Crimson Regret
Situation Brewing

 

My favorite sour beer to date. Sour beers are hit and miss with me, but this one I can easily drink all night long!

I got a whole growler of it the other night after having tried it in a flight a couple of weeks ago. It has a medium tang for a sour beer, not overpoweringly sour with a medium level of carbonation. I get orange/citrus and wheat flavors coming through predominantly. the finish is crisp and tart, a little sweet as well, not the driest beer I've tasted. This as well as their blood orange sour have to be my favorite sour beers I've ever tasted.

Go give situation a try! It is becoming my regular stop, as I just moved to Edmonton and it is 1km from my house (dangerously close!) Some quality local beer.

1L howler from the brewpub - affable bartender Dan had me at (just past) hello, when I asked how funky this particular brew was, and he responded 'like Herbie Hancock in 1982'. Making your customers actually laugh out loud is a big improvement for this establishment.

This beer pours a slightly hazy, medium orange-brick amber colour, with one thick finger of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly tan head, which leaves some decent spectral dissipating fog bank lace around the glass as it quickly wafts off.

It smells of bready and grainy caramel malt, a tame musty farmhouse Brett funkiness, further semi-sweet biscuity notes, a hint of free-range ashiness, and some very weak earthy, leafy, and floral green hop bitters. The taste is gritty and grainy caramel malt, a lessened funky M. Brett joint, some muddled citrus zest fruitiness, a weak earthy nuttiness, more strange yet pleasant biscuity cake-like sweetness, and some plain leafy, floral, and musky dry hoppiness.

The carbonation is fairly laid-back in its quotidian frothiness, the body a solid middleweight, and generally smooth, as the funk here seems to be of the non-interfering, soulful type. It finishes off-dry, the big malt continuing to render the fruity tartness and bacterial sourness to the shadows.

Overall - this is an interesting version of the style, one that was obviously inoculated with Brett, as opposed to aged in microflora-infested ancient barrels. And it actually works, without all the time and expense of the latter method. Also, the apparent alternative name is 'Stupid Sexy Flanders Red', as indicated on the awesome recreation of said Simpsons trope on the chalkboard above the bar. Kudos.