Odell Brewing Company - Jaunt

The lightest-ABV offering we’ve got lined up from Odell is intricate in its own right: a 7.6% ale that incorporates the juice of Riesling grapes from the Western Slope of Colorado. This excursion-appropriate beer is also aged with light and medium oak staves during secondary fermentation. Additions of wheat and Pilsner malt serve to keep this smooth and crackling.

Jaunt pours a hazy, dense golden color with an impressive off-white head, the resilience of the latter’s lacing hinting at those wheat additions. From first glance, this seemed like one of those beers that would be perfect post-hike or for accompanying a scenic picnic. The combo of light oak contributions, the brisk feel, and the juiciness of the Riesling grapes made it feel fresh and lively throughout. If you do enjoy it outdoors, just keep in mind that this is bottle conditioned, so try not to jostle it too much. A bit of that subtlety will get lost in the yeast.

That said: there's no lack of subtlety to go around here. The aromatics almost feel like a full-on wheat beer at first, with some toasty and husky qualities up front, followed by notes like tree fruits (pears, especially) and herbs, a bright honeyed quality, and, at the far end of those incoming aromas: the almond and vanilla and spicy qualities of oak. Fresh and nuanced.

Overall, this feels herbaceous and fruity, and brilliantly crisp. That bottle conditioning gives this a fine-bubbled carbonation: effervescent, zesty lift on the tip of the tongue. All three of those core aspects play out with in perfect tandem. The wheat and Pilsner malt contribute a baseline of light malt toastiness: cereal, crackers, a pop of subtle sugar. Those Riesling grapes play out with intricate fruit, honeysuckle, and (perhaps along with the modest hop presence) dense herbal aspects. We dug the fact that those grapes appeared beautifully in-between malt and oak layers, without overshadowing either. Lastly, the oak staves do such great work here in terms of structure: firmly presented tannins, with vanilla and bright wood driving it home.