Tart Lil' Devil
AleSmith Brewing Company

May 15th, 2015 - You don't see it in bottles much, but the Lil' Devil Tart is a common sight at the Alesmith tasting room. Its a nice blonde brew with a little bit of haze, and a refreshing, watery smell like a clean pond after rain, alongside a soft nuttiness. The tart in the Devil Tart comes in the flavor, with a mysterious aftertaste of cardamon. The cardamom extends into the core flavor as well, mixing and blending with the tartness in a brilliant fashion. I wouldn't want more of this than a sampler, but for this volume it is a wild dip into Indian cuisine vis-a-vis beer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i had higher hopes for this, my first sour(ish) beer from these guys, who i regard highly for overall quality, so this was a bit of a miss, although not a bad beer by a somewhat lower standard. hazy and thicker, honey colored, looks like the normal devil with a little more cloudiness and maybe a shade darker. it smells a lot less belgian, maybe not intended to be compared to the horny devil, its missing all of that yeast character to it. still sweet though, pale malty, and thicker, doesnt really come across like a session beer, and the tartness is subtle and a little dirty. its like that in the flavor too, just not all that sour, with only a slightly weird acidity there in the finish, seemingly devoid of any of its flavor, just like a lactic acid spike, and its not totally congruent with all the malt in here. this seems like an experiment that should have probably been kept in house, im not sure its good enough yet to be released. knowing these guys, its still a work in progress and i can see it improving a lot batch to batch here. neat they are getting in to this kind of thing, but i really didnt too much care for this. not distinct enough, weird on the souring...

 

 

On tap at Tin Bucket.

The nose is lactic, with yogurt, dusty, mildly green, spicy with cinnamon, clove, white pepper. A little messy. On the palate, this is tart, fruity, with bubblegum, honey, dough. Dusty and grainy finish, frothy, yogurt like tartness. The spiciness from The base beer doesn't work with the funk IMO. Disappointing.