Sour/Saison Barrel Blend: Light
Blindman Brewing

500ml, caged and corked bottle (again, pliers and corkscrew warning) - a blend of their summer Saison, and their Kettle Sour #5, aged in 'a single American oak barrel'.

This beer pours a hazy, pale golden yellow colour, with three fingers of puffy, finely foamy, and fizzy eggshell white head, which leaves a few instances of streaky arc wield lace around the glass as it evenly sinks out of sight.

It smells of bready and crackery pale malt, some mild lacto sourness, a pleasant white wine lees yeasty fruitiness, overripe lemon rind, subtle earthy spice, and a bit of wet hay/straw 'green' acridity. The taste is gritty and grainy wheat malt, mixed lemon and underripe white grape tart fruity notes, white saltine crackers, laid-back Saison yeast, a mild barrel woodsiness, ephemeral sour milk, and more tame farmer's field dead grassiness.

The carbonation is fairly active in its palate-probing frothiness, the body a decent medium weight, and actually smooth, with a crazy airy creaminess kicking off once things warm up a tad - incroyable! It finishes trending dry, the crackery malt, blended fruitiness, and gentle yeast all playing it nice and easy.

Overall - wow! This brewery has already shown me that my agnostic attitude towards sours could use a little new-age updating, and here they've upped the stakes, by deftly combining two of their myriad strengths, and putting it all to the wood. The result is nothing less than sublime - and not to lose focus here, but this would be a perfect intro into the world of beer for those fussy wine drinkers out there.