Waunakee, WI
Crusin' Rating: Not Available
Booze Rating: A
This is our first home review! We are looking at Humble Forager Brewery who does not have a tasting room, or brewing space of their own. Instead they work out of communal (assumingly rented) brewing space out of Octopi Brewing's MASSIVE production space. Calling themselves a distribution brewery, they nonetheless turn out product made right here in Wisconsin. Named the “Best New Brewer” in Wisconsin in 2020 RateBeer they have not been around long but have left a pretty positive impression on two cooped-up COVID bloggers. To put that award into perspective, the best brewer that year was New Glarus Brewing Company and the best beer was awarded to Central Waters Brewing Company (reviews to come!). It’s safe to say that Humble Forager keeps some impressive company.
We stumbled upon this beer by chance after being blown away by the unique art on their cans. Each can features art from North Star Art Studio and let me tell you, many of their cans would make great canvases to any space. It was then a surprise, after our first try that this brewery gained in popularity and we went from seeing a single four pack to a dozen different four packs and a half dozen seltzers on shelves. We’ve seen a full range of beer from this brewery over COVID from stouts, sours, IPAs, and fun things in between.
Hannah and I grabbed a few single cans to bring home and try on our own time. We picked two seltzers and three beers. A majority of their beers come in pint four packs that command a price worthy of the quality. A seltzer four pack will run you around $16 while a beer can be anywhere from $14 up to $20 depending on where you shop.
Humble Bumble [Version 6] (5.0% ABV) - Buzzed Seltzer with Passion fruit, Red Grapefruit, Red Dragon fruit, Hibiscus Blossoms, Wildflower Honey
With 100% natural fruit and sweetened with honey, this seltzer has the telltale signs of grapefruit magenta in its coloring. It smells just like the red grapefruit (sans sugar) that my mom would eat daily for breakfast when I was growing up. While this beer is sweet, Hannah doesn’t taste honey (which she isn’t a fan of) which she sees as a positive. I can tell there is a little honey in there but I fully agree with her that it’s not overpowering. The majority of this beer is very much grapefruit. It drinks very much like a soda more than a seltzer which makes it enjoyable as seltzers sometimes end up being either hollow-tasting or too much flavor concentrated into one drink. I think the hibiscus is a little too delicate a flavor to grab but there is a little touch of passion fruit
that rounds out the bitter grapefruit.
Humble Bumble [Version 8] (5.0% ABV) - Buzzed Seltzer with Morello Cherries, Calamansi Lime, Pineapple, Honeysuckle flowers, and Basswood Honey
This seltzer, a dark cherry red (picture the skin of a overripe summer cherry) smells wholly of cherry juice, lime zest, and just a little bit of pineapple to finish out the aroma. I also noticed, sort of an overtone of honey sweetness that permeates throughout all of those fruits and ties them together. The taste though, does not quite deliver. Oh, it has the flavors that are supposed to be there. There’s strong cherry juice tartness, honeysuckle flower and that honey. It ends with understated lime and leaves an aftertaste (sans acid) of pineapple. While this sounds pleasing I found that all of it, as a whole ends up tasting a little bit too much like a red freeze pop that edges on frozen cough medicine. I think all of the flavors combined really made this seltzer overcomplicated and something I would pass on if offered again. Credit where credit is due though, we did pick up on each flavor promised in the description.
Enchanted Island [Vegan Version 1] (9% ABV) - Imperial Tiki Sour Ale featuring pineapple, orange, coconut, nutmeg
From what we can tell, imperial means big and bold (usually used to describe Stouts) and tiki is self-explanatory. This sour is the same shade of yellow-orange as your Sunday Funday mimosa. Completely opaque, both Hannah and I got strong aromas of orange and some wet earth (which absolutely comes from nutmeg). Now, don’t picture the holidays with this edition of nutmeg, such as apple pie and mulled wine, but rather picture some nutmeg that reminds you of newly made mud. Now mix in fresh orange zest. Not exactly a smell you relish but ends pleasantly enough in pineapple juice. The flavor similarly reflects strong orange, some nutmeg, pineapple [more acidic that sour], and then just the bare minimum sweetness granted by coconut without actually tasting coconut (to Hannah’s relief). While this one didn’t quite land aroma or flavor-wise, it was a solid beer. Not as sour as either of us would like, but a solid beer nonetheless.
Foggy Footpath (8.1% ABV) - Double Dry-Hopped Double IPA brewed in collaboration with Fair State Brewing Cooperative out of Minneapolis
This IPA features zero clarity with a dried corn-stalk yellow color. I smelled– Mosaic, Citra, and El Dorado hops. Of course, that translates to citrus (Citra), pine (Mosaic), and some additional sweetness, like a mango (El Dorado). Other than being overly hoppy, Hannah only said that it coats your mouth in dryness and you can’t taste anything other than hops. For me, it’s a solid hoppy IPA that delivers on all of the usual flavor profiles ranging from citrus and tropical fruit to pine resin and deep earth. Beyond that, it was not a game changer for me or something I would necessarily recommend over the myriad of double dry-hopped IPAs that have (somewhat unfortunately) become standard fare. Again though, it delivers on what it promises.
Swingin’ Sticks with ANGRY CHAIR [Version 1] (13% ABV) - An Imperial Sweet Stout with roasted pistachios, Cocoa Nibs, Toasted Coconut, and Caramel
Never have we seen a beer pour as thick as this, this beer was the color and consistency of motor oil. After a little spillage, it even wiped off as the same “color you wipe off a dipstick”. It smells like a boozy, dark chocolate brownie mix, which, to me, sounds like heaven. Hannah accurately described the “burn” attributed to whiskey, coupled with some deep, dark chocolate, and a little coconut sweetness. I LOVED this beer. It was thick, smooth, sweet and full of rich flavor. While I probably wouldn’t want more than one or two in a sitting it was definitely an excellent dessert beer.
Because of the all-natural ingredients, the beers and seltzers tend to get very calorie-heavy. If you’re looking to shave off the pounds, you best look elsewhere. For instance, the Humble Bumble Grapefruit (first seltzer reviewed) is 200 calories with 24g of sugar. But it’s so good! That would really be our only negative, along with the price. Did I mention, the nutritional value chart is directly on each can. Couple that with the amazing art and some little QR codes that link to YouTube videos that explained each beer, we think this is definitely one of the best canning jobs out there. As I said before, the art alone makes it so easy to spot these beers on a shelf and it's fantastic enough to hang as a print on your wall.
On the whole, many of the beers that Humble Forager Brewing puts out are flavorful adventures with misses few and far between. I highly recommend you try them out!
Until next time: don't stop crusin' keep on boozing.
To learn more about Humble Forager Brewing please visit their website at: humbleforagerbrewery.com or on Facebook: @HumbleForagerBrewery or on Instagram: @HumbleForagerBrewery
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