Vandergrift Generator
Rooster Brewing

Calling this beer a "wild ale" might be offensive to all-things-wild as its flavor spectrum is all over the map. Sour, sweet, vinegar and cider are all just the start...

Rooster Brew's latest frankenstein of a beer is a patchwork of things gone wrong in the best of ways. While racing upon the pour, the beer's quick flatness takes on the aesthetics of rusty red wine. With the nose hovering, the jaws lock and the salivation glands open as those sour vinegar notes, acetic burn and rife cider notes reign nearly unbearable. Yet to taste, its apple and honey to provide a malty, fruity upstart.

Once the ale evades the middle palate, the full saturation of sourness ensues an pummels the tastebuds into sour submission. Raw lemon, lime, crabapple and absolute dry cider continue the sourness as the full brunt of apple cider vinegar registers. Making the face stick that way, it later taste is strongly vinous with tannic red wine, plum, raison, grape and fig-like.

You'd think that the robust ale would have a malt balance but that would be wrong. The ale is almost bone-dry with only impressions of sweetness. But that sweet taste and associated body in almost completely dissolved away. What's left is a high acetic sourness with the alcohol evaporation of paper and acetone, think super glue, with a strangely refreshing, wheaten finish. This is a well constructed sour that's just three years too early.