Grapes Of Smash
3 Floyds Brewing Co.

 

 

Smashing the sour ale scene, 3 Floyds turns to the grapes of Chardonnay & Viognier to make a most wine-tasting beer but in the aggressive 3 Floyds way.

Grapes of Smash pours a rustic golden, hazy and spritzy appearance with a fast fleeting foam. As its scent builds the nose is stricken with a peppery acidic scent with apple, vinegar citrus, cellar-type funk and grape. As the jaws come unhinged, the first sip is subtle with sourdough, powdered sugar and wafer ahead of the acidity to come.

The bracing sourness that unleashes next hits the middle palate with a jaw tightening and saliva inducing level of acidity that's piquant with acetic acids, white wine and dry cider. With hints of gooseberry, crabapple, lime and lemon lurking in the backdrop, the star of the show is the grape blend that extends into a late palate of weathered woods, moss, must and a hint of nail polish remover for extra measure.

Medium light in body, the sourness lightens the session but there's a backdrop of malt sweetness that remains persistend with a light syrup character. Finishing puckering an spicy, the beer seems more alcoholic than is listed as those acids play out on the after palate like vinyl and vinegar.

 

Today’s first and hopefully not last NBS beer came to me courtesy of @fffjunkie in a BIF last year.

Three Floyds Grapes of Smash

Look: Murky and translucent amber / dried apricot color. One finger white head upon pouring vigorously, that disappears. A couple tiny bubbles here and there. The beer almost appears still.

Smell: Bright, acidic and fruity. Lemon citrus and white vinegar acidity. Apricot, peach, raisins, lemon, sweet tart candy. A faint note of nail polish remover. Some rotten fruit. As for funk, a slight must, with some powdery, lavender floral notes, but these qualities definitely take a backseat to the fruit and acidic aromas. Nothing noticeable in terms of wood.

Taste: On the tip of the tongue this beer has a mouth puckering sour acidity. Lemon juice. Mid palate brings many fruity notes including Granny Smith apple, apple cider, white grape, fresh apricot, juicy peach. Very tart fruit like one of the purple, hard, tart blueberries. The finish has a lacto acidity that nicely hits the jowels. Dry woody finish.

Mouthfeel: The beer has a lemon warhead feeling on the palate. If you’ve never had that candy before imagine how it would feel if your tongue started to crack open. Dry.

Overall: This is a very good beer. It’s very acidic. I rarely do not finish a bottle in one sitting, regardless of size or ABV, but for my stomach’s sake I’ve corked this puppy and will finish it later. If you like fruity and very acidic, with minimal funk, you will probably like this beer. The label says that this beer is a saison. It’s worth noting that there are no “spicy” saison like notes. If there are, the acidity covers them up.

A- Golden yellow with a bit of off white foam, pretty standard look
S- White grapes (chardonnayish) followed buy a familiar lactic acidity of most sours... but then it hits... what I can only guess is butyric acid. It smells of baby vomit. I kept taking breaks and trying to smell it again in hope that it was trick of the mind, but nope... vomit smell is there
T- If you can push past the smell and not breath while tasting, its slightly better than the smell... strong layers of acidity. The grapes layer in strangely, but present. The butyric acid is there. I pushed through 3 oz to give it a fair shake, but then abandoned the plan.
F- Mouth feel is medium, but lets be honest... when the nose and taste are offensive it really doesn't matter.
O- This is like then your buddy Gary creates his first sour that got infected with Clostridium, but he got too attached do dump it. He bottled it in hoped that it would clean itself up, but no Gary... nothing cleans up butyric acid. I love 3 Floyds, but this will go down as the next Bully Guppy.