Ventana Special Bitter
Uncommon Brewers

 

Apparantly a one off brewed in combination with Ventana surfboard company, the can describes it as a 'Bourbon barrel aged dark ale brewed with local Redwood branches'. It pours an absolute midnight black, opaque as a beer can be, with a strong, thick, malt brown head. Nose is not as strong as I've seen from other dark brews this big, vague, malty sweet. Flavor wise it is a remarkably odd and complex brew. When I first ordered it in the tasting room as part of a flight my sister and I thought it would be some kind of dark ESB, a dark lager. Haha upon us, it is a small mountain of a beer. The flavor leads with a strong chocolate malt lead in, a middle flavor that seems to mix piney and herbal flavors (hops and those local Redwoods?) and a nice finish of caramel, chocolate, and roasty grain. One to sip, be surprised by, and revel in (especially when you look back and realize just how strong this ale is). The feel is amazingly smooth, accompanying the astoundingly complex and smooth flavor, for how strong this beer really is. Odd as it is I would have to say it is truly a gem. I picked up a 4 pack of cans when I came across it and I will certainly try to keep the other two for another year at least to see what happens. If you are in Santa Cruz it is definitely worth stopping into their tasting room (which is also a restaurant making delicious ramen) and give this a try. Weird ale that I feel bad calling an American stout, I would defer to the brewer and say it's a BA Dark ale. Something different for sure.