Beer: Applocalypse
Brewery: The Brewing Projekt (Eau Claire, WI)
Style: Sour – Fruited Gose
5% ABV / N/A IBU

Initially wasn’t sure what to make of this, but the siiiiick can art (reminiscent of Johnny Ryan’s Prison Pit series) guides the way to something unique: a hard mulled cider. Not a hard cider—there are plenty of these to chose from—but a mildly alcoholic version of a traditional hot apple cider with mulling spices. In this case, it’s a healthy does of vanilla and cinnamon to complement the apple, plus an admittedly trendy-but-still-delicious add-in of granola to up the “dessert” factor.

As apple cider-flavored adult beverages go, Applocalypse presents pretty normally: apple, cinnamon and vanilla on the nose, then all three of those things at first sip. There’s a sort of unity of purpose tying it all together. But there’s also a hint of bitterness which may or may not stem from the inclusion of the granola, plus this really nice warming effect from the alcohol and the spices as this kettle sour slides down your throat. Even though the gose is really a summer style, Applocalypse works beautifully as a fall seasonal.

The caveat is that you must really like apple juice to get into this, because it’s very sweet. 8 oz of this is perfect. A 16 oz pounder can is an afternoon of slow sippin’, A four-pack is a bottle share situation with your friends where everyone’s into experiencing liquid weirdness. Speaking of which, I decided to set part of Applocalypse aside so I could experiment with nuking it in the microwave. Warm beer, yuck, but there’s a whole tradition of olde time mulled ales made with apple skins, so why not? Turns out that Applocalypse totally works as a hot beverage and it’s arguably better that way, tamping down on some of the sweetness and really accentuating the vanilla. Time to party like it’s 1799!

For more info on The Brewing Projekt please head here.