3.9
AROMA 9/10 APPEARANCE 5/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 14/20
375ML Bought 1 day ago at the brewery. Sat upright overnight in the fridge. Split 2 ways at 50F in HF stemware.
A – Small hiss on the cap open, barely 1 finger head formed on the recently cleaned glassware. Head faded pretty fast. Color is a dark ruby red / purple. Against the light, it looks really nice. I bet the clarity after this sits upright for a while will be magnificent.
S – The first thing I can remark on the aroma is a juicy acidity with a sort of Tilquin Quetsche meets Mikkeller SpontanBlueberry and a little bit of the crooked stave acidity. Hard to rate the nose and be descriptive so I hope the comparison to other beers is helpful. On the nose, it does smell very sour.
T – The finish is actually my favorite part. Wheat, chewy with a lot of jammy blueberry and currants. The fruit shines very well at the finish and blueberries especially linger for quite a long time. The finish is flawless. First sip, it’s right on the verge of being too sour for me. Sharp acidity, oak tannins, explosive sour taste and intense. Middle, you do get a little bit of that Flora wheat taste and obviously acidic sour taste starts fading to straight up fruit.
M – Mouthfeel is good, not explosive in carbonation like Flora or the straight Foudre beers. I can only imagine with time the mouthfeel is going to be incredible.
O – This is really difficult to rate because for the same reason I don’t like De Garde Berliners, Jester King Fruited Sours or some of the earlier Crooked Stave beers, I just find this to be too sour for me. In that range of least to most sour beer I’ve ever had, this probably only ranges an 8 but that’s too much for me still. Just like CD10, I love everything about the beer except the acidity. Usually these beers only get more sour with time but I’m going to hold out, wait until Summer and try it again. The thing is, most people love sour beers like this so I’m sure it’s going to be a huge hit. A lot of work went in to this beer and I’m really stoked to have tried it.
