Petite Sour Reserva - Passion Fruit
Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project

Poured from a 375 ml bottle into a brandy snifter. Although this beer is listed as "Retired" on BA, I got it from a Whole Foods Market in NW Florida just last week.

L - Dark straw color and moderately hazy. Very little head, although there is some white foam in a ring around the glass.

S - Brett. horse blanket dominates over a bright, tropical passion fruit aroma. The impression is fresh, rather than aged.

T - Flavors very similar to aromas. Brett. funkiness and moderate sourness dominate. Behind that is a tropical fruit presence, but the dry, sour finish makes the type of fruit indistinct.

F - Thin to medium body. Light, spritzy carbonation. Hops bitterness are not detectable past the strong sour, acidic bite. Alcohol is not noticeable.

O - This is a clean, well-made beer with a nice balance between the Brett. funk, acidic sourness and tropical fruit characters.

 

 

 

 

 

Huge passion fruit, hint of funk, lactic, lemon

 

 

 

 

Crisp, clean and utterly refreshing, the base sourness of the "Petite Sour" series relies on sourness and a certain brininess to carry the load. But a kiss of tropical fruit gives the series a juicy succulence and also a sharp acidity of its own for another level of complexity and tartness for which the palate to consider.

The Passion Fruit Reserve rounds the nose with lemon, apple and the light sweaty mustiness of sea air, damp grain and balsa woods. Pale gold in its color, the beer's impressive froth is eggshell and creamy with a long and lacy appearance. Flavors of wheat bread and lightly kilned malts shed a hint of powdered sugar before the brunt of sourness arrives.

Bright and shockingly tart on the middle palate, its the underlying fruit flavors that strike first. Lemon, lime, crabapple, white grape, gooseberry and grapefruit are of all things under-ripened berry, citrus, vinous of white wine and dry like French cider. But once the passionfruit brings its kiwi, papaya, pineapple character, the taste turns from the orchard and vineyard to the tropics. An herbal and bitter finish brings the taste back to grapefruit and citrus pith along with a pleasant grassiness and a gentle cellar-like waft.

Medium-dry, light and again- refreshing, the taste is tight, brisk and sudden as the beer's strong acidity pangs away at the tastebuds and then lifts for a quick and clean aftertaste and only remnants of wheat and burlap drifting behind.

On tap. Poured a clear, golden color with a small, off-white head of bubbly foam. It smelled of sweet passion fruit, tart lemon and caramel. Sweet fruity taste with a bold tartness and a caramel backbone.