Tart Of Darkness
Bruery Terreux

Look – A super dark, almost black clear ruby red color with a light head and good lacing.

Smell – Has a nice plumb scent.

Taste – Plumb flavor with a bit of sourness. I'm not really tasting the stout it says it is made from.

Feel – Nicely carbonated wild ale that goes down easy. A bit of a vinegary tartness.

Overall – Definitely one of the better wild ales I've had.

2016 vintage drank in 2022.

750ml bottle from about 10 years ago.

Pours almost opaque dark brown with zero head or retention. Dark chocolate with faint balsamic in the nose. Medium bodied with a slickish, almost waxy mouthfeel. Light char with bakers chocolate and a lingering sourness on the palate. Finishes tart and char-like.

Bottled 6/22/15 and consumed early August 2021. Unique appearance for a sour but we know it’s a stout at heart. Lots of dark fruit and roasty funk but becomes a bit cloying at the end. An enjoyable, special beer.

Shared 750 ml bottle, at Café Sara, Oslo. ABV was 7%. Black colour, low beige head. Lovely brett aroma, also oaky and roasty notes, brandied fruits, quite complex. Sour flavour, lemony notes, the roasty notes are quite subdued. Tart finish.

 

 

 

2013 vintage. Poured into my cute Maredsous goblet. Jet black, little-to-no-head. Sharp, juicy nose with an assertive roast malt character—almost reminiscent of strawberry jam and butter on dark toast. Intensely sour up front, medium-to-light body, slight bitterness, something of a clover-and-flowers character but fairly dry. Roast malts are largely unapparent until just after swallowing, when they loom up out of the background and dominate the atmosphere for a second or too, followed by an impressively long berry-themed finish with hints of cream and sorrel. Truly lovely.

 

2016 vintage. Pours dark brown, hints of cherry as the light hits it with a thick ring of tan head. Nose is sour cherry juice, bit of malt, molasses as it warms. Still, though, not too much of the "stout" character of this comes through. Taste is pleasantly tart cherries, none too sweet, cranberries, underripe plums. Mouthfeel and carbonation pretty thin and refreshing. As a sour it's excellent, but missing out on those stout notes.

2017 bottle

Pours a near pitch-black cherry. Really cool, quickly dissipating, fizzy foam head. Dark fruits, plum and currant, dark malt, some whiskey as it warms. Rounded molasses bittersweetness of a typical stout backbone bridges the gap to dark stone fruit, fig, date that is balanced by a somewhat tinny, funky tartness. Tangy dryness after mid range fullness and carbonation. Extremely impressive, wish there were more of this style, especially a bba version!

 

2016 bottle

Pours dark near black with a dissipating tan frothy head. Smells a bit like red wine, cherries, plum, tart grapes, berries, roasted malt, rich chocolate, caramel, dark toffee, molasses, oak barrel, hints of sweet bourbon, a little wild funk, barnyardy notes, hay, with earthy grassy pine. Tastes like acidic red wine, sour vinegar, tart cherries, plum, vinous grapes, dark berries, roasted malt, chocolate, caramel, toasty toffee, molasses, mild bourbon, oak, hay, wild yeast, barnyardy funk, with dusty earthy grassy pine. Feels medium bodied, rounded and smooth, creamy with moderate carbonation and bracingly high acidity. Overall a nice oak barrel aged sour stout.

 

 

 

 

 

Bottled 5/1/14; drank 9/20/14 @ the Treehouse.

Brown/purple hue.

Minimal tan head; almost no lace.

Tart grape juice nose.

Medium mouthfeel.

Tart grapes & grapefruit up front; no stout notes at all! As it warms, this settles into a tart purple grape juice monster; flavorful but biting!

Wakefest 2019; sour stout was different

5 oz pour on tap. Pours a dark brown with a thin fizzy head. Aroma and flavor are thin dark malts, tart berries (cherry, blackberry), dark fruits, oak, vanilla, tannins, leather, and a hint of coffee. Complex and flavorful. Definitely a sipper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2016 on draft. looks like red wine in the glass. no head. no outer ring of foam or any lacing. nice acidic sour smell with some malt in the background. taste is similar to smell. nice sourness. a little malty stout-type taste to it. feel is a bit lacking. kind of watery. overall a very unique beer and enjoyed the sour aspects quite a bit.

Best sour I’ve ever had. Very tart but deep flavor. Doesn’t taste as dark as it looks.

 

 

Pours a near clear Concord grape juice brown-black. Appears to be a brownish garnet when light is directed into it. The pour produces a thin finger of tan, finely bubbled foam, shortlived head that recedes to oblivion without a trace of cap, collar or lace. Near the end of the glass it has the look of a burgundy. Aroma is acetic sour and vinous: caramel, dark grape, berry, tart cherry and chocolate with woody, earthy hints. Taste is a war won by SOUR. Cry Baby Candy sour. So excessively tart only faint hints of sweetness bleed from the background: blackberry, strawberry, sour cherry and thin grape overlay a roasted malt stout-like note. A peppery spice joins the medley in the faintly malty, sour, dry tart cherry, green apple and woody finish. The aftertaste is very dry and tart with hints of oak, metal, and sour fruit. Mouthfeel is medium bodied with decent carbonation, lively it puckers the mouth and crawls the tongue. Not having a great affinity for the extremely (to my taste) sour I appreciate its complexity more than I enjoy it.

Poured from 750ml bottle into glass. On the label this is identified as a 2017 release. 6.6%ABV.
Black colored body, with a brown prune color when back lit. Brown cocoa brown head upon pouring immediately dissipates to nothing. There is some expression of bubbles in a tiny, partial ring. No lacing.
Aroma is multi layered with dark fruit, oak and sour barrel, and cocoa/dark chocolate and slight vanilla.
Taste is more integrated than the aroma. Drinks very red wine like. Very much expresses the sour. Also has the chocolate flavor, along with the vanilla.
Medium to full mouth feel. Okay carbonation.
Very much like a dry red wine (Cabernet), with a little chocolate/vanilla (Stout). Very well balanced.