Ambre Roche
10 Barrel Brewing Co.

one of the most process intensive beers i have ever seen from these guys, and something we just had to try while we were at the brewery recently. its a three year old wilf beer as a base, with some wheat and some caramel maltiness to it, aged in pinot noir barrels, and then done up with kumquats and vanilla, a curious combination of ingredients, but overall a unique and successful beer. it pours a flat amber from the moderately priced little bottle, dont think i have seen this format from them before. it has a brassy eggshell luster to it, but almost no head at all, more carbonation would radically improve this overall, especially because its both very woody and very sweet, which makes it run a little heavy. the vanilla is really forward in nose and taste, way ahead of the kumquat, sweet as can be, especially with this relatively sturdy malt base. natural enough though, and cool with all the oak. the fruit from the wine is a neat layer in the taste, some tannic character from the grapes as well as subtle plum and cherry undertones. some nice acidity from the mature base beer, more bacterial than funky to me at this stage, but some bretty weirdness and a belgian ester in here too, plays well with the natural acidity of the kumquat, but the majority of the kumquat flavor seems to me to be obscured by all the vanilla. long and sweet in the finish, largely because its so still. increasingly sour as it warms, but also increasingly complex. a cool combination of ingredients and a good beer overall, but its a little bit of fine tuning away from realizing its full potential. glad we sprung for this, and glad these guys are taking some risks in the brew house.