Cellar 3: Nouveau Tarte
Green Flash Brewing Co.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Appearance: Pours a mahogany color with ruby highlights; atop the liquid sits a two-fingered rocky head; decent retention and spotty lacing

Smell: Tart cherry, prune and tamarind blend with Bourbon and oak aromatics

Taste: Lactic tart cherry tones are buttressed by prune and tamarind with a lingering sweetness hanging around underneath; through the middle, the Bourbon arrives to provide both the sweet and boozy elements; the finish is acetic, though the fruit tones continue to provide complexity

Mouthfeel: Medium body with moderate to high carbonation; puckery

Overall: Green Flash has done a nice job building a very complex sour ale here

Oddly bitter, mouth-puckering (not in a good way) and astringent. The bitterness completely takes over the light notes of bourbon and (at least what I was expecting) Flanders red ale flavors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sun kissed character of toasted malt, the red cherry influence and the oaken spice all work in tandem to frame a deliciously sour taste of which the Green Flash team can certainly be proud.

Toasty, fruity and strongly vinous-like, the beer's scent is sharp with toast, cocoa, toffee and balsamic. More soothing in taste, the first sip reveals a hard candy simplicity along with caramel and butterscotch. Dark reds and garnet browns frame the beer's color while a creamy khaki head builds.

Fleeting sweetness and building sourness frames the middle palate while the taste of peppercorn, dry toast, roasted pecan and kettle corn bleed into a sour taste of red wine, balsamic glaze, cocoa and toast. The wood complexities of bourbon, vanilla, caramel and spice fuel a shot closure of fruit and wine.

Medium full for a sour, the beer's oily texture seems to mute its more prevalent sourness, dryness and crispness. Still the beer wins out with its peppercorn charm and its tequila-like influences lingering deep in aftertaste.