Sonoma Farmhouse Purplé
Lagunitas Brewing Company

more of a mixed fermentation blend this one, a special one for lagunitas and something i think they deserve more credit for doing well, there is, and always has been, more here than just hoppy beer. this is a blend of dark swan, which was a grape ale of glory, and a brett beer called eroica, and its aged in port wine barrels, pretty cool, very limited, and downright delicious. pretty violet purple color to this, not quite as saturated as dark swan, but pretty intense anyway, good carbonation from the keg. aroma is quite tart, tannic from the grapes, notes of plum and prune and blackberry too, lots of generic fruitiness behind the grapes, much of this likely from the port wine barrel treatment. some brett funk, but i always found eroica a bit sour too, not as funky as brett generally is alone, and this is the same way, sourer than expected i guess, but not too sour to drink, mature and woody too, quite well developed, the alcohol is also a factor to my senses, kind of presenting like red wine in a way. the flavor is like the nose, some almost acetic sharpness in places, some berry and grape candy sweetness as well, a little bit of richer malt beefing it up and softening it some, keeping it beery, brett is way less than the bacterial sourness, but its there, the wood is nice, its vinous overall, puckery with some late lemon and almost flanders red intensity, great flow, grape character of dark swan fully present, red currant piquant fruitiness too, very good carbonation, exceedingly complex and mature to me overall, real well blended, the port wine part is cool, and this is more cohesive than it sounded to me before i tried it. props for this one, really nice.