Ralph
The Ale Apothecary

RalphRalph
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From:
The Ale Apothecary
 
Oregon, United States
Style:
Wild Ale
Ranked #249
ABV:
7.5%
Score:
93
Ranked #3,172
Avg:
4.23 | pDev: 11.11%
Reviews:
20
Ratings:
68
Status:
Active
Rated:
Jan 07, 2024
Added:
May 01, 2015
Wants:
  8
Gots:
  8
Ale brewed with white fir aged in Oregon Pinot barrels
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Ratings by snaotheus:
Photo of snaotheus
Reviewed by snaotheus from Washington

4/5  rDev -5.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
2017-08-10
750ml corked bottle served in a pair of tulips. Given to me by @mr-jj. Batch: Feb 24 2017.

First glass poured pretty clear amber bronze with a big head and lots of carbonation. Smell is tart, grassy, maybe citrusy.

Taste is interesting -- tartness comes across clearly but with less force than I expected. Strong herbal flavor, probably the fir tips.

Mouthfeel is medium thickness, fairly dry. Overall, interesting beer, and good.

---
2021-03-13
Had it at the brewery today. Fir flavor is just screaming. I might give it slightly lower marks, but still very nice.
Aug 11, 2017
More User Ratings:
Photo of TooManyGlasses
Reviewed by TooManyGlasses from Canada (AB)

4/5  rDev -5.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Brewed 2017, bottled 2018 - 375 ml bottle - shared. Sour/tart ales not generally my thing so….
Pours a clear light orange amber colour with scant head. Bright and appealing.
Nose has a bit of citrus - lemon - but a whole lot of fresh fir tree - a little bit of funk.
Taste is from the outset sweet and tart and tangy - lemon, acetic; but again the fir needles take over the mid palate and drive the flavour to a slightly puckering finish.
Medium full mouthfeel with carbonation greater than the head (or lack there of) suggested with a lingering coniferous tartness.
Jan 07, 2024
 
Rated: 4.16 by smithj4 from New York

Dec 10, 2022
 
Rated: 4.54 by festizio from California

Nov 23, 2022
 
Rated: 4.24 by edthehead from Maryland

Jul 17, 2021
 
Rated: 4.32 by kmoen from California

Jul 06, 2021
 
Rated: 4.33 by BAsbill from California

Jul 06, 2021
 
Rated: 4.66 by Ristaccia from Nebraska

May 25, 2021
Photo of SushiSakeBeer
Reviewed by SushiSakeBeer from Oregon

4.29/5  rDev +1.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5
This concoction really spoke to me...deep orange hue, glistening ulra-fine champagne lacing, tangy, tart, sweet vapors, citrus rind, stale grapefruit, dressed in sparkling mid-palate funk, consolidating into low flickering lights. Greater than the sum of it's parts. In a word, unique.
Jan 31, 2021
Photo of hops_for_thought
Reviewed by hops_for_thought from New York

4.48/5  rDev +5.9%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5
Poured from a bottle (11Apr2018) into a Belgian glass

L: pours a perfectly clear slightly copper gold, with a great thick off-white head that faded after a minute or so. Leaves some lacing around the edge, moderate visible carbonation. Moderate white lacing as well

S: very nice, full, complex wild ale aroma here. Barnyard funk, some tartness as well mixed with a spicy note I’ll attribute to the fir needles. Hay, grass, bread, biscuit, lemon, earthier almost forest character. Get more needles as it’s warmed. Great wine barrel character here as well, those pinot noir barrels shine

T: a little Sahati light on the taste here! Fir needles come through very well, leading the charge. Moves nicely to a mix of barrel wild ale character plus honey. Spicy, earthy, quite herbal. Lemon, dough, bread, red wine, oak. A very full flavored swallow, especially after it has warmed. Medium finish, very drinkable despite the strong flavor profile

F: medium/light body, medium high carbonation, nicely drying

O: like everything I’ve had from Ale Apothecary, this is a great beer. Nose develops as it warms, and the taste delivers very impressive complexity without becoming muddled
Jul 26, 2020
Photo of BEER88
Rated by BEER88 from North Carolina

4.25/5  rDev +0.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
Tart pine needles and subtle funk.
Jul 02, 2020
Photo of jngrizzaffi
Reviewed by jngrizzaffi from Texas

4.23/5  rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
Pours a very cloudy reddish orange color with a thin foamy head. Head retention is good as is lacing. Nice tart red wine aroma. As it warms up, there is a big piney aroma. Has a nice tart red wine taste with a sour piney sap taste at the end. Medium bodied with moderate carbonation.
Jun 07, 2020
 
Rated: 4.5 by paulish from New York

May 15, 2020
Photo of CraigDeMoss
Reviewed by CraigDeMoss from Kansas

4.26/5  rDev +0.7%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Bottled 10/25/2019

Slight hazy Amber with an off-white orange tinged one finger head into a brandy snifter. Nice foam lacing that runs out eventually

Upfront a serious pine, almost turpentine note, then some citrus yeast funk tones on the nose

Tastes great, wild and spicy, pine intermingles with sap, soil, fir.

Feels full and rounded, good carbonation with an astringent drying at the end, my teeth kinda stick to the inside of my lips with this one.

