A Series of Barrel Aged Blends
Block Three Brewing Co.

500 mL bottle, day 17 of the 2021 Toronto Brewing beer advent calendar. The 21 is not a typo: this bottle wound up in my cellar early last year, and I promptly forgot it existed.

Pours crystal clear, effervescent and golden-yellow; it's crowned with two fingers of lumpy, foamy white head that sizzles off within three or four minutes' time. A wide collar and patchy cap live on, with new swaths of lace clinging to the glass with each sip - a very attractive glass of beer. Barnyard-funky nose with notes of oak, sour apple, sweet baked apples and white wine vinousness, with a noticeable hint of vanilla. Barely discernible suggestions of butterscotch, maybe a twinge of apple cider vinegar.

Intense flavours for only 5%. I'm getting green apple, leather, barnyard funk, hay, lemon and sour apricots on the forefront, with oak tannin and subtle vanilla flavours creeping up later on. Finishes with oaked white wine, stone fruit, sour apple and Brett-y funk that dissipates into an astringent, tannic aftertaste. Light in body, with aggressive, relentlessly prickly carbonation that froths up on the tongue, giving this brew a crisp, almost palate-scrubbing mouthfeel. It's annoying at first, but becomes much less of an issue over the course of the glass.

Final Grade: 4.31, a hard-earned A grade. A Series of Barrel Aged Blends is a fabulous BA blended sour that Block Three and Blood Brothers have every right to be proud of: I'd love to see this brought back on an annual basis. High quality stuff by Ontario standards, and it seems to be cellar-stable for the short term. Sadly, my sour intake has leaned very heavily towards fruity lacto/kettle sours over the past several years (as those are easy to find)... but originally, my interest in sours came after being amazed by sours much more akin to A Series. Great stuff that I hope to drink again some day.