What About Barb?
J. Wakefield Brewing

 

Joining forces with Surly Brewing, J. Wakefield looks to Stranger Things for inspiration behind the artwork for their strong sour ale with strawberries and raspberries added.

Rusty garnet and mauve, What about Barb? kicks off with a foggy and slightly muddled appearance. As a tarnish white froth washes away quickly, the beer leaves behind a strong lactic scent that hits the nose with souring force. Red berries decorate the peripheries of scent while the taste hits the palate with a light jammy sweetness of fruit puree, pastry malts and taffy.

While the sweetness reduces quickly on the middle palate, the fruits flare up with the stewed and macerated character of strawberry and raspberry with seeming fruit impression of cranberry, rhubarb, blackberry, plum, cherry and grape. Trending in a red wine direction, the sourness rises with a bracing acidity that dominates the late palate with utter sourness and remnants of berry and berry skins.

Full and fruity, the bold sour ale dries rather well to highlight the acidity and peppery tannins from fruit particularly well. A light must of dry burlap follows the fruit on the way to a drying sourness that extends into a rather quick finish of cider, wine and dried berries.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This one pours a vivid red color, with a small head, and not much lacing.

This smells fairly intense and bracingly sour- with more raspberry than strawberry. It feels simple, with little complexity- but it does smell good.

The taste is similar. The beer is quite aggressive in fruit and acid- the sourness lingers for a while on the palate. There's no real funk to be found, so I'm guessing it's a basic kettle sour. The fruit additions are done well, as they both come through very boldly. The raspberry is expressed a little bit more strongly and clearly.

This is light bodied, but a definite slow sipper due to the intensity. The sourness lingers and prickles the palate long after each sip.

This is well done, but I'd like a bit more subtlety and complexity here- it's straight sour joose.