Pucker Plucker Cherry Sour Ale
Phillips Brewing & Malting Co.

Appearance: Semi opaque peachy strawberry red. Mostly medium bubbles that make up the almost pale-pink colour head with a good two fingers to the rim; dissipates very quickly with a little lacing and some wispy surface settled bubbles.

Aromatics: A few quick sniffs reminds me of a slightly sour cherry gummie candy. Longer breaths reveal a bit of caramelized sugar and tart citrus; a few scents of fresh sweet bread mixed with honeysuckle flowers. There is some underlying grassy scents akin to freshly mowed green grass and after a while I get flashes of popcorn and butter (but not buttered popcorn if that makes sense). But all-in-all it definitely gives you some indication of the flavour to come.

Taste: A good dose of sour cherry right out of the gate. Then there is a grainier biscuit-like flavour and a rather mellow but toasty zest with a slight marshmallow sweet quality.

Mouth: Carbonation doesn't stick around too long so there is a very soft and smooth quality wrapping a feel that appears to be far more thick than it actually is almost like a strained cherry puree. I also get an ever so slight metallic tang like it wants to tell you about its kettle progeny.

Overall: For a sour, this one isn't bad, especially compared to it's grape cousin that Phillips makes and I tried a few months ago; but that one left me more than a bit disappointed. I think Phillips in on a better track with this one.It has some nice sour and nice cherry flavours. I've had kriek lambics that are less cherry-ee than this, so I'm sure I might be inclined to give this one another go again some time. A great sour to try if you are new to the style.

Pairing: It has a decent sour package that almost begs for a bit of spice and/or a heavy savory flavour. I think something overly sweet would over do it... so I'd say maybe a fresh large pretzel (a la town-fair style), with some good salt and a hot or tangy gourmet mustard. The dough will accentuate the lighter biscuit flavours and the mustard should really enhance those sour notes.

Phillips Brewing 'Pucker Plucker' Cherry Sour Ale @ 6.3% served from a 650 ml bottle purchased for $6.50
A-pour is a pale gold from the bottle with hints of pink thru-out to a slight hazey medium dark gold/amber in the glass with a medium size white head leaving a spotty lace along the snifter
S-soured cherries
T-tart , sweet , refreshing
MF-lots of carbonation , medium body
Ov-ok sweet/sour beer
prost LampertLand

 

 

 

 

650ml bottle - the next in Phillips' Sour Note series, a cherry-infused kettle sour, via the lacto route.

This beer pours a slightly hazy, pale copper amber colour, with two fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and rather fizzy off-white head, which leaves a tiny bit of remote islet lace around the glass as it quickly evaporates.

It smells of tart cherry and generic stone fruit, lightly soured cream, grainy pale malt, a touch of wayward son yeast, and fairly tame earthy, leafy, and weedy green hop bitters. The taste is bready and doughy pale malt, a twinge of caramel sweetness, cherry cough drops plunked into cherry juice, gentle milky sour essences, a further mixed pome and citrus fruitiness, and more laid-back leafy, weedy, and somewhat floral hoppiness.

The bubbles are pretty tame in their thinned-out frothiness, the body a so-so middleweight, and mostly smooth, I suppose, the neutered fruitiness having the most sway here, it would appear. It finishes off-dry, the mix of bready malt, easygoing lactic sourness, and muddled cherries the ongoing story.

Overall, a more or less pleasant sour cherry ale, all components representing, and none overdoing it or overstaying their welcome. Simple, I guess, but easy enough to drink, without even a whisper from the 6.3 points of ABV. Worth checking out if you're a newbie sour-head wannabe, and I mean that in the nicest way possible.

Wonderfully cherry-y, bready, and lightly sour. I dig it. A good balance, not too sweet. The smell, however, does set it back a bit points-wise—it's nothing special.