Super - Sour Edition 2005
Birra Baladin

 

 

 

 

Highly carbonated with tight, white fizzy head. Funky apple cider aroma. Apple is predominant flavor characteristic, wiht a pronounced over-ripe character. Green apple tartness moves in at the finish, but the almost-spoiled apple note is abrasive throughout. I'm a fan of sours, but not this one.

 

Review from notes.

I was not too impressed by this very expensive beer. Poured hazy copper. Pretty overcarbonated, judging by the foaming out of the bottle. Smelled weird, like a barleywine gone wrong and infected. Very sweet, lots of caramel and toffee but there's a funky sourness like lemons and sour milk playing along, kind of muddling everything up. Coated the palate and sticky with spritzy carbonation. Had to pour my sample out. Glad it was experienced by a bunch of us.

The beer pours hazy amber color with a with a thick frothy off-white head that slowly fades to lacing. The aroma is outstanding. It has a wonderful burnt toffee nose along with a faint hint of sourness and a subtle barrel aroma. The taste is awesome. Again, it's smooth as hell with a nice burnt toffee flavor. It goes down easy with slight sourness in the finish. The barrel aging adds a nice subtle character. The mouthfeel is fine. It is a full bodied beer with adequate carbonation. This is a delicious beer with tons of complexity. The malt bill is outstanding as well as the subtle sourness.

Thanks to kbutler1 for sharing the great Italian beer

Poured into a snifter.

Pours 1/2 finger of white head. Some floaties in the glass. Color is a brown hued raspberry pink.

Aroma: Raspberries, cherries, oak, spice, funk. It is not overly sour. It has an odd vegetable flavor to it.

Taste: Grapes, wine flavors, oak, odd fruit flavor to it, pears, vinous, light funk. Not to sour here either.

Mouthfeel: Bubbly, yet smooth. Light to medium bodied with a medium amount of carbonation. Ends dry, but clean.

Overall, this is alright, but nothing too good. Not to sour or tart which it claims to be. Decent drinkability.

Bottle. Cloudy reddish color with a slight tan head. Strange aroma of grape and wine coming from this. Sweet smelling. Maybe a slight brett aroma as well. This is an odd beer to drink. It's not exactly sour by any mean and it has grape, wine, dark fruit tastes. Slightly oaky. Medium mouthfeel.

750ml bottle. sampled march 26/2010.

pours orangey brown with a bit of haze, more as it gets closer to the bottom of hte bottle. a big tan head forms, dropping slowly and leaving spotty lace.

aroma is nice. bit of lemon and light alcohol. faint spice and a fresh light citrus character. white bread and cracker. tangerine and mandarin orange.

taste is good. tangerine, orange, and a touch of lemon. light caramel. there's more citrus and sweetness than i expected, but certainly not "sweet" by any means. bit of dark fruit too - raisin, date, fig. some white grape. touch of vanilla. the alcohol is almost non-existent. white bread. bit of cracker. light grain. low bitterness level.

mouthfeel is good. medium body. medium-high carbonation level.

drinkability is great. great balance. the sourness is quite restrained, and adds a nice extra dimension. very tasty and enjoyable.

The Super Sour Edition 2005. I can't believe this beer is pushing 4-5 years, because it shows no noticeable signs of any age. Poured into an Ommegang 10th anniversary glass, the carbonation looks quite active. Gold/red color.

It smells of some kind of apple puff pastry. Appie pie, a rich apple pie with buttery crust.

This may be the Sour Edition of Super, but don't go into this expecting it to be "Super Sour." It isn't. If you've had the regular Super, this is obviously more tart that that. Yet, you won't mistake this for a Cantillon Lou Pepe. It tastes a lot like Super, with some semi-sweet apple tart and peach cobbler. I get the same crazy Baladin yeast characteristics here, some exotic spicing along with some freshly molded plastic. Fairly hefty pie-crust malt, almost like a biere de garde. Faint ghost of aged-out hop. In fact, the more I drink, the more I think of slightly-soured biere de garde. I don't get much funk at all...upon reading some of the other reviewers who did notice some, I'm a little disappointed.

The beer is well carbonated, but not fizzy. It's not overcarbonated, and I wouldn't say it's thin or watery, either, but there's something about the way this beer sits on the palate that I'm not entirely wild about. Maybe the carbonation *is* a little harsh. I'm not sure.

Decent, but I wouldn't call it great. Complex, but I feel that the complexities get in the way a bit. I almost wish they'd gone whole hog with the sour rather than brew a semi-sour...yet on the other hand, it must be difficult to get a low-intermediate level of sourness when brewing with bugs. Not a bad beer. Some will rate it highly and be completely justified in doing so; it's just not entirely my goblet of beer.

Thanks to ClockworkOrange for the opportunity to try this rarity.

A-Slightly hazed with a smattering of particulate matter suspended within. Copper hued with a thin, light tan, creamy head that reduced to a thin ring and left spotty lace.