Overall a terrific and interesting sour ale, wouldn’t mind trying another after aging it a bit
May 04, 2020
Photo of StonedTrippin
Reviewed by StonedTrippin from Colorado

4.55/5  rDev +7.6%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5
one of the most dynamic and expressive beers i drank in all of 2019, its festive and wintery and intense, and its among my favorite beers ive had from these guys, so nice they are doing some more affordable little bottles now! this is a familiar wild ale base, tart like most of theirs, with some vinegar to the fermentation profile and an earthy pale malt base. this one is done up with fir needles and honey and is aged in red wine barrels, the results speak loudly for themselves! the nose is insanely pungent on the pine, smells like a sour christmas tree, fresh cut, really natural and woodsy, but at a higher dosage than i have known in any beer. the honey and the malt go together nicely too, and the sourness has unique fruitiness with the wine in the mix as well, under ripe raspberry and cranberry come to mind, very wintery and woodsy. the flavor is even more intense than the nose somehow, super puckery, but the pine is everywhere, natural as can be, tastes like christmas, the essence of the forest in winter, the oak and wine tannis working surprisingly well too, and this is woody in addition to the robust pine. the sweetness of the honey balances the acidity, which isnt over the top, i could drink a whole one of these no problem, which isnt always the case with their beer. dark berries, cut flowers, and more from the fir needles through the finish. really incredible beer, i love spruce and pine beers, so this was right in my wheelhouse, but i could see this being too intense for some folks. i was over the moon with it, perhaps my favorite beer of the holidays this season, ill be buying more for sure!

edit: 2021 vintage just as impressive, tons of the fir character, this is borderline genre defining for me in that space, striking no matter how many times ive had it, such a great expression of that ingredient. the honey is subtle but it matters, the wine barrels are the right call, and overall this recipe and execution are consistently some of the best from this impressive operation. this has to be my favorite of their beers!
Jan 04, 2020
 
Rated: 4.5 by jwat from Pennsylvania

Dec 31, 2019
Photo of Zythophile
Reviewed by Zythophile from Washington

4.51/5  rDev +6.6%
look: 4 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5
Bottle Date: 4/11/18
Palate Contaminants: none

Color is a dark gold. Not too opaque, with a finger still visible through an inch of liquid. Fineness of the head is medium, and it doesn't leave much lacing

This is the most sour of any AA brew I've had, but it's not overwhelming. It's notably sweet, too, with candied apples and grapes. It on about the same level as Hill Farmstead's Clover, which is the best sour I've ever had.

Taste is strong. Like really strong. Those apples and white grapes all that much more powerful. There's also a ton of perfume. That's what's up front (although none of it comes near to fading away). The apple transitions from sweet cider to more of a vinegar cider, but that's not a knock as it's well within the range of pleasant. It's pretty dry toward the back, and that makes it hit its ceiling.

I've never had a sevenner that was a sipper. But so much of the taste is up front, and the aftertaste is relatively pedestrian. But every once in a while, I do get a blast of sugar in the aftertaste. And at least I like apples. Carbonation is medium-coarse, but not prickly.

Another really good one from Ale Apothecary, but not quite my favorite. And they're by no standard cheap, but if you love the juxtaposition of experimentation and traditional processes...
Dec 21, 2019
 
Rated: 4.09 by Benish from Utah

Dec 02, 2019
Photo of kemoarps
Reviewed by kemoarps from New York

4.33/5  rDev +2.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
This is my first experience with Ale Apothecary. The combo looks damn tasty.

12.14.18 bottle.
Being pretentious AF I decided to smell the cork when I popped it out. Smells like an incredible blend of soft sweet/tart yeasty funk, some light red wine notes, and deep coniferous sap (I would say pine, but it clearly smells like fir ;P...). Like green wet wood. I can see the foam slowly rising to meet its escape valve, so I'll let it ooze for a moment before getting it all riled up by pouring.

OK. Now on to the real review.
Pour is a deeper richer colour than I anticipated for some reason. Rich amber colour, like amber maple syrup. Seems slow coming out of the bottle, like it's thicker than it is. Fuzzy off white head that develops a bald spot and dissipates from there down to a thin continent and ring around the edges.

Nose here carries many of the same themes as the cork I described above. Heavy wood and especially a sappy quality lead in. This is the dominant aroma present, but by no means the only one. The yeasty funk is more dull/flat and less sweet than the cork was. There's a little more green apple and musty earthiness as well. The wine influence is less pronounced, but, in conjunction with the honey, lends a sweet depth to counterbalance the earthy and woody notes. As it warms, these sweeter sides come more to the forefront and the overwhelmingly forest recedes a touch. But just a touch.

Oh man, it just keeps getting better and better.
Initial impression leans more into the sweeter fruitier wild ale side of this one, though the fir is ever present, and in fact bridges to this fruitier aspect with something akin to the lightly sweet character I've found spruce tips to impart. There's some light citrus, but it's more of a berry/stonefruit kind of fruit character. Typing that out it's probably actually the influence from the wine barrels, but it presents more like the taster notes from a bottle of wine than like a wine barrel itself. Raspy tart acidity combines with the fir needle influence (it's still very present) to conjure memories of hauling in wet splintery firewood. Not good firewood, but great beer.

Spritzy carbonation throughout and an unremarkable (in that it's not notably thin nor thick, not that it's not enjoyable) body carry through to a very tart finish that leaves that acid creaminess in the mouth that I try not to pretend is the acid sloughing away my cheeks and enamel.

This is right in my wheelhouse. I'm a big fan and am looking forward to expanding my experience with a brewery I've heard so much about over the years, but just have been hesitant to pull the trigger on for various reasons (mostly price. They're expensive beers [and damn good, and I get it given the setup, but still]. And for that reason I'm glad to see these smaller format bottles. somehow 15$ for 12oz [while, again, still very very pricey] is much more palatable than 30$ for 22oz), but I'm glad I finally did, and will continue to do so in the future.
Dec 01, 2019
 
Rated: 4.3 by csmrx7 from Canada (AB)

Nov 18, 2019
Ralph from The Ale Apothecary
Beer rating: 93 out of 100 with 68 ratings