Spawn of Barbarian
Barbarian Brewing

Taster at old Chinden taproom. Light violet pour, flat. Sweet, grape-y aroma. Berries are fuller in the taste, sweet, jam jar, with a wine like dryness.

 

 

2020 vintage, perhaps this has been done more than once. i am listing it as a wild ale despite them saying it is "lambic inspired", which i am beginning to think means next to nothing, like, is this even turbid mashed, open captured and inoculated, wheat based? i have serious questions. heck, lambic "inspires" me to do a lot of things, cook shellfish, chill with my homies, bake bread, drink beer from wine glasses, consider the old world, all sorts of things, but what it doesnt inspire me to do is brew generic fruited sour beer. not that this is that, but its a whole lot closer to it than it is to authentic lambic, so just drop that from the name and we have something nice, which is to say nothing of methode traditionnelle, which i support for stardards sake, but perhaps that conversation doesnt belong here. this is in fact aged on oak, it is wild to some extent, and its done with a bunch of huckleberries which makes it pretty quintessentially idaho, even if the spontaneous part leaves a little something to be desired. deep violet to red wine purple, pretty colored, clearish, almost no head, but a clean looking brew. more bacterial than funk, almost too tidy on the acidity, which is north of moderate but not extreme. fruit and pucker lead this, some supporting nuance, but nowhere near conventional lambic depth. well made though, more fizzy feeling than it looks, and a pretty solid sour from barbarian, who keeps doing these relatively well. the use of real fruit, native to the state, and a ton of it, helps this a lot, not sure what it would be like without the huckleberry addition. tasty but not mind blowing, and certainly not methode traditionnelle to me, not that i care, but just an observation that scarcely warrants saying, once you have tasted this...