Widmer Brothers Reserve Prickly Pear Braggot
Our braggot is a strong ale brewed with a blend of honey, red prickly pear juice, and a variety of pale malts. The addition of Alchemy hops help balance the sweetness while still retaining the natural honey aromas and flavors. The prickly pear juice adds a unique hue to the beer as well as a subtle herbal, quenching-like quality in the finish.
3.1
180 reviews
Portland, United States
Community reviews
Bottled. A golden beer with a rim of white head. The aroma has notes of alcohol, honey, and malt, as well as a bit of spices. The flavor is sweet with notes of alcohol, honey on a malty background, leading to a dry alcoholic finish.
Courtesy of Papsø
Deep blond color; lightly carbonated, and with a small collar of foam. Evident aroma of malted cereals. Semi dry mouthfeel, and the soft carbonation brings it more in that direction; no honey flavor, and just a mediocre malt/cereals flavor; moderate residual sweetness. The final tends to be drier, and bitter because of the hops.
Although not offensive, it’s a useless mess.
Denver Co. - Tower Liquors - 22 oz bomber. Pours a dark golden with a thin, but persistent white head. Aroma is sweet and candy-like with heavy doses of honey. Flavor is sweet and fruity with some nice honey accents, some herbal accents add some complexity, odd, but pleasant flavor that I can’t quite pin down which must be the prickly pears makes its presence known throughout. Thick enough mouthfeel.
22oz bottle as a trade extra. Gee, thanks, guy. Mostly clear golden orange in color with a small fading off-white head. The aroma has honey and floral notes. Very faint. The flavor is....nothing...like air really. Really not much there, but if I have to pick out something, I get chili peppers, cactus, and sake. As weird as it sounds and as weak as it sounds. Medium-light bodied and not at all boozy for the ABV. Just empty. Not sure what they put in this, but it couldn’t be anything that has any real flavor to it.
Golden orange in color, not a lick of head. Major alcohol aroma, touch of fruit (guess that’s the pear but more like apricot). Mostly just liqueur aromas. A little cloying in the flavor, more sweet fruits. The alcohol is a sweet syrupy type. Slick feel, chewy. On a theoretical level I get it, just not for me.
22oz bottle. Yellow amber with no head. Honey but not overly sweet, apple juice, and booze. Taste is sweet with a slight tang (much like a regular pear), alcohol gives it a bite, finish is a little too sweet for my liking.
Bottle about a year old now picked up when leaving Vegas. Pours a clear orange-brown color with a bubbly head that quickly disappears into nothing but bubbles are still rising. I honestly smell the malt more than the honey. it is a little sweet and herbal though. A unique flavor and honestly kinda tough to pin down. The honey definitely pops up as a sweet finish. Okay.
A - Nice fluffy foamy head formed on pour, decent lacing. Color is a deep amber/copper color. Lots of carbonation. S- Light spices, bread, sweet apple and pear, and faint alcohol. T - Pretty interesting. This reminds me a of a lighter version of Dogfish Head’s Sah’tea, minus the tea. Lots of light spices, sweet honey and fruit, and some bread like qualities. Little alcohol tingle at the end. Pretty refreshing actually. O - I’m glad I got a chance to try this, since it is a one time brew and its over a year old at this point. This beer didn’t age too well though, and I wish I could try a fresh batch. Still a solid beer, and I just couldn’t resist picking up a $6 bomber of a style I’ve never tried before.
Box purchased off the dusty back shelf at Charles Street Liquors in February. 3/11/10 bottling.
Hybrid tulip glass. Not quite sparkling, but pretty nice. Inch of soapy, whitewash head. Filtered down to the last drop. Amber color. Maybe a touch darker.
Smell is bushy greens, white wine, solvent, & yeast. Blah.
Initial apple juice/white grape sweetness. Some honey roasted nuttiness, drying herbal bitterness. Interesting melon/lemon/honey sweetness. Malty, reserved middle. Bit of butter. Silky texture. Lingering honey, sturdy leafy bitters, & oxidation on the back end. Half decent carbonation. Not at all overbearing.
Got old too quickly, but I could tell this was pretty tasty when fresh.
Bottle... Poured golden/orange with a white head. I know this beer wasn’t received well, but with just about a year on it, I thought it was tasting pretty decent. I’m not sure how the prickly pear would of presented itself when this beer was fresh, but from my understanding, it imparted an earthy, vegetable-tomato quality. Right now, lots of bready malts, big sugary and honey sweetness. Sugar cookie tones, light spice, drying towards the finish with some added honey flavors.
Bottle. Honey, pear and apricot aroma. Baking soda note and honey liquere. Muddy wallpaper paste. Like a haiku of mediocrity.
