2020 Luminary V
Lamplighter Brewing Company

super cool mixed culture sour done with pomegranate, a unique beer top to bottom, thanks to my new friend for sharing this and some other real cool lamplighter offerings, i liked this one a lot! i expected a little more color from the fruit, this is orange not pink, but maybe with just a light staining to it, hazy through most of the bottle and relatively dense, with a couple inches of rocky white head on top with great retention. the aroma is curious, belgian yeast notes as much as funk, some obvious acidity too, fruitiness of bitter orange, cranberry, and red currant, not sure i could call it out as pomegranate but its there. white pepper, white wine, cedar almost as much as oak, a unique fragrant layer with the wood, and an herbal note, coriander perhaps. the flavor is equally complex, with the tangy fruit staying mild but running all the way through this. the yeast has some high tone esters up front, then more of a funky wild side in the middle, before piquant acidity creeps in on the swallow, overall pretty puckery, but nicely balanced by the fuller grain profile, the acidity has no impact on the body of this, which feels frothy and bigger, just right. i like the wood on this, white wine notes and some sweetness, and i like the lightly warming alcohol note it finishes with, not out of place here at all. clever beer here, i like the use of multiple yeasts, the inclusion of the pomegranate, and the fact that i got to delight in a number of these beers with some new friends, this was an awesome session and lamplighter is officially on my radar. i hope to try some other beers from this luminary series!