Over a year and a half ago, Uncle Andy’s Jerky shut down production to search for a better way to fulfill Andy’s vision of rapid innovation. As of May 1, 2018, Uncle Andy’s Jerky launched a Kickstarter campaign to reach Andy’s goal of making the most flavorful small batch jerky in the market. Everybody is encouraged to support Uncle Andy’s Jerky Kickstarter campaign, which ends on May 31/2018, and offers rewards. The first review on Uncle Andy’s Jerky will focus on a 1 ounce/28 gram bag of their Berry Sour Basil flavored pork jerky, which may not be a finalized product yet. This jerky bag was kindly submitted for review by the owner, Andy Hanenberg.
Uncle Andy’s Jerky is distributed under the same name of Uncle Andy’s Jerky, and it is located in Fort Collins, Colorado. The vision for Uncle Andy’s Jerky was born in the fall of 2012 with Andy starting to make homemade jerky. Inspired by the craft beer industry, Uncle Andy’s Jerky continued to experiment and evolve. Andy’s goal today is to adopt a 3 tier model with core flavors sold year round, seasonal flavors, and small batch limited run flavors. While their jerky flavors are still in development, the plan is to release a new flavor each month with it only being available for 2 months. Recently, Uncle Andy’s Jerky found an opportunity to share space with a small USDA processing facility, which will allow them to produce Uncle Andy’s Jerky themselves, and help achieve their vision of rapid innovation.
Ingredient Review
Ingredients: Pork, Beer (Odell’s Brombeere), Cane Sugar, Sea Salt, Spices, Natural Blackberry & Strawberry Flavoring, Ascorbic Acid, Citric Acid.
The pork is not guaranteed to have at least partial free range access to roam about outside. As a result, the highest ingredient rating that can be awarded is a Very Good (9/10) rating.
The liquid marinade used here consists of just Odell Brombeere BlackBerry Gose beer. By definition, a gose beer is a sour tasting beer, and this is a German-style wheat beer.
There are some healthy ingredients added such as natural blackberry & strawberry flavoring, and spices, where one of those spices would include healthy basil. Berries are loaded with vitamin C, phytonutrients, and flavanoids, which give its color.
There is no nutrition facts table provided. As a result, the exact sugar and salt levels are unknown.
This jerky qualifies to have no sodium nitrite, or any other similar unhealthy preservative. Instead, salt is the main preservative used. With more kudos to Uncle Andy’s Jerky, this jerky has no MSG added.
Very Good (9/10) – Ingredient Rating
Taste Review
Written by guest jerky reviewer Stéphane Leclerc
The Uncle Andy’s Jerky – Berry Sour Basil Pork Jerky was a bit challenging to review, as its delicate aroma and flavor is somewhat subject to each of our own interpretation. Some of the flavors and smells were more prominent to someone and less or not to another.
The aroma is mainly a pleasant berry type of sweet fragrance, it is subtle and inviting. I for example detected the beer aroma where a fermented scent was quite pungent. This was not Paul or Mark’s case where they couldn’t smell it.
I’ve also tasted a “mustardy” like flavor perhaps from the sourness of the beer acting with some of the herbs and spices and a solid taste of pork.
We’ve detected the sourness at first and it was immediately followed with the pork flavor. A mild fruitiness of berries could be also tasted. There was a faint level of basil if any and this is by far my favorite herb. The herbal flavor of basil is not well defined and I could barely taste its distinctive peppery goodness.
After a few bites, this jerky revealed more of its complexity. This jerky is an adventurous feat by name and also by flavor with the pork, basil, berries and sourness as the main ingredients.
We did not detect all that much sweetness on a sugary standpoint aside from a light level of sweetness from the berries. The saltiness is also at a light level, this is a pleasant alternative and a soy-free substitute.
These strips are medium in size and sliced to a medium thickness. The texture is on the dry side and it is reasonably easy to chew. The basil is visibly quite noticeable and covers each strip without falling off.
Being unfamiliar with Odell Brombeere BlackBerry Gose beer, Mark did some research and Gose (Pronounced “Go-zuh,”) is by definition a sour type of beer. This may explain the sourness of this flavor. Paul and Mark did not detect any traditional beer taste. This flavor is sold under their ‘Beer Series’. Andy’s web site is still under construction and had no flavor description available at the time of their Kickstarter campaign.
This flavor could be recommended to some who favor a modest taste of berries with some light notes of sourness. This flavor is generally good and addictive, it is unique tasting and flavorful to a certain extent.
I certainly would have wished having more available as I did not feel that I sampled enough to entirely appreciate the full spectrum of this flavor and by the same token getting a better understanding of this flavor profile.
Overall, the flavor of this jerky is delicate and some of the flavors such as the strawberry and basil were barely noticeable and left mostly to our imagination. These flavors should have been developed to a greater degree.
Although the texture was dry, it was still pleasant and conveyed well the pork flavor. Our individual taste rating were really close from each other and we’ve awarded Uncle Andy’s Jerky – Berry Sour Basil Pork Jerky an 8/10 taste rating.
A 2 ounce/58 gram bag of jerky would sell online for $6.99, which works out to $3.50 an ounce. That would rate as an expensive price.
Bag Review
Note that this is just a sampler bag, where the real production bag would be different.
This clear resealable bag has a label affixed to the front, and nothing on the back. With this Berry Sour Basil flavor being part of Uncle Andy’s Jerky beer series of flavors, there are some mugs of beer displayed on the label.
There are no slogans printed on this bag. The only fact printed on this bag is “Beer Series”.
Some bag categories missing are a best before date, a nutrition facts table, a USDA inspected logo, distributor address details, bar code, and no blurb printed about Uncle Andy’s Jerky.
Check out their web site: www.uncle-andys-jerky.com
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