S-Musty oak, slight sourness with a background hint of long sealed and now freshly opened gym locker.

T-Light, grapefruit-like tartness with some spicy yeast notes and some malty sweetness. This combination works nicely together.

M-Medium-light bodied and quite effervescent with a crisp finish. Good lingering tartness and oak dryness.

D-Solid. Not overly tart and this is OK as it makes this brew quite approachable. Tasty and refreshing a nicely done beer.

Cole's Italian tasting. Yeasty brownish with soap bubbles, dot lacey. Looks like a cask beer, average mouthfeel. Drinkable, a bit apple juice like, a decent sourness.Not the best sour I have had, but its a nice beer. In the secondary is spice and the acidic fruit, but its faded and the beer has changed over time.

Pours a dark hazy amber/orange color with golden yellowish hues when held to a light source and a two finger frothy off-white head that slowly dissipates into a lasting ring. Sporadic spots of lacing.

Sour tart funky aroma with hints of light fuit, mostly apple, pear and some cherry. Slight champagne yeasty effervescence, some candy sugar and citrus notes.

Slightly tart and decently sour but not acidic at all. Hints of estery sweet fruit notes, namely cherry, strwberry and raspberry with some sweet citrus peel notes. Subtle hops. The sour/tratness is not very extrenme allowing for a lot of the other flavors to shine though. Well balanced and complex while still containing a good bit of funk. Don't go in expecting it to taste like an authentic lambic or an American Wild Ale. Recommended.

Purchased this bottle at New Beer Distributors in NY while visiting my girlfriend. Made sure to pick up only bottles that could be aged.

Appearance- Pours a hazy reddish-brown with some floaters and about two fingers of whitish head. Looks quite nice and carbonation appears good but not overly lively.

Smell- Interesting and hard to describe. Lots of fruity esters and some sweet malt coming through. No real trace of any tartness from a beer that claims to be the "sour edition." Not overly complex for me but not terribly offensive either.

Taste- Hmm, okay but not thrilling for me. Fruity esters come through for me big again. Almost berry like fruitiness but really comes across as sweetish for me rather than tart. Almost reminds me of a cheap red wine. Not offensive, but not sure I particularly like the taste on this one either.

Mouthfeel/Drinkability- Mouthfeel really suffers for me as I find this beer quite watery. Carbonation is okay, but the watery qualities combined with what I find to be a less than stellar palate cut the drinkability for me.

Overall, not sure I would pick this one up again, especially at 12 dollars for a 750ml. Interesting, but I don't find it to be in a particularly good way.

At Max's Ravens and Rare beer event last Sunday.

Mildly hazy dull copper pour with a thin white head that recedes to a ring. Gorgeous color, really.

Mildly acetic with a fairly floral character, mild brown sugar sweetness and a touch of honey, I'm not getting much on the nose despite giving it time to warm up

Opens mildly tart and sour with a big fruity sweetness, wine cooler like. In a way, this is alcoholic fruit punch with fresh berries, apples and plums. Tartness is berry-like, this is one fruity beer. Drying on the finish with a mild tartness, this is decent.

Medium light in body with moderate carbonation and decent finish, this beer is dragged down by the fact that the mid-palate is watery. While this could be a lot better, it's still easy to drink, and enjoyably so.

Thanks to mred137 for grabbing this for me about a year ago.

A: Hazy golden color with minimal white head. Quite a bit of floaties in the glass as well.

S: A little bit of tea aroma.A touch of wheat as well.The yeast really comes through nicely as well.

T: Tons of apples and pears. A touch sour. Nice and sweet. A little bit of tea in the taste as well. Overipe fruit.

M: Very light and refreshing. Crisp.

D: Insanely drinkable. Great beer for a summer day.

Thanks to slimchill for the share at a July BA tasting hosted by miguelmandigo.

Bottle pours a cloudy iced tea hue, heavy on the yeast with white chunks stratified throughout. Thinnish off-white head atop fails to leave much in the way of lacing. Sour nose with some mild Brett character alongside tropical fruits, vanilla, and lemon wedges. A gentle spiciness darts in and out, suggesting nutmeg and white pepper.

Flavor strikes an excellent balance between sourness and the malt profile. Super Baladin is not overly tart, which allows its notes of bread crust and funk to shine through with some orange & lemon citrus peel dropping in mid-palate. Spiced, medium body verging on thin, but meticulously well-carbonated. All in all a great sour beer: balanced, complex, and drinkable.

Bought this one at Oaktree well over a year ago. A 750ml capped bottle shared with Deuane and psycohops. Poured into a trio of standard shaker glasses. The ale appears the color of unfiltered apple cider with barely a finger of light ecru foam. The nose and flavor consist of tart apples and pears, mild citrus notes, slightly sour, orange oils, a touch of black pepper, mildly spicy yeast. A few notches better than medium bodied with adequate carbonation. I was really surprised at how well this one held up over the last 4+ years. Very tasty and certainly worth your time if you happen upon a bottle.