Voodoo Brewery, owners of the worst website in all craft beerdom, must be working their black magic on me, because I keep buying and enjoying their beers.
First it was their Big Black Voodoo Daddy, a powerful and well-crafted imperial stout that managed to be huge on flavor but still very drinkable. It let me know Voodoo could do big dark beers.
But what about something golden, where there’s less malt and toastiness to hide behind? Well, one try of their Pilzilla convinced me they could nail those too. This was later confirmed when I had their Four Seasons IPA. Voodoo’s beers are big, bold and very original – if Jimi Hendrix brewed beer, he’d brew for Voodoo. Image THAT company holiday party!
I think this positive opinion of the brewery helped me enjoy their Voodoo Love Child, a tart and dry beer that tastes a lot like a sour in my book.
If you know me, you know I struggle with sours. But just like Charlie Brown with that stupid football, I keep going back again and again hoping I’ll connect this time. I’ve had some success, but generally I run for the hills when super-tart sours are about, or just pour them down the drain.
Now, this beer isn’t technically a sour. It’s a super-fruity Belgian Tripel. I’ll let Voodoo do the heavy lifting here:
This is our Belgian Style Tripel aged on intimate fruits of Passion Fruit, Raspberry and Cherry. Lightly spiced with corriander and curqua orange peel and other spices of passion. Light Reddish hue and with an alcohol strength of 10.5% and nicely carbonated in the bottle.
So it’s not a sour, but it has the pucker-factor of one, and it got very close to tripping my “sour detector” (also know as my gag reflex), but it stopped just short, so I persevered. And it turns out, I really enjoyed this beer.
The pour was a golden orange with a hint of ruby and a white head that was a couple of fingers thick. Voodoo Love Child is bottle conditioned, and lots of floaties played in the glass after the pour, but they settled down soon enough and didn’t interfere with the enjoyment of the beer.
The nose was led by raspberries, with cherries hanging in the background, adding a scent of sweetness to an otherwise tart aroma. There was also a little spicy funk of Belgian yeast in the mix.
The first sip struck me with its dry tartness, but unlike some sour beers, my palate was able to adjust and pick out the flavors. Like the nose, there was a lot of tart raspberry, with just enough sweetness from the cherries to keep me going. There was also a grassy flavor which played quite nicely with the fruits and the spicy Belgian yeast. The finish was very dry, leaving only the slightest fruity tartness to let you know you had sipped anything at all.
To be honest, this isn’t my kind of beer and I won’t be buying it again. That said, I happily finished it, only pacing myself because of the absolutely hidden 10.5% ABV this fruity puppy packs. With other tart beers, I usually take a couple of sips, let it warm, take a couple more, and then bail. This wasn’t the case with the Voodoo Love Child.
I think the same beer brewed in less skilled hands would be one I poured down the drain. But the Matt and the gang over at Voodoo Brewery seem to have a knack for pushing the boundaries and brewing high-character and ultimately drinkable beers. These mofos have their mojo working.
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Beer & Whiskey Brothers 
Voodoo Love Child sounds like a good one Jim. Quite certain we don’t get it here or I’d give it a go. I can’t quite wrap my head around sours or hyper sour tasting beers either. New Belgium’s Imperial Berliner Weiss, was the last uber pucker beer I found drain worthy. Yet, Rick has Deschutes Dissident on tap right now. Tasted it just a couple of days ago. Very approachable, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. So, maybe there is still hope for me.
The sweeter the sour, the more I enjoy it. I poured a New Belgium myself, La Folie, a beer everyone raves about and reminded me of fruity bile.
New Glarus Belgian Red and Raspberry Tart are right up your alley then.
I’ve LOVED everything I’ve had from New Glarus and think they can do no wrong. Except that they don’t ship to NJ. 😦
I was going to say the same thing Chad. I had one last Saturday night and it was very good. Aproachable for sure with just a hint of that sour quality. I liked it a lot and was thinking of picking up a bottle or two to have with Christmas Dinner.
New Glarus only distributes in Wisconsin. They used to be in a few surrounding states, but pulled out because they couldn’t meet demand in their own state. It’s a shame. They make some amazing beers. Luckily I have a friend in Wisconsin who likes to visit hah.
If you haven’t tried it already, try this year’s batch of Festina Peche. They scaled the tartness of it wayyyyyy back. Really drinkable.
I’ll have to give it a go – I’ve never had it before, so I’m open-minded.
O00h … good to know, Greg. I just picked up a bottle of Festina Peche a couple of days ago.
The only thing I’ll say is that it comes out in June so I don’t know how it’s going to taste with six months of age on it. Still pretty damn good I’d assume. Technically it’s not a sour, but a Berliner Weissbier
Man, you weren’t kidding about that web site! Was it made by a 12 year old in 1996? Russian River’s site is pretty horrible too, so this bodes well for Voodoo in my mind. They must be too focused on the beer!
I need to track down some of this; sounds like the perfect gateway beer for sours.
I hate it and it’s awesome at the same time!
It’s become a bit of a legend, and I’d love to see it stay just as crappy even if the brewery really takes off.
I loved this beer when I tried it, and it calls to me every time I’m @ Whole Foods! I’m with Jim on the VooDoo website. Its awful and wonderful at the same time. Like Don. 😉
Thanks Scott…I knew you “Got me”.
Don is a totally different kind of awful, Scott.
🙂
Since you broached the subject of the worst brewery websites…
Yes, Voodoo is terrible, but my vote is for Just Beer’s: http://www.justbeer.us
And they have great label design! Voodoo, too, has some good label art, so the decision to just forget about web design is even more puzzling.
Actually, good sites are pretty rare in the industry. Russian River’s is pretty much the middle of the road, which is a sad stat of affairs. Like Alex said, maybe they’re all busy working on the beer.
Just Beer’s site is awful, but not as bad as Voodoo’s. Just Beer looks like they built it in the late 90’s at least! Voodoo is pure ’93!!