Elixir Of The Gods
Barbarian Brewing

 

Bottle share courtesy of Rich. Instant fruity aroma, taste amps up the pucker factor a bit, tart, cherries, a bit boozy as well. It had its highlights, but didn’t seem to come together all that well.

Taster at the brewery; maybe I should score this higher, as others think this works, but the sweetness of the malt body, Belgian tones, and port, combined with that sour funk, is not enjoyable to me - the sour and the BA quad are competing and never mesh. However I acknowledge that it is probably exactly what BB was going for.

2020 release, 500 mL bottle. An interesting concept, and I'm a sucker for port barrels. A bit cloudy and deep copper in hue, much less head than expected for a quad. Definitely wild, a bit challenging to discern the character of the base beer before the bugs got ahold of it. Blueberry, pomegranate, lemon, and vinous fruits, with plenty of tannins from the port barrel to dry out the palate. All the fruit notes and the sweetness of the port do a nice job balancing out the sour acidity, so I'm pretty happy with the end result.

 

a wildly unique brew here, a belgian quad as a base, but soured, and done in port barrels and with pomegranate, never seen or had anything quite like this one. its deep mahogany to crimson in color, with very little head from the tap but some shine and a really interesting nose, with some tang from the lacto and the fruit, a strong red wine suggestion, raspberry and cherry notes from the port, prune too, and some brown sugar and molasses from the abbey type malt, which still comes through here, some oak, vanilla, lemon acidity, and belgian yeast esters round it out, very complex but somehow also very cohesive. i have rarely liked this type of thing soured on purpose, these are styles that i like to be rich, not sharp, but this is both, really neat texture to it. moderate sourness, plenty of sweetness from the grain still, and really mature and mellow from the barrel ageing. increasingly tart as we let it warm up, more belgian yeast character pushing through, raisin, currant, and red grape all there too. the port is a nice touch with the quad, and very cool with the identifiable pomegranate, id love to try a not sour version of this, but its real tasty and original this way too. not overly boozy for what it is, but festive and warming at the same time, and in a way sours rarely are. i continue to be impressed with the inventiveness of so many of the beers here at barbarian!

edit: had the 2021 vintage in a recent sitting here in summer 2024, this has really gotten sour over time, but more spontaneous wild character has also developed which does a lot for this. i think its drier now, definitely less fruity, but more of its belgian essence is also apparent. if you dont mind them bracingly sour, this one still has a lot to offer. one of the more distinctive beers they do, and thats really saying something!