There is a particular quality of light that hits the desert in late afternoon, when the saguaros throw long shadows and everything smells faintly of agave and dust. Off Color Brewing has bottled something close to that feeling, a Bière de Cactus reimagined from the old Belgian tradition of Bière de Miel, honey beer, except this version swapped a good chunk of that honey for cactus.
Prickly pear and saguaro fruit do the heavy lifting here, joined by agave nectar and hand picked Arizona desert lemons, then the whole thing spent two years resting in mezcal barrels before anyone was allowed near it. What comes out the other side is gently tart, with a rush of Pink Starburst juiciness from the cactus fruits playing first fiddle to floral, tangerine notes from the brewery's wild yeast. The mid-palate turns vegetal, baked agave and cactus flesh giving it real structure, before a bright, furious finish of nectarine, prickly black pepper, lemon peel, and what the brewery calls rustic desert funk.
That two year barrel rest matters more than it might seem. Mezcal barrels carry smoke and spirit long after the mezcal itself is gone, and letting a beer sit with that character for that long is the kind of patience that turns a novelty into something genuinely considered. Chicago's Off Color has never been a brewery interested in the easy version of anything, and this is exactly the kind of slow, strange project that's made their name.
Releasing on draft and in 375ml bottles to go, exclusively at Mousetrap, this Friday at noon.
Some beers taste like a place you've been. This one tastes like a place you'd want to go.