Blucifer (2014-2015)
Odd13 Brewing

 

 

L: Dark brown/black with little clarity, pours a small white head, not the prettiest looking beer.

S: Big note of sourness, with some fruit including cranberries. Slight bit of roasted malt in the nose, but very few characteristics of a regular stout come through in the nose.

T: Starts out sour with a large bit of acidity, then in the finish some notes of chocolate coffee and roasted malt come out. We tried this in both a Spigelau Stout glass and a tulip. The tulip was a lot more sour, while the stout glass made the stout characteristics come out more.

F: Medium body, with a medium carbonation

O: Not a bad sour beer, but there are much better Odd 13 offerings.

 

 

another clever and interesting beer from these guys. its a sour stout with cranberries, and it is very sour, maybe as sour as something like a tart of darkness, which is pushing the acidity pretty high, but not being sour for the sake of it, it actually enhances rather than detracts from the flavor, especially with the tart berries in this, its excellent. shiny black, not overly heady from the tap, but looks nice enough in the glass. smell and taste is rich chocolate malt cut by hot lactic acidity. the cranberries dont smell like much, but you can sure taste them, pithy and seedy and astringent, fresh. maybe better in the fall or in holiday time than in the late spring, but i suppose its versatile enough to work anytime. carbonation is a little light, but the flavors are excellent. the interaction of the dark, even bitter barley with the acidity is cool, and the chocolate covered berry finish is nice. these guys are rapidly becoming one of colorados best. they have yet to release a boring beer!

12 ounce can poured into a snifter.

Pours has a fizziness to it that develops into a finger and a half of bubbly head that dissipates quickly. What remains is a pitch-black liquid with surges of carbonation visible. It doesn't give me much sense of what this will feel or taste like.

The aroma reminds me of a kriek, tart cherry leaves its stamp all over this. Dark chocolatey malts and a touch of caramel are in the mix. Very encouraged by this smell as it's a nice balance of two very distinct aromas that mix well together.

Tastes of tart fruit, I'm thinking more unripened cherries and cherry skin that cranberry, but there's certainly an abundant fruit flavor here. Despite the dark malty appearance, the malts here don't impart a lot of chocolate with the exception of the lingering taste on the finish. Sweeter vanilla and caramel notes dip in without much fanfare.

Tart bordering on sour, but it's fairly clean. A tad overly acidic, I'd say, but this only affects me so much because I think the body on this beer lacks some of the creamy and thick stout qualities that would soften the acidity.

Good brew but I wish they'd ramped up the stout qualities.

 

 

 

 

 

a sour out of a can with cranberries?!?

this beer pour dark red with a thin head. lots of cranberry on the nose of this one. you get the barrel age and the cranberries as you drink, but not an overly powerful pucker punch, which I enjoyed. very easy to drink and quite enjoyable. exceeded my expectations for sure and will try and get some more before they move onto the next canned sour.