Tomatillo Sour
Templin Family Brewing

incredibly cool and original beer, i think templin does nice work in all areas, but this is maybe an underappreciated side of what they do, the base beer is funky and tart and woody and great, but the additions of tomatillo and prickly ash are pretty darn unique, and i am glad we picked this up, certainly the most exotic beer ive had so far this year, i know its early, but its going to take something real weird to surpass this, its totally one of a kind. the base beer is actually a lager, which is not lost on me, even if its not obvious in the glass, all vienna malt, fresh tomatillos and prickly ash, which i had to good to find out is actually in the citrus family, crazy, definitely never seen it in a beer before now. sort of rusty orange to light amber colored, not real pale, i mean i guess it looks like vienna malt, duh, nice head on it, looks bottle conditioned, consistent very light haze throughout, pretty clean really overall, nice low glow to it and enough carbonation. the nose isnt as crazy as the taste, not as dramatic anyway, but it sets it up well, the tart limey green tomatillos and their tomato character, neat with the bacterially sour part of this, cool funk too, tight pithy citrus, like green peppercorn spiciness, maybe the prickly ash doing that, white wine, some bretty funk, no real lager yeast to me but it seems mature anyway, lots of wood, some tannins, a little bit of malt sweetness we never see in sour beer like this, a part of this i like a lot. in the taste its turned up, perfumy white florals, maybe actually more from the ash part than from the tomatillo, although both are here, its sour enough to be distracting in that regard, but has cool barrel funk too, more and more tomatillo as it sits and warms, lots of white wine, very late flavor climax, kind of ramps up to everything hitting at once at the end, more sour than it needs to be, but lively and with nice malt richness, a cool part of this, again a little less obviously a lager, but i can get there. more and more wood, light paint thinner, acetic just a bit there, unique citrus, spice, and some wildness with the acid, i could take more raw tomatillo in this, but overall its downright impressive, love the creativity and the execution both, and its a real hit, killer collaboration with purpose brewing, and something pretty exquisite really, even if i was glad to be sharing the bottle with another dude. highly recommended! the name, or lack of one, feels like an understatement, lots to unpack in this...