Name: Birds of Paradise
Brand: Allegheny City Brewing
Availability: InStock

Grains of paradise are neither grains nor, despite the name, connected to birds. The seed comes from a West African plant in the ginger family, a close relative of cardamom. It carries a slow peppery heat with a citrus edge in front of it. The spice has a long history in European brewing and flavoring as a source of warmth. Allegheny City Brewing has put it into a Belgian wit-style beer and named the result Birds of Paradise.

The rest of the spice bill is orthodox for the style. Coriander, lemon peel, and orange peel are the traditional witbier signature, and they are all here. Grains of paradise is the addition, and it works along a different axis than the other three: peppery and warming rather than bright and citric. That gives the beer somewhere to go once the orange and lemon have said their piece.

At 4.7% ABV, the beer sits where the style usually does. That is low enough that the spices carry rather than compete with alcohol. That is worth noting with an ingredient this assertive: on a bigger beer, grains of paradise would be one voice among several. On a light wheat beer it has room to be noticed.

Birds of Paradise arrives Wednesday, August 26, on draft and in cans at both Allegheny City taprooms - the 510 East Ohio Street location in Deutschtown and the 3627 California Avenue location in Brighton Heights.

Editor’s Take

There is a kind of brewery pun that stops at the name, and then there is this one, which kept walking. Grains of paradise go in the kettle. Birds of Paradise goes on the front of the can. And then you look at the can properly and find that the birds are not decoration at all - they are arranged in a radiating branched diagram around the brewery's monogram, which is to say Allegheny City has put what appears to be a family tree of birds-of-paradise species on a 4.7% wheat beer. I have no notes.

It is also, quietly, the right style to do it in. Witbier is one of the last widely brewed things that still runs on a spice rack rather than a hop schedule, which makes reaching past the coriander for something peppery less of a stunt and more of an old habit being kept in practice. Grains of paradise are a ginger relative, not a pepper and not a grain, and what they contribute is warmth with a citrus lift over the top of it. On a beer this light, that is not going to sit politely in the background. It is going to be the thing you go back for.

Source & Editorial

JollyPint independently prepares release articles using information published by breweries through newsletters, websites, and other official public communications. Brewery-supplied descriptions and tasting notes are reported as provided, while editorial context is added by JollyPint.

Birds of Paradise Gets Its Name From a Peppery Ginger Seed

Coriander, lemon peel, and orange peel are standard issue in a witbier. Allegheny City Brewing has added grains of paradise, a peppery West African seed, and named the 4.7% result after the pun.

Source & Editorial