Nightmare On Brett
Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project

I was looking forward to trying this sour for a while. Big disappointment. It’s overly sour and the foeders they used don’t taste very good.

Overhyped.

Looks cool. Deep, dark reddish black with a nice tan head. Certainly started life as a nice roasty stout. Novel in appearance, because looks are quite deceiving.

On the nose, the slightest undertones of oak, tobacco and molasses hidden by heavy acetic cherry.

Taste follows aroma in the worst ways. Vinegar followed by a painful acidity that leaves a disgusted look on my face as I force a swallow. There’s hope deep down in there. Hope of a pleasant balance between the roasted malt bill, stone fruit tartness and the nuances of oak. Unfortunately, this hope is lost to the careless domination of acidity ushered in on an acetic pedestal. Lost are the redeeming qualities of barrel, roasted malt and brettanomyces to an overwhelming combination of sour vinegar. What a shame, this tastes terrible.

Mouthfeel is oddly slimy and thin. It almost feels like soy sauce. It could be that my mouth resorts to a form of repulsion upon sipping, but there’s definitely something off.

Wow. What a nightmare! I remember a time when this beer was regarded as the epitome of Crooked Stave’s masterful fermentation and creativity. I don’t know what has changed most…the beer, the standard of American sours, or my palate. Either way, this is hard for me to stomach. There’s nothing nuanced about it unless you enjoy the taste of acid reflux. I’m happy to see this style of outrageously unbalanced acidity become a fad of yesterday and will happily experiment with reducing the rest of this bottle to some sort of balsamic glaze.

I accidentally bought two bottles of this and now I’m glad. It’s an interesting beer. There’s a definite fight between the funk and the barrel. Strong wood presence that melds well with the tart dark cherry. Crisp dry finish, like a wine, with an assertive alcohol burn. I like it!

Pour looks stout or porter black; opaque; thin yet persistent light brown head. Initial hit of cocoa that yields to a sublime mixture of black cherry and oak with the smell. Huge sour flavor; tart cherries and lime; an indescribable high alcohol character, tasty; well subdued roasted malts lurk deep in the background. Heavy body; strong tartness; slippery yet acidic.

Nightmare my ass! This incredible beer pours like a stout and kicks ass with a bold sour and dark malt beast. The high ABV is incredible. It may be whiskey barrel aged, and I'm sure a lot of what I pick up alcohol-wise reflects that yet I can't differentiate where the inherent high ABV begins and the whiskey barrel aging kicks in. A sour beer? Yes, indeed. A unique one? Emphatically so.

Pouring temperature: 46.8 ℉; bottling info: n/a

 

The jet black tap pour hosts a wisp of tan foam and an acid aroma of sour cherry and leather.
The flavor is quite tart with tobacco and oak behind sour fig, cherry and plum.
The tartness persists in the finish.
I like this one.

2013 Batch 2

A: Poured into a tulip glass to a deep mahogany with a finger of dense and slightly rocky light tan head which fades slowly to a collar around the edge of the glass with minimal lacing.
S: Smells of cherries, leather, caramel, oak, and light funk with a slight sour backnote throughout
T: Taste is sour cherries up front followed by oak, leather, hints of funk, more cherries and sourness. On the swallow there's more funk, oak, cherries, and lingering sourness with a hint of furniture polish.
M: This beer has a body which is on the lighter side of medium. Carbonation is slightly effervescent while the beer has a drying finish due to the acidity.
O: Overall this is a really nice beer. It has good flavors, balance and a nice amount of complexity which make it really fun and interesting to drink.

strong great tasing brett. drink slow to enjoy brinfg a friend along

The 2nd highest rated Brett Beer on BA! Only behind the raspberry variant of it, we have the base beer aged in Whiskey barrels. The vintage is unknown, but I got the bottle from Monk’s while I was visiting Philly a few weeks ago. Let’s see what it’s all about

Pours nearly pitch black with just a few wispy tan bubbles that fades to a thin ring and leaves no lacing

This is very funky in the nose as expected, but the dark malt really shines through. I’m picking up on aromas of red wine vinegar, brown sugar, earthy whiskey, black cherry, toasted oak, tobacco, and light leather

Oh man, this really holds in taste more than I thought it would. Still super acetic, but the balance is there and it’s wonderful. On the front end of the sip I’m tasting red wine, old leather, cocoa powder, toasted oak, black cherry, acetic acid, light lemon juice, and toast. The swallow brings notes of smoky oak, cocoa powder, red wine vinegar, sour apple, earthy whiskey, sweet toffee, and black cherry

A medium body pairs with gentle tingling carbonation, resulting in a sharp and acidic beer. Finishes dry but with a nice sweetness that keeps it complex

This is one hell of an awesome beer. Complex and funky while still remaining insanely drinkable. It’s a real treat that evolves throughout the bottle

 

 

Beer pours a dark brown with a brown head. The beer smells of balsamic vinegar, dark malts, acetic acid, and a low level of brettanomyces. The flavor is a real kick in the mouth. The acidity is through the rough, so much so I went and grabbed a pH meter and found the beer to be at 2.98. It is really not drinkable at all, way to acetic and harsh. Some dark malt flavors. Overall really disappointed in this beer.

