Judge's Review: 93 Rating - Fire Iron by Urban Artifact

Fire Iron by Urban Artifact is a smoothie in beer form, pure and simple. The fruit character overwhelms all. This is really pushing the envelope for beer. I was originally considering evaluating this concoction as a Category 29A Fruit Beer as per the 2015 BJCP Style Guidelines, but I couldn’t imagine what base beer would be listed for this offering, so it was decided to evaluate this as a Category 34C Experimental Beer. 

The aroma is tart and absolutely loaded with fresh tropical fruit. Passion fruit, guava and banana characters dominate and other blended fruity notes play a supporting role behind this. I get little to no malt or beer character whatsoever. The offering is a turbid opaque peach color with absolutely no head. The overall appearance is of an extremely pulpy fruit smoothie.    

Fresh passion fruit and guava are the stars of the flavor show, with banana as the support. From start through finish, these fruit characters simply dominate. However, the sweetness is quite low, which is appreciated. The body is extremely full, in large part due to the physical presence of the pulp in the drink.  The carbonation is moderate and helps give a little “zip” to the flavor. The alcohol is amazingly well hidden considering that it rates at 7.7%!.

Overall, this is a great adult fruit drink. Pour this into a blender glass and drink it as you would any smoothie. Let your friends have their regular smoothies – only you will know you're enjoying an adult beverage, at least until the alcohol catches up with you!!  This is a true experimental beer, and, heaven help me, it really works!! Cheers and enjoy!!