Brewery: Odd Island Brewing
Country: Sweden
Size: 33cl
ABV: 5.2%
Price: 25kr
Systembolaget: 32292
Batman and Robin. Bert and Ernie. Macaroni and cheese. Certain things will always go well together. Another great example of this is rock music and alcohol, which have been interlinked since the genres creation. In the last decade there has been a big increase in bands helping to brew and label their own beers, with varying degrees of success. Odd Island was set up by Daniel and Peter, two former members of In Flames who decided to get into the brewing business in 2016 after leaving the band. It’s always nice to try beers from fresh breweries who are just starting out and I picked this from their selection because it sounded rather interesting. Raspberry beers can sometimes taste quite artificial and I wanted to see if they managed to avoid that. I’m happy to say that they did!
The beer had a slight pink to orange hue about it, with a big fluffy white head that stayed around for some time. The smell of raspberries hit the nostrils straight away, along with sweet wheat, blueberries and a slight acidity. The taste was much of the same. The fresh raspberry and wheat came through well, though the taste was quite mild. It was rather sweet, almost reminding me of raspberry jam in some aspects. There was a nice, soft mouthfeel to the hearty body and it had a good amount of fizz on the tongue. The aftertaste left a slight citrus and berry note.
I think they did a good job with this beer. It is, to steal a famous phrase, “exactly what it says on the tin”. It’s a raspberry wheat beer that manages to highlight the a slighty sour raspberries with the nice sweetness of the wheat without falling into the artificial category. I’m looking forward to trying a few more from these guys over the next few months.