's Funky Buddha's Fire in the Hole. A red ale with raspberry and habanero.
This smells really good. Like a really good red ale. With fruit in it. I am getting some raspberry, but it's like that raspberry flavoring type of raspberry. Or maybe that's just what raspberries smell like. I wouldn't know. I have never consciously smelled a raspberry. Honestly I just want to know if I am going to be tasting beaver ass in my beer. Oh you don't know why I would be smelling beaver ass? Well one source of “natural” raspberry flavoring is beaver anal gland secretions. I don't know who decided that was natural, but sure . . . I really hope this has real raspberries in it. Also it doesn't smell spicy so I am hoping that this has mercy on my anus.
That's actually not that bad. I kinda like it in fact. I do have complaints but those come later. First this has some good red ale characteristics. You can taste that thing that happens when you put roasted barley in for color (sort of like toasted malted milk powder) and it has a little bit of a caramel taste to it. That matches nicely with the raspberry tartness and back it with a little bit of sweetness. I am getting just a hint of pepper spice and to be honest that's all it really needs. It kind of warms you up down your esophagus like whiskey does. It's a pretty pleasant feeling.
I did say I had complaints though, and unfortunately the big one is that this beer isn't “enough”. What do I mean by that? Well I'll tell you. One of the problems I am running into with this is that it is difficult to pull out any character from this beer. Like yeah, it's a red ale with raspberry and habanero but so what? The flavors play well with each other and they make for a delightful beverage, but it feels too safe. It sort of just fall flat and I don't really taste anything special in it. So in short it's a really good beer but it was kind of a let down. Maybe I just overhyped it in my head.
Well, this was a gassy beer. I am belching like a mother fucker right now. Also, there was this building peppery thing in it that just kind of lingers after you finish it. But it's awesome because it makes your mouth and your throat warm and it is super comfy. At least to me. I kind of want to give this bonus points because I just love how it's making me feel. And it isn't super alcoholic (only 5.4%) so I'm not drunk. And I'm not full. It's pretty cool. Definitely an awesome drinking experience.
Going from my gut this is a 7.5 to an 8. Maybe we call it a 7.75? I am not big on raspberry in beer but I have had a lot of raspberry beers (it's how I know) and I would buy this again to feed the urge. This wasn't very pennance-y.