 

 

 

 

Maybe the best dark sour I've had. Not overly sharp, balanced, mellower once it warms a little.

Wow not sure how to rate this. There is a lot going on here. It's a very sour / tart beer, somewhat fruity, it's dark from roasted grains, whiskey flavors from the barrels. First brett style beer so I cannot say yet how close to style this is. Hard to say if I like it, it's just so much going on. I mean it is good, not dumping it for sure, just that I cannot compare this to anything else, maybe closest was banana bread from big grove, although that was more straight forward. This is likely a good one time experience !

L: Dark almost black blue.
S: Light blueberry.
T: A light dark rush into a strong blueberry flavor. An odd but good pairing with the tarty blueberry finish.
F: A weird blueberry beer.
O: A unique take on the usual blueberry beer.

 

Thin jet body with stout-like film with trailers; balsamic, wood, burnt sugar, hints of whiskey truffle + dark cherry; dark cocoa powder, hit of limey tartness, some cherry tannins, slight smokey wood, hints of raisin, hits of leather + tobacco, vague whiskey + Granny Smith end; sharp + light.

4.25 4.5 4.25 4.25 4.5

Longtime listener, first-time caller.
I’d heard this was off-puttingly tart; having tasted it, not sure where’s that coming from. Instead, with all the underlying dark malt notes, it’s not a million miles away from a historic barrel-soured London porter.
Ironically, not especially horse-and-cheese Brett (but with some leathery Pedio) nor oaky vanilla and brown sugar bourbon. Another review said more wine barrel than whiskey; I could see that. Not far from Cascade Bourbonic Plague.
It’s also got a bigger body than you’d expect for a sour, no noticeable heat, and moderated carb level to drink smoothly. Altogether intricate, intriguing + surprisingly easy to drink.

Great Election Night beer.

A bundle of contradictions and a whole lot of fun.

 

375 mL bottle into a tulip glass

Dark brown-to-black brew, little-to-no head or lacing. Complex aromas, with tart aspects playing off earthy playing off sweet. Lemony and funky and oaky.

Equally if not more complex on the palate. More tart than expected, with unripe cherry notes touching against suggestions of oak and leather. Flavor profile is tight and constrained, with all the disparate flavors funneling down to a singular note on the palate. Finish is crisp and short.

An amazing sour brew...a lot more than the sum of its parts. Yum.

Appearance: Pours the color of a stout, with a relatively thin cap that fades; dots of lacing sprinkle down the side of the glass

Smell: Acetic fruit, with tart cherry and oak; green apple and lemon, too

Taste: Vinegar tones forward, with a ton of acidity; lemon dominates with the tart cherry and green apple flavors complementing; the whiskey flavor is modest, more on the oaky side, and the finish is dry and sour

Mouthfeel: Medium body with moderate carbonation; some warmth in the gullet

Overall: Batch 6, from July 2015 - I would never have guessed this for a Brett beer and maybe the other wild yeast strains have overwhelmed the Brett given the passage of time

 

 

750ml bottle. Pours dark brown black with a small fizzy bubbly brown head that quickly goes to a thin collar.

The aroma is tart cherry and wood with a little cardboard and bourbon.

The flavor is sweet cherry with a big tart acidic vinegary sourness. The mouthfeel is a bit thin and watery with low carbonation.

Overall, a bit too much overwhelming vinegar sourness, that masks any nuances.

Crooked Stave Nightmare on Brett
12oz Pour into a snifter
On tap at The Pour House Channelside
Consumed (and review written) Nov 2017


A: Black, light tan head, decent retention and lots amount of lacing. 4.5

S: Tart, lactic acidity, some oaky vanilla notes, nice dark fruit to balance. 4.25

T: Dark fruit, tart lactic sourness, some burnt plastic like funk notes. 4.25

M/D: Medium body, carbonation heavy but appropriate. ABV very well masked and drinkability is excellent. 4.5

O: Excellent beer, really enjoyed this one and will definitely have again. 4.25

 

 

 

 

Pours black with a small tan head which fades pretty quickly. Tart cherries, oak, and some whiskey in the aroma. Tastes like it smells.Light to medium bodied with modest carbonation. Finishes extremely dry. A solid effort.