The final 3 beers from Crooked Stave’s Cellar Reserve program have arrived and it’s time to leave a review for each of them. These are a pretty weak finish to an otherwise great year of beers.
Crooked Stave Nightcap – 2.1
A – Dark plum red with cherry and burgundy. No head, some sediment.
S – Coffee, Chocolate and vinegar are the most dominating aspects with some sort of coriander or herbal spice.
T – Very sour and dominates all of the adjuncts. I get some coffee and creamy sugar up front and a touch of that at the finish. Sour just overwhelms and detracts from everything else.
M – Thin oily mouthfeel, very little carbonation
O – Just not a fan of this one. Too many adjuncts for what is a very sour beer.
Crooked Stave L’Brett d’Pluot – 3.2
A – Looks really nice, very little carbonation with sort of a faint cloudy peach color or strawberry juice.
S – Nose is very light. you get a sour tart affect with faint persimmon, peach, pluot (duh) aromas and some rotten eggs / sulphur.
T – Taste is pretty good. I get a little heartburn and tongue rawness from the overly sour aspect of this, light tropical fruits and vinegar with a malty sweet finish
M – Mouthfeel is the same with most CR beers. thin, slightly oily not a lot to phone home about
O – This is one of the weaker L’Bret releases this year.
Crooked Stave Surette Reserva (Oak Barrels) Dry Hopped – 3.6
A – Very nice slightly cloudy muted orange, almost no head at all. Probably would look nicer if I let it sit a few more days upright.
S – I do get a little bit of hard-boiled eggs, pineapple, guava and mango and other tropical fruits with citrus closely to grapefruit.
T – This is very sour. Lactic acid is prevalent and juicy-fruit jolly rancher tastes, some granny smith apple and lemon. Clean with no vinegar at all which is great. Tang-soda finish.
M – Force carbed thin-ness, Not bubble or refreshing. Standard mouthfeel.
O – Not the strongest in CS’s 2014 lineup but it’s a good beer that I’ll try to drink fresh as possible.
