Hop Harvest 2009 Gone Wild
Bullfrog Brewery

the 2009 Hop Harvest was an ESB style at 6 percent abv, which was obviously given the wild treatment to create the "Gone Wild" version, and let sit for just about a year

a: tall goblet glass, the beer is a deep honey amber in color, served with a full cream colored head that only slowly falls back, looks great

s: first sniff removes all doubt - this is a lovely wild, loads of rustic tart/sour bacterial aromas that have chewed through the base beer, leaving only the darker unfermentable malts behind, what was apparently a hop-bomb is now quite different - while retaining a strong grassy aroma and some citrus that may offer clues of its past, loads of both red and sour apples, more of a clean damp hay or humid barn funk than "horse stall" or the like, intense

m: carbonation smooth, very low, with a medium body

t: big bacterial flavors running straight through, with a middle of slightly fruity unfermentable malt sugars, quickly overtaken by bushels of tart apples, wild sour and hoppy bitter combine into a completely drying finish, complex, the atypically darker base beer adds a malt balance that isn't often found and really sets this one off, absolutely love it

d: easy, a wonderful wild that would stand up to any of the more well-known brewers specializing in the style

was lucky enough to make it into the brewpub not too long after the tapping of their latest wild, which is typically the first Friday of the month