Birthday Cake - 3 Year Anniversary
Source Farmhouse Brewery

 

Ordered this recently and picked this up at Source, as this didn't go out for distribution anywhere. Enjoyed last year's Birthday Cake and this year's was nearly just as lovely as it was quite a different offering. Can't say that I've had an Imperial Pastry Sour Ale recently but if I did, I'd want something like this that was lively, tart, and reminiscent of Neapolitan ice cream without the overt sugar.

Such a unique pour to this as this looked like something extracted from a strawberry patch, with a lovely cloudiness and fast-simmering head on top of the liquid. Virtually no lacing was left behind as that would normally be a deterrent, but not with something as unique as this. Tons of strawberry patch in the nose, with milk sugar and yeast beneath that as the taste burst forth from there with vanilla, cake frosting and batter, milk chocolate, cacao, icing, and soda sweetness (without the stickiness). This was a Sour Ale at heart but was hardly sour as the range of flavors was more than enough to counter the yeast, although they were all present on the palate and meshed well beautifully in the end.

This had a lively mouthfeel because of the range of flavors and understated carbonation with the end result being a beer that felt like cake aged on strawberries and topped off with just the right amount of yeast. Hard to perceive the alcohol in this as this could have been mistaken for a soda, without the high fructose corn syrup. Dated 8/2 with "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" written below it, this was another winner in Source's lineup that would be well worth the effort to obtain. Here's to many more birthdays down the road for them!