Spectacle
Jackie O's Taproom & Brewery

Huge thanks to Dave for generously giving me this bottle. This will be my first Jackie O's offering.

500ml capped bottle - 2018 vintage - poured into an oversized red wine stem at 50°F.

Pours a bright, cloudy, tropical fruit punch red with hardly any trace of head, despite attempting to generate one. No sign of effervescence - only a thin white collar surrounding the elixir.

Nose: One of the more mature aromas I've encountered recently. Tons and tons of oak. The fruit is NOT jammy at all, this is a funky ale. Funky blackberries, funky raspberries, funky red wine cask with some spicy French oak notes. Wet hay, horseblanket, dusty farmhouse, brett, leather, dusty attic, old library - TONS of old library, lemon peel, green tea, wet flint, petrichor, lots of minerality, a bit of bandaid and iodine antiseptic. As the kids says, this has some real goooozie notes. A bit Kriek-like, with all the right funk in all the right places, but substitute sour cherries for sour black raspberries and blackberries. This is one incredibly complex sour ale.

Palate: The ale greets the palate with perhaps the most perfect level of sour that a sour ale could have. Tartness is balanced perfectly between acetic red wine vinegar, fresh lemon juice, and sweaty, tangy brett. That vitamin C/aspirin, heavy mineral/briny gueuze note is front and centre. Fermented sour raspberries leap out of the glass, with a blackberry note that is both underripe and overripe at the same time. All the tannic seed and stem notes are intact as well. A bit of sour cherry emerges as well. The red wine cask is subtle, but if you aerate the ale while it's in your mouth, it absolutely pops with earthy, fruity wine grape and spicy, buttery oak. Almost like a Zinfandel or a cab note. There's some bright musty lemon, more wet hay, some barny/farmy funk, green apple, Bartlett pear, some dry grass, gooseberry, and black pepper. Getting into the finish, the acetic red wine vinegar character rapidly diminishes, and let's that briny mineral note have the spotlight. The berry notes become more like pommace, and the oak comes back to the forefront, bringing with it some second-use red wine cask. The minerality then too fades away, taking much of the wine note with it, leaving buttery white oak, which allows the base grains to finally emrge. Slightly toasted pale grains and a faint wholesome malted barley note linger for eternity, which some oak in the background, and just a whisper of berry essence, completely with stems.

Mouthfeel/Body: The ale is quite light in body, sitting somewhere on the lesser side of medium. It is not thin or watery in any way, thanks to its bright acidity and colourful complexity, and really just drinks crisp and easy. Personally, I would call this a sipper, but only for its nuance and complex depth of character. Effervescence is extremely fizzy and ultra fine, but it is in no way aggressive. Perfectly akin to champagne. Soft, fizzy, and lively. There is some fruity juiciness up front, but I struggle to call it sweet. Dry with some fruit sugar on the top, but finishing absolutely dry, with some oak and seed tannins. Dries the mouth out nicely.

Overall: This is a highly impressive American wild ale, that really manages to evoke some classic Belgian gueuze character. Three years is a healthy length of time for an ale to sit in a barrel, and not every sour ale has that much maturity. Just from the aroma alone, you can tell this is not a young beer. There are certain aromas and flavours that only come with time in a barrel, and this one checks all those boxes. Not many sour ales reveal their base grains in the finish, and that is a wonderful aspect of this. It may not be a gueuze/"American lambic", but it is a beautiful representation of an American wild ale with excellent nuance and complexity, with a touch of that authentic Kriek influence. A wonderful offering.

 

Clear, dark ruby red with a still shiny surface and no persistent head.

Spectacle is a wildly herbal blackberry sour that's complex with peppery soft oak, cherry, and a bit of char delivered via a crisp, effervescent medium body that finishes with a semi-dry tingly burn.