Sour Sunset
Mazama Brewing Co.

 

 

never heard of these guys before, but my buddy brought this bottle over last night to share, apparently found at a bottle shop in the portland airport. their packaging is gorgeous, noting 8% abv instead of the 7% abv listed here, and the beer is neat, a raspberry sour, not at all overly complex, and i think somewhat more approachable than the funkier, woodier, more wild sort of sours. the fruit colors the beer really intensely, looks like rose wine, deep pink with a lazy but not irrelevant white head. aroma is fruit juice, sweet and overpowering, but really true to the fruit too. jammy and forward, but good. the flavor introduces the acidity, im not sure this is fully wild, it has no funk, more of a clean kettle sour, that is to say a well done kettle sour, but its hard to tell with all the fruit. the pucker is there, but its not too much to have a lot in the belly, and it does balance the fruit sweetness a little bit, but this still has a lot of residual sugar from the berries, and doesnt quite all the way finish like it probably should. are these guys new? i have never heard of them at all, and if this is a sign of things to come, count me interested. i could see this streamlined cleaner sour base being a nice vessel for other fruits, blueberries or wine grapes or things like that. ill keep my eye out for more, but this is worth picking up and trying if you see it, especially if you like raspberries, or are have yet to find a sour beer that works for you.

edit: had on tap yesterday and was somewhat unimpressed by the intangibles here, it was pretty flat from the tap, lacking carbonation and head, and its rather one dimensional overall. maybe better in bottled form, but i need to bring a few scores down to reflect a very average draft experience with this one unfortunately...