Short's Bloody Beer
• The intrinsic celebration of beer and the giant red berry cloaked within piper nigrum, apium graveolens dulce, armoracia rusticana, and anethum graveolens
• Beer Type: Specialty Beer fermented with Roma tomatoes and spiced with tellicherry peppercorns, celery seed, fresh horseradish and dill
Bloody Beer is a lighter bodied beer with an appealing ruby red glow. Fermented with Roma tomatoes, and spiced with dill, horseradish, peppercorns and celery seed, a prominent aroma of spicy tomato juice emits from the beer. The intense initial tomato flavor is followed by a lingering finish that allows each additional ingredient a chance to resonate on the palate. When slightly warm, this 2009 Great American Beer Festival silver medal winner’s magnitude of flavors can be fully appreciated.
Bloody Beer was beer number 8 of 13 from our 2007 Imperial Beer Series and it was the 290 batch of beer ever brewed at Short’s.
• Beer Type: Specialty Beer fermented with Roma tomatoes and spiced with tellicherry peppercorns, celery seed, fresh horseradish and dill
Bloody Beer is a lighter bodied beer with an appealing ruby red glow. Fermented with Roma tomatoes, and spiced with dill, horseradish, peppercorns and celery seed, a prominent aroma of spicy tomato juice emits from the beer. The intense initial tomato flavor is followed by a lingering finish that allows each additional ingredient a chance to resonate on the palate. When slightly warm, this 2009 Great American Beer Festival silver medal winner’s magnitude of flavors can be fully appreciated.
Bloody Beer was beer number 8 of 13 from our 2007 Imperial Beer Series and it was the 290 batch of beer ever brewed at Short’s.
3.1
160 reviews
Bellaire, United States
Community reviews
Had on tap at Lord Hobo same night as my Key Lime Pie entry. Pours a fizzy yellowish tone with a shortish, trimmed-out whitish head. Smells and tastes delicately of tomato juice, burnt celery, vitamins, seaweed, and ash. Interesting to say the least.
Bottle. Freaky concept for a beer and shorts pulled it off. These were a big breakfast hit on a camping trip. Tastes really close to a Bloody Mary. Maybe next time I'll serve it with celery.
Thanks Mike! Pint pour of hazed gold with a full finger head. Nose is a bit strange... Tomato, green... just green? salt, vines and leaves... some feet notes. I’m kinda in love/hate with this one. It’s different, obviously. Tomato and salt come through pretty quickly, but I also got celery (and I hate celery.. a worthless damn vegetable), parsley and herbs are also in there. Yeah, a weird one, but I’m really glad I got to try it. Lighter body, not much in the way of lacing.
12 ounce bottle into pint glass, bottled on 9/19/2012. Pours slightly hazy orange copper color with a 1 finger foamy off white head with good retention, that reduces to a thin lace. Slight spotty lacing clings to the glass. Aromas of tomato, tomato skins, black peppercorn, celery seed, celery stalks, dill, horseradish, and herbal earthiness. Nice and extremely interesting aromas with good strength and balance; all of the spices mentioned on the bottle definitely show up. Taste of roma tomato, black peppercorn, dill, horseradish, celery, celery seed, herbal, grass, light hot sauce, and earthy spiciness. No bitterness on the finish; with lingering notes of roma tomatoes, black peppercorn, dill, horseradish, celery seed, grass, herbal, slight hot sauce, and earthy spiciness on the finish for a good bit. Nice and interesting flavors that are robust and well balanced; with zero cloying flavors after the finish. Light-medium cabonation and medium bodied; with a fairly slick and creamy mouthfeel that is good. Alcohol is very well hidden with only a slight warming noticed after the finish. Overall this is a very solid experimental spiced beer. Very unique and interesting; nicely balanced and smooth. I have never had a Bloody Mary before, so I cant comment on that note; but I would still say that they did a good job of what they were after. Fairly enjoyable stuff for me.
Golden pour with aroma of peppercorn and dill. Slight taste of tomato, mostly peppercorn and dill. Had it with a salsa dish so might have overpowered the tomato flavor, Tastes a lot like Short’s Nicie Spicie to me, which is still ok.
