The Demon King of Friday
The Ale Apothecary

 

Bottle Date: March 2020
Palate Contaminants: a gose

The color is reddish-brown. Off-white fine head, if not a whole lot. Able to see through a couple inches of the liquid.

Smell is candied fruit, as well as some raisins. It's moderately sweet, and the sourness reminds me of dairy sour.

A whole bunch of things hit me on the first sip. The dairy sour, perfume, raisins, and dates. The last two are plenty pleasant, but the whole thing just clashes. Other flavors come and go. Apple, caramel, etc. It's not overly bitter or sour, so if the flavors were in a little better balance, it'd be pretty good.

Carbonation is prickly, and alcohol is detectable for a niner. Aftertaste is nondescript bitter dried fruit,

another strong, bottle conditioned, darker blended wild ale in wine barrels with honey, i swear they do like a dozen beers that all fit that description, but somehow they all have their own essence, and this one surely does too, real tart, but its super fruity, not just from the red wine barrels, which impact this a lot, but from blackberry in one of the threads and the cherry juice that they add, sure its fermented down close to dry by their funky and sour house culture, but a lot of the fruit character remains, tannic and summery, neat with the darker malts in here, and there is in fact some roasty bitterness in play too, lots of body, a caramelized middle, and a high degree of carbonation keeping it moving and light for what it is, nice bottle conditioning. i get the honey here more than i do in some of their others even though this drinks mature. its just a little boozy, packed with raisin and dried cherry and date character, and really is quite sour as it warms up. all wrapped in a ton of oak, this is major beer, a really cool blend, and something that was a lot of fun to share around the table. i have a bottle in the cellar too and i have no plans to open it any time soon, looking forward to seeing how it evolves, it seems well suited to extended ageing! these guys slay, their beers are brutally expensive, but you get what you pay for every time.

2021-08-07
750ml corked/caged bottled served in a snulip. Bought it at the brewery in March. Bottled March 2020, 9.12% abv.

Pours a dark reddish brown with a very small head. Lots of very slow, very fine carbonation, especially when disturbed. Smell is plum/prune with a little booze, maybe some very ripe dark cherry, maybe a bit of sweet/tart.

Taste is tart, plums (actually reminds me a lot of these tart pickled plums from Japan, umeboshi based on Googling and pictures), fruit skin bitterness, maybe some grape must. Very interesting.

Mouthfeel is very dry and light, especially considering the abv. Overall, I really like this beer.

 

 

If you love quality barrel-aged ales, you will appreciate The Ale Apothecary.