I feel bad I can’t give you a picture, but I need to describe this beer. Poured like any other ale, maybe a little on the lighter side. Orange-ish. 0.5 cm head, pure white. Smells like apples and funk. I was confused, momentarily by this. Then again, green apples smell a tad bit funky, so I dealt with it. It does not at all, smell like horse apples, for those of you concerned about that.

As for taste, there’s a definite sour bite to it. Its very similar to a lambic, or a spontaneously fermented beer. That could be expected though, from the scent. While I doubt this is spontaneously fermented, the apple certainly lends that character to it. The biggest surprise is the smokiness. I get that it’s a smoked apple porter, but I after reading the label which mentioned the smoked malts, I wasn’t necessarily excited for it. I thought that the malts would taste more burnt. This was clearly incorrect, and this is a smoky, slightly sweet, sour treat. Very different from anything I’ve had before. I can honestly say I’m thrilled by this in ways I hadn’t imagined I would be.

Is it the greatest beer known to man? No. Is it stellar? That’s up for debate. All I’m comfortable saying is that I really like it for it’s strangeness. In a career of tasting well over a thousand beers, I’ve never had anything like this. It is truly completely one hundred percent unique. Shorts is doing a great job of DOMINATING that category right now. Buy any of their special beers (I highly recommend Good Humans as well) and you will likely be knocked off your chair. Not by the booze, necessarily, but by the innovation.

8/10