Klink
Prison City Pub & Brewery

This beer pours a slightly hazy, deep golden color identical to apple juice with a one finger, fizzy white head.

The smell is acidic sour and funk.

Taste is the same. Sour green apple, acidic lemon tartness, a bit of funk and a touch of grainy malt. A solid 6.5-7/10 on the pucker scale.

Feel is light, crisp and easy drinking. I wouldn't be mad with a touch more carbonation, but it works well as is.

Overall this is a great beer. Much more complex than most kettle sours. I have drank this beer many many times at Prison City, but haven't reviewed it because I prefer to do reviews at home, so I finally pulled the trigger on a crowler.

I "randalled" the second half of the crowler through some whole and mushed blackberries and it was out of this world!!

 

On tap at Prison City Pub and Brewery in Auburn, NY.

This one pours a light straw yellow, with a small head, and a bit of lacing.

This smells like clean lacto sourness, lemon, a bit of hay-like funk, etc.

This is really quite good, and one of the best Berliners that I've had. It's very clean, but very sour, in a clean way. There's a hint of funk on the finish, with sour apple and lemon, and a nice wheat backbone. It's simple, but incredibly drinkable.

This is light bodied, with a well carbonated feel to it.

I could drink a ton of this one- it's really well done.

cool that these guys are doing some sour beer and getting good feedback on it. also cool they have some beers under 4% abv on their menu. i like that in a session context, break up the heavy belgians with some easy goers. nice appearance to this, hazy but still shining golden in color, with a full inch of white head slowly fading. smells like apple juice to me, and cereal grain, dusty cheerio or something, and then a heavy lacto kick. so many of these kettle or mash soured beers have the same sour flavor, like everyone does them exactly the same, copying the same blog post or whatever, but this is different. the sour seems more mature, pungent but with softer edges, and not nearly as aggressive in terms of how it sits in the belly. the wheaty base isnt all that light either for the abv, it has some heft and some flavor that works in, and i still get the apple thing in the finish, just a tad sweet. the sour profile of this beer makes me wish it was a gose with the salt and coriander, its practically begging for that. i bet their gose is exquisite if they start it the same way. i like how well carbonated this is too, feels alive the entire time. great take on the style here.

edit: had a can of this at the brewery recently, six years later, and its still different as this style has proliferated. they say mixed culture with brett and lacto, but the brett is outcompeted here, i dont really get much of the classic drying farmy funk, but its more than just lactic acidity too. im not in love with it, less carbonated than i remember, wanted more from the brett, but its cool they have kept this one in rotation all these years. leaving original scores up. still seems like a perfect base for fruits, herbs, and barrels...