Special Herbs (Seasonal)
Upright Brewing Company

Special Herbs (Seasonal)Special Herbs (Seasonal)
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From:
Upright Brewing Company
 
Oregon, United States
Style:
Gruit / Ancient Herbed Ale
Ranked #1
ABV:
5.7%
Score:
97
Ranked #661
Avg:
4.39 | pDev: 6.38%
Reviews:
30
Ratings:
207
Status:
Active
Rated:
Jul 08, 2023
Added:
Aug 15, 2013
Wants:
  112
Gots:
  17
2013 Notes:
This version of Special Herbs is composed of Reggae Junkie Gruit aged in Old Tom Gin barrels and wine barrels that previously fermented Fantasia, a peach beer.

2014 Notes:
A unique brew incorporating wine and gin barrel aging to a farmhouse style gruit. The recipe uses lemongrass, sweet and bitter orange peels, hyssop, and Sichuan peppercorns. A bit of spelt in the grist helps maintain some body, although the Special Herbs leans in a bright and dry direction.
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
 
Rated: 4.44 by The_Kriek_Freak from Pennsylvania

Jul 08, 2023
 
Rated: 4 by carolinabeerguy from North Carolina

Jan 04, 2023
Photo of snaotheus
Reviewed by snaotheus from Washington

4.17/5  rDev -5%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
2022-01-02
375ml bottle served in a footed pilsner. I don't see a date on it. Left about half an inch in the bottle.

Pours a beautiful crystal clear brass / bronze color with a medium sized head that settles quickly into a fairly generous ring and a couple clumps.

Smell is fruity -- apricot, peach, maybe white wine grapes, kind of tart, slight funk.

Taste is slightly fruity along the same lines -- maybe more grape or grape must flavor, maybe something vaguely herbal.

Mouthfeel is very light, very clean, very smooth, very dry. Overall, this is a very good beer.
Jan 02, 2022
Photo of REVZEB
Reviewed by REVZEB from Illinois

4.45/5  rDev +1.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.5
Excited to find a bottle while in town. Pours cloudy amber gold with a sudsy white head. Gin, lemongrass, juniper, pine, grains, spices, peach, tart oak, red grape, flowers, honey, and tangy earth in the taste. Super complex, each sip has difference ratios except the barrels being an omnipresent backbone. Smell focuses more on the barrels, grains, spices, and sour peach. Feel is oak tart with textures from the grains, botanicals, spices, wild yeast and malt. It is as if it was ground up in my mouth, intense yet light and drinkable. A beer truly unlike any other, inspiring!
Sep 14, 2021
Photo of kemoarps
Reviewed by kemoarps from New York

4.24/5  rDev -3.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
This is the 2020 version. Been sitting in my fridge for a couple of months, waiting for a toasty summer afternoon such as today.

Lovely pale yellow that's mostly clear, and sports a soft white pile of foam that settles down slowly but surely

Nose is a nice mildly tart with elements of lemon and pear and an almost berry-sweet undercurrent. They don't list the specific botanicals nor barrels on the bottle, so my aromaticizer is proving less dialed in without the suggestions of a label, ha! There's elements of juicy citrus and stone fruit in there, and maybe the suggestion of mint, but not the like cool/mentholy aspect of it? None of these are especially strong. Just all around a pleasant melange of summery flavours.

Initial impression does carry some of that same fruitiness, alongside a flatter lemon-adjacent character. Has kind of a light grape-must/wine kind of thing going on in addition to a mild apple and general tart/funk, and sharp carbonation.

Perfect for this summery afternoon in the PNW of transplanting and general garden-work. This is a tasty saison.
Jul 12, 2021
Photo of BerryKumquat
Reviewed by BerryKumquat from California

4.64/5  rDev +5.7%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
L: Generic blonde.
S: A start of brett with a lot of herbs.
T: The strongest, herbiest, funkiest saison beer.
F: A winter ale.
O: A wacky saison with the strongest set of flavors ever.
Aug 09, 2020
 
Rated: 4.23 by Stevedore from Oregon

Feb 17, 2020
 
Rated: 5 by Sir_Goatman from Oregon

Sep 11, 2019
 
Rated: 4.75 by NickThePyro from Washington

Sep 05, 2019
 
Rated: 4.37 by Ajlvt from Washington

Feb 07, 2019
 
Rated: 4.06 by Rub_This_BBQ from Massachusetts

Dec 23, 2018
 
Rated: 4 by LiquidAmber from Washington

Oct 18, 2018
 
Rated: 4.24 by Dactrius from Netherlands Antilles

Sep 03, 2018
 
Rated: 4.25 by imperialking from Illinois

Jun 22, 2018
Photo of Roustabout
Reviewed by Roustabout from District of Columbia

4.41/5  rDev +0.5%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5
“Pacific” version.

Best gruit I’ve laid my hands on. The shiso etc. doesn’t pop out particularly, but adds to a strong, lacy herb profile atop a light crackery base. Lovely Druid juice.
May 27, 2018
 
Rated: 4.41 by baggedlunch from New Mexico

Feb 09, 2018
Photo of StonedTrippin
Reviewed by StonedTrippin from Colorado

4.07/5  rDev -7.3%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
i absolutely love this brewery, and i am so glad to see some of their bottles popping up around colorado again. this is a unique one, more sour than the others that have come around recently, and fashioned as a gruit, without hops and using a unique mix of herbs instead. this one has a bunch of cool stuff, but it comes together really well, floral but dried, peppery and lightly medicinal, bitter but clean, really clever and interesting beer. its also aged in gin and wine barrels from what i gather, and i do get the juniper aspect, especially in the aroma. there is a clean woodiness to this too, almost new oak, light vanilla and earth, lumber and sweetness, unifying and nice with all the herbs. this is nicely bitter but also has some freshness, and is maltier than i would have expected, a crystal clear light copper or dark honey color with a tall white head. the sourness is what throws me a little bit, i didnt expect this to be wild so much as a saison like a lot of their others are, but there is some serious citrusy acidity to this, not overly sour, but definitely packing a pucker. floral later on, a little mouth tingling from the szechuan pepper, spicy, grassy, and like nothing else out there. great carbonation and a slow fading finish where i can appreciate each element all over again. these guys continue to fascinate me, hoping this is only the beginning of their beers showing up in colorado...
Dec 28, 2017
 
Rated: 4.33 by NWHopinator from Oregon

Sep 08, 2017
 
Rated: 4.31 by psweendogg from Connecticut

Aug 27, 2017
 
Rated: 4.34 by shelby415 from Oregon

Jul 24, 2017
Special Herbs (Seasonal) from Upright Brewing Company
Beer rating: 97 out of 100 with 207 ratings