Palace Of Paper Stacks - Red Wine Barrel-Aged With Nectarines
Modern Times Beer

Look: Opaque, murky, straw to pale gold color. A bone white, one finger head, after aggressively pouring, which disappears without any lacing. No visible carbonation. As a fruited sour, an attractive looking beer that reminds me of the color of nectarine flesh.

Smell: The nose is very nice. A lot of juicy nectarine. A nice combination with the mild, plastic, Brett-like aroma. As the beer really warms the aroma turns away from the bright fruit acidity and to more musty, doughy and floral notes. I enjoy these qualities but it gives a heavier nose. As the beer warms up even more some acetic and apple notes come out, which I am not a huge fan of, as they detract from the bright, light and fresh fruit. It is getting solvent-like too. The doughy aspect is particularly intriguing. I don’t know about the base sour blonde ale, but the aroma says wheat to me. A doughy, bready wheat like aroma. I like that aspect.

Taste: Some sweet and juicy nectarine on the tip of the tongue. Mid palate tart and acidic notes come through. Some lemon juice acidity. Some faint acetic notes. Some green apple. The beer finishes with a really pleasant dry, wheat like flavor, despite some of the flavors mid-palate that I’m not a huge fan of.

Feel: The feel is nice. Pretty low level of carbonation, quite dry, acidic.

Overall: The beer started out strong for me with bright, light and fruit acidity, but took a turn for the worse with some acetic notes that came out as the beer warmed up. I still enjoy the long, dry, bready / crackery, wheat-like flavor, but overall there are other nectarine it peach sours I’d enjoy over this one.