Split a bottle; pours light brown/amber with a distinct cloud hanging in it. Intense tomato and celery aroma. Peppery up front with a subtle, smooth tomato flavor lingering on the palate. I could see pairing this with a salad or other vegetable dish, but not drinking more than one in a session.
Sample at GABF 10/13/2012, thanks to Bluemeow76 for assistance with note-taking. Murky reddish-orange color with a thin white head and spotty lacing. Aroma of tomatoes and spice. Medium body with a vegetal character and flavors of tomato, earth and spice. The finish is spicy tomato. Interesting but not something I would revisit.
Sampled at GABF with Andrew and Moreau. Aroma is tomato, spice and celery. Mouthfeel is medium with notes of tomato, leaf, spinach, spice and celery. A very interesting take on a tomato beer, but not sure I would love drinking a full glass of this.
12oz bottle poured amber orange with large bubble head that dissipates quick. Aroma Roma tomatoes and celery. Taste tomato, celery,peppercorn, horseradish, with overpowering dill finish. Low carbonation. Mouth feel slick and palate coated kinda slimy. Not terrible but won’t revisit
Had this at the 2012 Great American Beer Fest in Denver, Colorado. Slight tomato scent, little spice from the horseradish, like a Bloody Mary.
Bottle. Pours a cloudy golden orange with a thin eggshell ring of foam. Nose of peppery spices with some pilsner notes underneath. Taste is not too sweet or bitter, more salty than anything and a touch tart. Lighter side of medium bodied, smooth, slightly active carb with a salty, tangy finish. Not nearly as gross as I thought it would be. Actually pretty decent, though it’s not going to replace my bloody marys, which incidentally are phenomenal.
This was a super beer. tasted just like a bloddy beer. Golden in color, clear with a thin head. I was impressed.
Bottle. Fresh tomatoes and pimento aroma, reminds me quite a bit of green olive brine. Cloudy amber with a small ivory head. Vegetal malt flavor, with a an odd tannic spiciness, almost oaky. I’m a big fan of Bloody Mary, and this is just plain wrong, in my opinion. Now I’ve got to go make myself a Bloody Mary just on principle.
On draft at Churchkey in D.C.
The beer is reminiscent of a conflagration trapped inside an hourglass. Fire-tinged orange and red hued liquid with low carbonation, thin head, and very little lacing.
The aroma = bloody mary. Short’s nailed this one.
Spicy tomatoes, peppercorns, alcohol, Tabasco, peppers. Admittedly, I am not the biggest fan of bloody marys. However, I can’t imagine a beer masquerading as a bloody mary more convincingly than Short’s Bloody Beer. The spices and pepper are quite forward, and the beer brings plenty of heat.
Best in small quantities. Absolutely worth a try. Extremely creative and interesting.
Serving type: on-tap
Reviewed on: 06-06-2011
and a half years old, I am having this beer, courtesy of FlandersNed. It slightly looks but very much tastes of a Bloody Mary. The pickled aspect has taken over, fortunately, and I am easily able to enjoy this with my wife’s salad. Therefore vegetable aromas, a bit pickle, a look of cloudy orange. Average and a bit oily mouthfeel.
Poured from a 12 ounce bottle. I found this to be a ridiculously fun beer to drink. The aroma is of a Bloody Mary, I get tomato, celery, pepper, dill, slight tartness, heat from the horseradish. This is a very well made beer and it kept a smile on my face. Nice job.
Bottle at Hopcat. Well, I was just too curious to not try this. Tomato is apparent in the aroma, not as much in the flavor. The spices are natural and refrshing. When I take a sip I’m feeling some barrel-aged type flavors for whatever reason. The peppery notes are the highlights of this brew. It’s not terrible. They pulled off this tomato-beer thing better than any other I’ve had.
Bottle compliments of Jale at Flossmoor’s pre-DLD evening. Delivers what it promises: a bloody mary in a beer. I see where this beer could be a love/hate thing but I liked it. I was just glad it didn’t come across as Bud Chelada. Pretty cool.
Bottle courtesy of FlandersNed. Amber-orange pour with off-white head. Nose is light tomato, dill, pizza spice. Flavor starts with tangy tomato and dill and finishes with light peppery spice. Some residual tangy tomato. No flavor is really over-powering and actually, as a whole, the beer comes together quite well.
