Tears Of Saint Laurent
Wild Creatures

A: Pours up a slightly hazy ruby purple with a fizzy and quickly dissipating one finger head, no lacing.
S: Immediate notes of grape must and sourdough bread with a funk that is more akin to lambic than the typical brettynomyces expressions one finds. Aromas of cherry and dark fruit more generally abound as well. Trace notes of malt vinegar. Something also vaguely reminiscent of a meat locker. Very Tannic.
T: immediately quite sour, with a very prominent lambic-like funk and a subtle, almost metallic astringency in the finish. Grape definitely comes through as do various other fruits both dark and lighter in color. Hints of sweetness come through as the beer warms. Very tannic.
M: Very effervescent, sharp, crisp and dry.
O: I really enjoyed this beer. I would recommend it but I found it on discount without looking for it so good luck finding any. The place I bought this is the only place I’ve ever seen it. I find Brettanomyces beers to be a bit one dimensional typically, or at the very least always dominating beers and always pushing the same notes. Not so with this one. As I alluded to many times, this beer definitely takes a more lambic-like approach to sour beer, so if that’s your bag, and it is mine, this is worth picking up if you come across it. Reminds me a bit of Abbaye De Saint Bon Chien from Brasserie Franche Montagnes as well, so if you like that beer, you will undoubtedly like this as well.

 

This one pours a light pinkish/purplish color, with a small head, and a bit of lacing.

This smells like red wine, oak, dark fruit, grapes, plum, and lemon.

This is pretty solid stuff - I wouldn't really expect something like this to come out of the Czech Republic, so it's really cool to try it. The grape adds some pleasant tartness, lemony and dark fruity, with plum, raisin, and blackberry jam. There's some oak as well, as well as lots of red wine. It has that damp funkiness that comes from really long barrel aging.

This is light bodied, crisp, with a slightly lingering acidity on the back end.

This was a really cool beer to be able to try - I don't always love grape sours, but this worked well for me.

 

Poured from 11.2oz bottle into glass. Bottled on date is '09.02.17;.
Deep amber/red colored body. Fizzy head upon initial pour disappears, leaving just a few rising bubbles at the ring of the surface. No lacing.
Aroma is rich and deep with grapes (because of the color I would say red grape). I take time to savor the smell of this beer.
The taste explodes on the palate, with the grape carrying the flavor with dense complexity. This is reminiscent of a red wine. There is initially a mild stinging sensation that smooths out, with the back end being dense grape. Any hops used are not noticed, and the yeast is lurking but has done its job in bringing out the fermented grape character. As the beer's description indicates, there is a slight plum flavor that lingers.
Medium mouth feel. Carbonation is there but does not really matter with this beer.
Such a surprise, but an excellent beer. This is a beer that even into the third or fourth beer you would still be discovering new nuances of aroma and flavor. Recommended for sure.

Dense with fruit and locked in with a full sour flavor, the brewers at Wild Creatures pull the two flavors together with a sweet, succulent, tart and winey taste to charm the tastebuds and quench the thirst.

Rich mauve in color, the beer’s winey austere is hazy, dense and frothy to bring the appearance into the realm of beer. Dark berry, stone fruit, red wine and candied, the scent also tingles the nose with a twinge of acidity. Early sweetness is juicy with the strong suggestion of cobbler, pastry, hard candy and jam.

Sweetness begins to drift away as the ale crosses the middle palate. In its place the acids begin to exert its dominance as it brings in the heightened character of red grape, cherry, blackberry, blackcurrant, cranberry and plum. A light tar-like presence comes across with apricot and prune before a peppery finish of red wine, wood spice and vinous acidity contends easily with the lingering sweetness.

Medium full for a sour ale, the retention of sweetness keeps the ale juicebox-like. A medium length afterglow of macerated dark fruit and red wine can’t help than to trend heavily sangria-like in finish.

 

 

this might be the beer surprise of the year for me, a wild ale from the czech republic, brewed in the lambic fashion, spiked with wine grapes like the italians might do, and brought to me in an affordable and nicely labeled little unsuspecting bottle, i had no idea what i was getting into with this gem! the pour is a deep grape jelly purple with some light frosted haze to it and a slow rising pure white head, awesome contrast and color saturation, this is dead sexy. the aroma here is killer too, tons of oak and funk, it smells like quality lambic right from the start, open and wild to me, with a tannic profile from the fruit and a red wine character in front of the grapes themselves, at least in the nose. the flavor is different, i get both natural grapes and good red wine together. some jammy sweet fleshy quality along with a more tart grape skin character too, and then the berry notes from the wine aspect, blackberry and currant, moving towards puckery as the base beer starts to assert itself. bacterial sourness and bretty weirdness alike in here, supremely mature and complex, wheat based i would think, but this isnt malty, yeast driven with the fruit, and the back and forth between sweet grapes and tart yeast is second to none. this reminds me of some incredible italian grape wild ales i have had, but has an even more pronounced fruitiness to it. smooth and drinkable too, dry by the end, and very well carbonation. i was a little bummed i shared this with a friend, and now hope i can go back to the well and track down another bottle of this. i was blown away by this beer, one of the best of the year for me, and from such an out of left field source, at least to my knowledge. how awesome!