Pours a golden orange color with a rimmed white head. Aroma mostly honey with some pear and grain. Flavor is largely honey-very little pear and a bit of grain and alcohol finish. Not great. Expected better.
Bottle @ Papsø. Pours a clear golden color eith no head. Has a fruity sweetish weak pear aroma. Sweetish fruity and slightly dry bitter pear flavor. Has a sweetish fruity dry pear finish.
Drinkable only because of the honey sweetness. Honey and lager arroma. Slight yellw body, lacey. Baking soda in taste, light bodied, kiss of honey in every sip. Not great as a mead, and not as tasty as other braggots. Thanks Trevor.
Thin head of bright white bubbles. Light grape and pear aroma with some milk?, light grainy malts and a bit of cinnamon. Color is a clear golden orange. Very alcoholic flavor. Lots-o-hotness. Some more grape notes along with some honey and sweet malts. Very plesant flavor but is really damaged by the extreme alcohol presence. Finishes sweet but not overly sweet especially for a mead. I enjoyed this brew but it could have beena bit thicker and meatier to offset the high alcohol content.
Bottle @ home. There’s still a dozen of these at my secret liquor store in Northern Colorado. Golden yellow-orange appearance with a small white head. Sweet honey, light fruity, planty aroma. Quite sweet, honey, fruity, somewhat syrupy flavor. Pretty interesting but nothing too superb.
22 oz. bottle. Pours a clear burnished gold with a thin-moderate linen white head that fizzes away in about ten seconds. Pleasant aroma of honey, something fruity I don’t recognize which I assume is prickly pear, and a bit of caramel. Flavor is light sweet malt, honey, and again some fruit that I assume is prickly pear. Spritzy on the palate; would like this better on the palate if it were just a bit less carbonated.
Bottle at Papsø’s - Thanks. Clear yellow - white head. Sweetness, honey, hay, straw, grainy, flowery, toasted, light pear, fruity, light hoppy. OK.
Clear gold, very little head.
Very little aroma.
Lightly sweet but not much else. A bit of vinous fruit in the aftertaste.
Botella. Clear orange, no head. Sweet fruity vinious aroma. Good mouthfeel, sticky like. Sweet fruity honey alco flavour, the alc. is rather dominant.
Aroma: Sweet--honey, apples, and something else. Prickly pear, I guess.
Appearance: Cloudy orange-gold with no head what so ever.
Taste: Heavy sweetness with a slight sourness at the end.
Palate: Medium body, sticky texture, soft carbonation, long finish.
Overall: Ugh...tastes like cider gone bad, but super sweet. The honey is just too much here.
I am not sure why I picked this, sounded different I guess. Very very sweet, tastes almost like juice, low carbonation, not much else going on besides the sweetness, almost like a cider to me. Not that great for me.
29-MAR-2011, bottle @Papsø tasting.
Golden white head.
Sweet - sweet.
Quite fruity but also malty. Realy lovely citric note.
Honey is there, more fruits.
Fine drink.
Bottle at Papsø.
Clear golden coloured with a small white head.
Sweet and fruity aroma of honey and caramel with notes of dried fruits.
Sweet flavour of honey, caramel and dried fruits with notes of alcohol.
Sweet and warming alcoholic finish.
22 fl oz bottle. Pours clear and golden yellow with a small white head. Aroma is cornish and caramelish. Sweet malty and slight caramelish. Sweet and malty finish.
Flaska hos Papsoe, Gyllene i färgen med tunnt vitt skum, Doftar söt mild honung, karamell och toffee, Smakar sött, päron, gröna äpple, toffee, smör, sirap.
Bottled. Golden coloured. Clear. Small off white head. Aroma of pear, light alcohol, honey and spice. flavour of caramel, pear, alcohol, spice. Medium bodied. Dry fruity and spiced end.
clear yellow, almost no head.
aroma of beer, bitterness, honey,
flavor is sweet honey, bitterness, spicyness, nutty caramelly notes.
Bottle 65 cl. Courtesy of scrizzz. Pours a clear orangey golden with a small white head. The nose has a little sweet malt, fruit and hops. Body is thick and a little low in carbonation. Metal, a little caramel, fruit and quite a dry hoppiness leaving even some bitterness. Pear? Perhaps not so much. If you’re accustomed to real Mead please don’t expect this to be anything like it. An odd bird indeed. 250311
Reviewed from notes.
Pours golden with a bit of darker highlights. There is a tiny off white head without much lacing. The nose brings forward loads of sweetness as well as a bit of lightly-sweet fruits. A bit of spice. The taste, again, is sweet with some mild fruits. A bit of pear and apple. Mouthfeel is medium with fairly low carbonation. Overall, a strange beer that just didn’t really work out in the end.
Serving type: bottle
Reviewed on: 10-21-2010