(Bottle) Pours amber with a small creamy head. The aroma is peppery spicy with clear tones of tomatoes and more subtle notes of horseradish. Some malt to back it up. The flavour is light sweet and light bitter. Pepper, subtle spices and tomatoes. Quite robust malt backbone. The mouthfeel is clean and light carbonated. Spicy aftertaste. Medium bodied.
Sampled at an esbls tasting. From Shep. Gold with red and no head. Thisvtastes like a bloody mary. Spice and vegetables. Not a favored beer but neither are bloody marys.
the best beer ever my ultime favorite, bloody marys are my favorite and i love beer its the perfect mixture of both almost as good as screaming pumpkin beer
Hmm, strange that I even attempted to try this seeing as I hate bloody marys. Poured tomato juice red with basically no head. Aroma or tomatoes, peppers, and other vegetable. Flavor was much the same as the aroma, certainly not good, but good enoguh to not be a drainpour.
12 ounce bottle
Kudos to Shorts for thinking outside the box. This might have been more enjoyable if I were a fan of throwing random ingredients into a glass then drinking it. I can say based on this however that if it is anything like an actual Bloody Mary then no thanks. An outlier in the beer scene it at least provides some good perspective on what is possible.
Aroma / Appearance - The opaque orange body with fizzy white head looks a bit like a thick syrupy cola. The nose might be in the ballpark for the intended experience - tomato juice, dill, and celery stick out among other aspects.
Flavor / Palate - A malt driven load of tomato juice, dill, and peppercorn hit the confused senses. Is this a beer or a mixed drink? The finish is oddly strong. In the end I was glad to only have had to drink half the bottle. Any more would have burned out my palate for the evening.
I have to preface the rating with this: I don’t like bloody mary’s, and I don’t even know why I bought this beer. It pours out a slightly pinkish-tinted amber with very little head or carbonation, and a weird aroma of beer, tomato, and spice. Few traditional beer characteristics, as it’s initially the abominable bastard offspring of a beer and a gross cocktail. As it warms, it gains a bit of favor as the flavors blend somewhat and the spices desensitize the palate and it eventually becomes drinkable, so I’m glad I finished the glass instead of pouring it down the drain as I very strongly considered. Still horrible, but not the drainpour I expected.
The aroma is the bloody mary, more herbal side of it with light tomatoes. The body is golden orange amber with a very light head. The flavor is tomatoes, very light notes of an actual beer here because the flavors of the bloody mary herbs and spiciness, true spiciness, come through well. The downside is that they come through on a body that is too light for what you expect, but then again that may be a good thing. Very Shortsy, as usual. Rerated on tap at the Mecca, tomatoes and celery are delicious.
(12oz bottle thanks to Mora2000) glowing orange color with a ring of fine white bubbles. Nose is a bit oxidized, tomato, celery, a bit of orange, and smells oddly enjoyable. Taste however is salty, stewed tomatoes, umami, a bit of orange, and just gross. I’ve never had a beer smell so good and taste so bad. Couldn’t taste more than an ounce. This was an extremely polarizing beer amongst our tasting group, and I was obviously on the end that didn’t like it. If you like bloody marys, you’ll love it.
12oz bottle thanks to northernbrews, pours a blood orange with a thin head, aroma has a nice amount of dill mixed in with the sweetness of the tomato and a hint of pepper, the flavor is a little more subtle than I was expecting, still has nice notes of sweet tomato with a good amount of pepper in the finish, interesting brew for sure.
Draft at the Great Taste. Pours a really ugly hazy copper with an orangey head. Nose is spot on for a bloody. Lea & Perrins, roma tomatoes, hot dogs & black pepper round out the aroma. On tasting, it tastes like a beer with bloody mary mixed in. Booze, pizza sauce & Lea & Perrins. This tastes EXACTLY like it is supposed to. Really damn cool, though I’m not really sure how much I could actually drink. Still, really cool.
Sampled on draft at GTMW 2011. Pours a slightly hazy copper color with a large creamy tan head. Good head retention and lacing. Aroma of tomatoes and pepper. The taste is tomatoes, pale malts and a peppery finish. Medium bodied. Not my thing, but pretty good.