Sour Crazy Ivan
Bear Republic Brewing Co.

Another beer from the West Coast Barrel Aged Festival, November 13, 2010. Conflicting reports about whether Crazy Ivan and Sour Crazy Ivan are the same beer.

Pours a copper color, thin head, off white and 1/5". The aroma was interesting, a little bit tart, a little bit hoppy, the belgian yeast otherwise took a back seat with its clove bullshit.

Taste is also moderately hoppy, especially for a belgian ipa, actually leans on the hops more than the yeast notes. Thankfully the barrel helps obscure those things I'm not a big fan of. Does have the white pepper and caramel combo. Thought there would be more sour/tartness to this beer billed as a "snapshot of the terroir of Alexander Valley." Nonetheless, it scores much higher than the average belgo ipa in my book.

All in all, I wonder if this might have just been an accidental sour project, beer ruined, but wait, rebrand it!

 

09/11/10- Had this one on-tap at Jackie O's barrel-aged release party.
A: Deep red mahogany, thin cream film that gives a creamy head with agitation.
S: Dry red wine, moist rich soil, faint coffee, very funky barley. Welcoming.
T: Funky twang tart, bitter green hops, nicely mild.
M: Thinner, nicely frothy.
D: Very drinkable.

On tap into a snifter at the Jackie O's barrel aged event...Pours an clear and ugly brown, almost like whiskey with a little red dye in it...The aroma is wood, musk, and right away you can pull out the cabernet grapes used, its nice but too pronouned, other than them its a pretty blah aroma...The taste is ok nothing special at all, a grape tart flavor with wood, just pretty boring, tough to drink the 4ozs even split amoung a group.

I had this on tap at the Jackie O's Barrel festival, 4oz serving. I'm not sure what beer style to call this, it's a Belgian IPA fermented with Trappist yeast (Crazy Ivan) that was refermented for >18 months with wild yeast and bacteria native to the Alexander Valley. I opted for American Wild Ale, as that's what this seemed closest to, but others might disagree...

It pours a dark copper color with a thin off-white head, composed of big bubbles that don't look too head-y. The first whiffs give off wild ale goodness, tart and musty but with a decent amount of tropical citrus from the hops. It tastes mainly bret-like, not puckering sour but definitely it had barnyard aromatics and flavors. The low grade bret flavors, combined with west coast hops, seem like a perfect match, and I could see this being approachable even for those who don't like sour beers.

The body is average for a Belgian IPA, not too thick to keep it from being refreshing feeling. Very easy to drink, especially as compared with all the dark barrel aged beers at Jackie O's for this fest. Excellent and recommended.