Elsewhere
Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales

 

L: Hazy grapefruit orange red color with a creamy white head and lot of lacing all around the glass.

S: Lots of tartness and sourness, a little bit of vinegar, some cherry and other stone fruits, notes of caramel and malt sweetness in the background a nice smelling sour.

T: Quite sour and tart, some cherry, almost a little grapefruit, some sweet caramel and other malt sweetness. Quite a bit of acidity. A slight bit of Brett funk but not overly noticeable.

F: Lots of acidity, medium body and high carbonation

O: A nice sour beer that I feel like needs a little something else to cut the sourness a bit, a little more brett funk would be helpful.

Appearance: copper-red with a light-tan head of super-fine bubbles that fade quickly to near nothing.

Aroma: sour and funk with light caramel. I also pick up notes of Windex, which I’ve detected in other beers too.

Flavor: sour and then caramel-corn. The caramel-corn flavor is out of place and severely compromises what this beer could be.

Mouthfeel: spot on body-wise. Highly carbonated: mouth tingling. The mouthfeel is the highlight of this beer.

Overall: the foundation for this beer shows potential, but the caramel-corn flavor prevents this beer from being much more. The appearance and mouthfeel are wonderful; unfortunately, flavor, the most important part, falls way short by comparison. If the flavor were on par with the mouthfeel and appearance, this beer would be a show-stopper.

one of the more sour and less funky black project beers i have encountered so far. its sort of has elements of a flanders red type, the sourness even has a little bit of that fruity vinegar element to it, which normally is not my favorite, but here its nice with the caramelized sugar notes in the reddish malt base and the earthy overall vibe brought by not just the grains but the brett in here too. medium bodied and a real long flavor here, not as dry as many of the others i have had from these guys, and quite complex. there is even a bit of a grassy bitterness from hops there at the end. this one also tastes a little less woody to me, maybe less or even no oak on it, but i do get some pretty distinctive wine notes and tannins which suggests at least some time in a barrel. i like the maturity of it, even without the wood, the pucker has some citrus to it, right on. good carbonation keeps it feeling lively and active, and overall this is a real well done beer, not in my favorite style, but distinct from the crowd and quite a bit more cleaned up and dialed in, closer to final form, than others. great sour red.