Your Father Smelt of Elderberry Sour
Red Collar Brewing Co.

Opaque dark purple color. Poured a medium head that was a startling magenta color. The head collapsed to a patchy skiff after a couple of minutes. Too dark to see the carbonation level, but there were a lot of bubbles clinging to the side of the glass. Left large patches of lace.

Smelled of dark roasted malts, but that turned into a sour, caramelized berry smell, so I don't know what to think about the malt level. Many times berry smells very over-cooked, but this seems to have turned to caramel rather than the burned sugar more common with berries. A light hop smell shows up among the sour berry and caramel. Mild sour funk; not very yeasty. Swirling the glass kicked up a light barnyard and a fresher berry smell.

Mild tart. The berry flavor is much lighter than expected from the smell. Bitters around the 25 IBU listed on the label. More malty than expected; flavor in the range of a dark roast. The caramel in the smell barely shows up in the flavor. Very light coffee; some of the bitters seem more related to coffee than to hops. There is a bitter/sour/woody flavor that tastes a bit like chewing on twigs and leaves of some bush; this is an odd flavor and really detracts from the experience. The aftertaste pops out the twiggy/leaf flavor, again detracting from the experience. The sour and bitter seem to get stronger as the other flavors fade away. Overall this seems more like a medium bitter porter with a touch of added fruit and some twigs/leaves. Not at all what I expected from the smell.

Almost no tongue tingling. Turned into a creamy foam for a few seconds and then much coarser bubbles. Heavy body.

I would have given the flavor a higher rating if it weren't for that weird twig flavor. This built up over time and really dominated the aftertaste for a long time after drinking about half of the glass. Otherwise the balance of flavors was beer dominant with a light fruit, which was strange after first smelling the fruit dominant with light beer before tasting. This would be an excellent beer for winter or summer if the twiggy flavor could be isolated and removed.