Cherry Farm
Half Hours On Earth

 

It's tart, but there's no funk, or really any yeast character at all. It's a fine brew brew, but I expected a bit more. Nice clear red, but with very little head and no retention or lace.

Appearance: Cherry lollipop red (mild haze), effervescent, and a finger of pinkish cotton candy head with medium retention and settles leaving behind some loose and random patches of gummy lace.

Aromatics: Sour cherries are forefront with some sweet caramel malt notes behind it and some essences of vino and oak carried throughout as well. Subtle and unassuming, which is too bad, after tasting it I would have loved the scents to be more pronounced, but it's all good - can't ask for everything.

Taste: Ooooh... like a sour cherry Jolly Rancher candy - it has it's sour, but its a very sweetened sour and full of fresh picked cherries. Reminds me a lot of picking bright red chokecherries from my grandma's backyard as a kid, you'd occasionally get a few that were really tart and sour among the sweeter ones - and that kind of flavour combination is addictive. Lots of fruit acidity

Mouth: Acidic in and slightly metallic in its tang. The carbonation is very fine and lively really makes your tastebuds jump up and down. Its body is barely in the middleweight as the fresh water does a lot to thin it down.

Overall: A great tasting sour, I think it really respects the cherry and lets it play on the palate. And how can you not love a brew that looks like strawberry Kool Aid with some foaminess. I love the level of sweetness too - it adds just enough to keep the sour from getting too far out of control.

Pairing: I want to keep it light so it doesn't strong arm the beer. A few small salad rolls (a la Vietnamese style) with shrimp or crab, lettuce, rice noodles, sweet bell peppers, cucumber, avocado, and carrot all rolled in rice paper wrapper with a slightly sweeter peanut dipping sauce (just adding in tsp of sugar to the peanut butter).