3rd Stone (Apricot Sour Ale)
Union Craft Brewing Company

 

Opaque but not cloudy. Smells like a bin of apricots. The taste is full on apricots. Not puree, a whole apricot. Mouthfeel is somewhat thick but not sticky. Tapped at Union's 4th Anniversary.

 

 

 

Draft. Poured bright yellow, with minimal head. Massive apricot/peach citrus aroma. Lactic first hit, followed by very present apricot taste. Thought the sour punch would be overwhelming but it quickly gave way to an incredibly juicy, well balanced, smooth mouthfeel. Easily sessionable. Phenomenal beer, the best sour I've had from a Maryland brewery, and maybe the best overall beer from any of the MD brewers. Would be a killer as a seasonal.

 

 

 

 

 

32 oz growler poured into a teku

A- A super cloudy yellowish orange apricot color with a small white head

S- Really sour, apricots, lemons, limes, some funk. Pretty similar to Old Pro.

T- Sour fruity awesomeness. Apricots, lemons, hints of limes, faint lacto, touch of funk, nicely balanced.

M- Crisp, light, carbonation is a little high.

O- Another fantastic beer from Union Craft. If you are looking for a high quality apricot sour this is worth seeking out. I wish they canned this, I would probably buy a whole case.

 

 

Pours like...well, apricot juice, really. Or one of those newfangled Trillium House Julius Street IPAs from the Northeast, take your pick (only this has really awful head retention). The first thing I notice is lacto funk invading my nostrils - but once I get used to that, this becomes pure grapefruit-and-apricot juice. Lacto becomes very subtle, and I might even suggest it disappears entirely. Meanwhile, with a flavor profile consisting of wheat and lactose sourness, it definitely smacks of a Berliner weisse instead of an American wild ale. Except those flavors aren't the ones doing the palate smacking - no, that's all that apricot flavor instead. I also taste tons of orange which balances out the sweet apricot brilliantly. Union hit the between sweet spot between this tasting like a beer and tasting like glorified fruit juice. This one is balanced superbly, and yet it displays a nuanced complexity to it. Even with all that apricot and all that tartness, I still manage to taste subtle fringes of herbaceous hops and vanilla cream. It goes down with incredible ease while retaining a semi-full body - in other words, the texture is bang-on. This beer has single-handedly propped Union up as Maryland's best brewery, it's THAT fantastic. PS: All you guys reading this review should definitely seek this out/trade for it, especially if you like fruited Berliners done right.

4.35/5: Union is right, this should be illegal!

Delicious! Union Craft continues to amaze with their talented brewing and seriously delightful imagination. They do a very good job across all their beers, but in a beer world where just about everyone is putting out sours and tarts, they really seem to be in a rare class of creating top quality beers and then making them approachable and accessible to the everyday beer guy. No pretense...just great craft brewing.
They previously pulled off a fantastic Berliner weisse, and now have come up with 3rd Stone (apricot sour).
Had pleasure of drinking freshly tapped twice. First on draft at Specific Gravity and then again a few weeks later at the Brickroom. Appearance was rich and enticing. Big creamy head and full cloudy yeasty slightly burned orange yellow appearance. Aroma was big with apricot, some balancing malt sweetness and hits of lactic tartness. Taste bore out the same. Delicious and refreshing, and so well balanced. It's not often you get the fruit forward and still get a great blend of integrated background sweetness and spot on tartness. While I enjoy a creamy mouthfeel in many beers, I thought the creaminess here was a bit distracting from a style I normally don't associate with a fuller body. But if not comparing it was still very good.
Don't know if this will be a one off or a something we'll see again. I'd recommend you chase this one down...just in case. Highly recommended.

 

Growler. Pours an orange juice yellow, with minimal head. Explosion of apricots on the nose with a touch of barn funkiness, is this beer? Taste, is perfect. Not overly sweet, but refreshingly juicy with a slight hint of tartness that makes you pucker only a little. light carbonation but moderately flat. Union is doing good things here, I hope they make this beer again.

Pours an opaque yellow peach color with a half finger of head. Nose is all apricot flesh and juice. No funk to speak of. Tastes like Five Alive by way of Orangina. Pretty highly carbed for style and just lots and lots of juicy goodness. Tart but not aggressively so. Has an apricot soda quality to it that actually comes off quite nicely. Yum.