Amarelle
Oxbow Brewing Company

Bottle from B&B in Portland. Pours an beautiful opaque ruby red with a flash of white head that dissipates to a ring, smell is sour cherry flesh, cherry hard candy, tannic red wine, raspberry, and oak, has this sweet fermented organic material sweetness on the nose that has compost/manure vibes (in a good way somehow) which I think is just the sour cherry and the oak talking to each other, taste is tart cherry flesh, cherry hard candy, raspberry, red grape flesh, tannic red wine, and oak on the finish, feel is light and bright, good amount of acidity, dry finish. The cherry shines though beautifully in this beer and the oak plays very well with it, creating this great woody fruity wine character. Sweet cherry wine!

7/21/24 - The Beer Temple - Chicago, IL. $9 8oz draft, 6.5% ABV.

Appearance: Violet purple base, bright white bubbling ring around the glass. Looks beautiful. 4.5

Aroma: Tart Cherry, vinegar. Sting, wonderful. 4.25

Taste: Consistent with aroma but much stronger. Just a wonderful tart Cherry fruit explosion. 4.5

Mouthfeel: Tart and acidic, but not too, at least to me. Bursts with Cherries, light and easy vs. abv. Cherries linger joyfully on the finish.

Overall: This is a wonderful beer, especially on a hotter muggy Chicago day. Cherry, high Oxbow quality. More please! 4.5

4 oz taster at the brewery.

Appearance: Blood red with a little pinkish foam.

Aroma: Cherries.

Taste: Just dominated by a blast of cherries. Really fruit forward. Tartness, sourness is there. Just a big bomb of sour cherries.

Mouthfeel: This is a sipper. Way too tart to have a lot of this at once.

Overall: If you like sour cherries, you’ll enjoy this. Otherwise, I suspect you won’t. I like cherries and enjoyed this. Essentially a kriek, so worth a look if you right that style.

500 mL bottle. Bright red. Smells of burnt rubber and Cherries. Spicy cherry pie aroma. Tastes of very strong bubble gum with a little bit of band aid all incorporated into the cherry flavor. Kinda rough. Oh well.

Dark reddish body. Has a bit of that weird perfumey cherry aroma that sometimes come with montmorency. Light leather, a bit astringent. Medium acetic acidity, a slight bit of acetone. Medium lighter bodied, good carb. Crisp cherry skin on finish. Its fine

 

500 ml bottle into a tulip glass.

Pours a hazy deep magenta color with a finger of effervescent pink-white head. Excellent retention. Leaves a few bits of splotchy lacing.

Light aromas of cherries, hay, vinegar and funk.

The flavor is ridiculously acetic, almost like drinking pure vinegar. There's some tart cherries, wheat, hay, and a large helping of barnyard funk. Maybe a hint of vanilla. It's all just buried under the vinegar. Some moderate acetic acid is fine, but this is just extreme.

The feel is medium bodied with very high carbonation. Burns like hell going down. Burns the nostrils. Again, like drinking vinegar.

Overall, this is a pretty bad farmhouse ale. It was extremely difficult to get this one down. It's like stomach acid. Like I said, acetic is fine in moderation, and many prefer beers with this, as opposed to lactic acid. But to me, this is cherry flavored assault vinegar. It's like something you drink to clear your sinuses. I love Oxbow but this is just a complete miss, in my opinion.