The Oracle
Anchorage Brewing Company

375 mL bottle. Deep red with a pink head. Smells of deep berries, a little yogurt, oak, earthy in the back. Tastes of tart yogurt, deep fruits, strong earthy flavor, blueberry, oaky finish. Medium body. Another wonderful fruited sour from Anchorage. And no surprise is haskap berries. I have yet to be disappointed by these delicious berries.

 

 

 

No bottling date. Bottle to lambic glass.

L: Pours a deep dark red with a short-lived pink head that doesn’t leave any lacing. No floaters.

S: Sweet dark berries. Slightly tart, slightly yeasty.

T: Dark berries again. Not as sweet as the smell. Medium tart. Rather light.

F: Crisp and juicy with a high carbonation. A bit watery.

O: Looks beautiful, smells really nice and fruity, but unfortunately the taste is quite light and the carbonation a bit too strong. Great introduction to haskap berries (which I‘d never heard of before) though. Very solid beer.

 

 

Pours a deep purplish red with wispy, pink head.

Smell is tart and a bit sweet. Huge punch of blueberries and blueberry jam up front. Notes of oak, vanilla, raspberries and citrus and a hint of... glue? Not in a bad way, though.

Taste is sour with nice acidity and a slight sweetness to balance. Bluebrrie and blueberry jam dominate, with some help from notes of vanilla, oak, citrus, raspberries, red grapes and lemon. Terrific balance and drinkability despite its complexity. There's a slight bitterness on the very dry finish.

Mouthfeel is medium, dry and brightly cabonated.

Overall, a tremendous fruited sour, balanced but with depth.

 

 

2021 vintage

Another day, another Anchorage Wild Ale. Anadomus last night didn’t impress me very much, so hopefully this one fares better. This also aged on an unknown-to-me fruit, haskap berries. Let’s get into it

Pours an opaque deep purple with 2 fingers of raspberry pink head that fades to a thin cap and leaves minimal lacing

There’s just a ton of jammy fruit in the nose, it feels tart but also like a rich dessert. I’m picking up on aromas of blueberry skin, blackberry jam, raspberry sorbet, sharp oak, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, and a touch of vanilla yogurt

I don’t even know what else to say in general about the taste, it gives the same vibe as the aroma and it’s awesome. On the front end of the sip I’m tasting tart cherry, lemon juice, sharp oak, raspberry sorbet, a touch of graham cracker, and red wine. The swallow brings notes of sour blueberry, red wine, tart cherry, vanilla yogurt, sharp oak, leather, and light raspberry

A medium body pairs with moderate carbonation, resulting in a tart yet chewy beer. Finishes a tad sticky with a balanced funk

Oh man, this is truly great stuff. The fruit is so expressive here, but the funk is firm enough to balance it. Awesome beer

 

Look - intense grape purple, slightly hazy. Think pink head that settled quickly, no lacing.
Smell = berries, wine, slight funk
Taste = definitely a sour but not overwhelming. There's a strong sour note which isn't offensively acidic and doesn't crowd out the other flavors. Definite berry fruit taste, very dry and clearly more than just blueberries. No idea what haskap berries ("the super fruit you never heard of") taste like. Very oaky, clearly a foeder-aged brew. The yeast develops a floral quality as the ale warms.
Mouthfeel - not remarkable.

Worthy of a try if you like wilds.

 

 

 

 

it was downright epic to be able to have this at the brewery, a place i have long loved and long anticipated visiting. i kind of wish they had more of their wild stuff flowing while i was in, but i was impossibly stoked to see this new one on the board, a foeder beer with wild blueberries and haskap berries, which i had to look up to learn they a type of honeyberry, neat to toss them in a beer like this! the pour is gorgeous, the deepest darkest saturated purple you can imagine, with just a quarter inch or so of rose pink head that settles slowly but is easily brought back with a twirl of the glass. it smells amazing, super wild and bretty, wood forward with trace vanilla to it, and tannic from all the fruit, red wine-like, blueberry for sure, blackberry too, grapey, just wow. the flavor is amazing too, really fermentation forward, familiar anchorage funkiness and just a bit of acidic tang. the berries are fresh and ripe and right up front as well, really highly dosed in here, so natural, and the unique berry profile beyond the blueberry is evident too, makes me want a handful of actual haskap berries to try. its all wrapped in a new oak profile and tastes like in a bottle it will age well forever, the brett already mature and the beer on the dry side for all this fruit, but it seems prime for continued development as well. rushing carbonation, a fuller body, and a brilliant aftertaste. this is so unique and delicious, another banger in the wild department from these guys, and an absolute pleasure to drink at their brewery among the wooden vessels that housed this thing. as good as it gets for me, unforgettable!