I’m sorry, did you say gruit?

Winterfest/Winterworks (? ABV tap)- Gruit- Boston Beer Works (Canal Street location), MA
Grade: D
     Down at the Canal Street Beer Works with some co-workers last Friday ( 1/4/08 ) for lunch and ran into something I’d never had before: Gruit. Their branding is “Winterfest.” Actually at the Canal local it was called “Winterworks” on the sign behind the bar and wasn’t even on their beer menu, but on their site they call it Winterfest.
     Gruit is an old, old style beer brewed without hops that instead uses various herbs to flavor and preserve the beer. It’s a style that has been all but forgotten with the now standard use of hops. That’s the bare bones answer about this curious bevvy. If you are looking for more in-depth info go here and here. It really is fascinating reading not just on a beer geek level, but historically as well.
     Anyway, I’m not here to give history lessons I’m here to tell you about the beer. The Beer Works website describes the Winterfest as “deep ruby-red”. What I had in my glass was more “murky brown/orange” than anything, but that doesn’t really have the same sex appeal. There was no light getting through this stuff, so it was not visually appealing. The aroma was tempered, but tantalizingly herbal and a little spicy. While there were not huge whiffs of anything definitive, there was enough that it kept my curiosity up. The taste was “herbal” and made me think of breakfast sausage as the only herb I could really suss out was sage. Other than that the flavors were pretty indistinct with a vague bitterness behind them. The gruit had a thick consistency and yet the taste was watery around the edges, which is a problem I’ve come to notice with a lot of Beer Works product. Not sure how that is possible, but the last handful of times I’ve been to Beer Works that is what I run into except on the rare occasion when the beer is outstanding.
     Sadly, while I was excited about trying something so unique as gruit the results left me disappointed. Luckily, I can say that I will search out gruit again, however it won’t be from Beer Works and I’d recommend the same to you.

Cheers,
John