Sour Brown I
Central City Brewers + Distillers

Bottle: Poured a reddish/amber color ale with a large off-white foamy head with OK retention and light lacing. Aroma of oak, cherry and tart notes is nice and enjoyable. Taste is a mix of sour notes with some strong oak and cherry notes, subtle residual sugar with light acidity also detected. Body is pretty full for style with good carbonation. Enjoyable Flanders red but not sure why ABV need to be so high as it doesn’t bring anything more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

750ml bottle - a sour brown ale aged for 2 years in a combination of Cabernet and in-house French Oak Foeders - how very New Belgium!

This beer pours a clear, medium red-brick amber colour, with three fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly tan head, which leaves a bit of dissolving sandcastle lace around the glass as it quickly blows off.

It smells of musty and sour raspberry, cherry, and plum fruit, some gritty red wine woodiness, lightly toasted caramel malt, a buttery nuttiness, subtly funky yeast, a twinge of dark chocolate, and very plain earthy, leafy, and weedy hop bitters. The taste is bready and grainy caramel malt, pithy bar-top nuts, mixed tart dark berry fruit, a headier tannic and oxidized red vinous woodiness (edgy oak, acid, and booze, mostly), minor sour yeasty notes, cheap chocolate wafers, and more well understated earthy, leafy, and musty hoppiness.

The bubbles are adequate in their simply supportive and not-oft frivolous frothiness, the body a solid middleweight, and attempting to be smooth, but that sour fruity and yeasty thing just isn't having it, as such. It finishes off-dry, the base caramel malt still well-besieged, but keeping a stiff upper lip, as those fruity, yeasty, and boozy esters continue to flit about.

Overall, a commendable venture to emulate the Rodenbachs, et al, of the world (as few as they are) - all the factors are here, however they just seem a tad disjointed, and not really ready to debut to the more discerning of that thirsty substrata of beer-drinkers. For the rest of us - we shall enjoy this, even with the elevated per unit cost.

Poured from 750mL bottle into a tulip. This is a limited-edition, barrel aged sour.

Appearance: rich brown-red hue with a very light haze and a strong effervescence. Head is a finger of frothy tan foam. I really like the color on this.

Smell: hey-o! Sour, sweet, fruity with a big raspberry character; there's caramel and toffee and just a dash of woody astringency. This is a fantastic-smelling beer!

Taste: caramelly right up front with a rich sweetness and some of that tannic astringency. The fruitiness is much more subdued here than in the aroma, but the sourness definitely sticks around. A very good beer indeed.

Mouthfeel: medium-light body with a good carbonation and decent creaminess.

Overall: hugely drinkable for a 9.2% beer. The balance on this beer is very good, so the sour makes you want the sweetness and vice-versa, with the woody element keeping everything from being too cloying. Just great!