Worries Vanish
Sun Lab Brewing Co.

 

 

 

This is my first experience with FL-based Sun Lab, who apparently brew their beer (at least in part; not familiar with them really) at Westbrook Brewing in SC. This sounded very weird to me, so I just had to pick it up to see how they handled it. Always good to start with a new brewery at their oddest, in my opinion, and this fits the bill. An "American sour ale" (I like this nomenclature, actually) with... a bunch of stuff. Blackberries, almonds, cinnamon, vanilla, graham crackers, and lactose. Sounds like the recipe for a "pastry sour," which I still think should just be called a "dessert sour" or something. Not all desserts are pastries, but all of these sweet/sour beers coming out seem to model themselves after something you'd have, y'know... after a meal? Like a dessert? Anyway.

This pours a gorgeous medium pink-ish color with a slight raspberry-like hue to it. It's heavily-hazy but not fully opaque, and it sports an attractive, tight head of off-pink foam that lingers pretty much permanently throughout my experience with the beer. Additionally, this has some nice lacing and overall just really looks nice as hell. I'm immediately impressed. So many kettle sours and overly-adjunct'd beers these days have an initially-showy pour that just collapses after a couple minutes (or worse, the whole thing is just straight-up ugly from front to back), so I appreciate this a bunch.

The nose is reminding me a lot of Westbrook's Gose when I first smelled it (which was eight years ago; wow). Extremely tart and almost acetic with strong lemon character and an almost briny (I want to say "pickle-y," but I know that's not exactly fair or true) element to it. As this warms, it starts getting a bit more perfumey, with some florals, light notes of dark berry and tropical fruit, and a slight nod towards the graham cracker addition. Honestly, I'm not really sold by the smell of this, but let's just see what it has to offer on the palate.

Oh wow, that's better than I expected, for sure. First sip is kinda just bright berry + lemon + a bit of nuttiness, but it starts to open up and give off a lot of complexity. Cranberry and raspberry/blackberry in the mid-palate... jammy and multifaceted with a great interaction with the graham crackers and almonds, which, surprisingly, do actually come out. Hibiscus-like floral elements and some baking spice as this opens up even more. This is just the right amount of tart, and I like that there are some unusual elements I didn't expect. Really cool, honestly. Maybe I'm being really cynical right now, but I really did expect this to be pretty messy and off-the-wall in a bad way. I've been burned by some of these types of beers recently, but I'm happy to say that Sun Lab immediately won me over with this one. Absolutely worth a shot!

 

Ordered from Tavour. Chilled and poured into an imperial pint glass.

Look: pinkish brown, cloudy, two finger pinkish creamy head that dissipated quickly, leaving a small ring of creamy foam around the glass that hung around while it warmed.
Smell: berry, sour, malt, no booze and no hop notes
Taste: berry up front, followed by sour, followed my malty notes of graham cracker and super light vanilla. No booze, no hop and no bitterness
Feel: medium to light feel with heavy tickle of carbonation, sour on the back tongue, with a crips finish.

Interesting beer. Berry Berliner weisse type of beer. If you reach it is a sour blackberry pie. The berry is the biggest player with supporting and trailing notes of graham cracker that hides itself as malt. You have to reach for the graham and the vanilla’s presence is pretty small, but there if you really reach. The lactose you would expect to add to the mouthfeel, but not as much with this one. Still, this is a lightly carbonated fruited sour that is crips and flavorful.

Cheers everyone!

Canned 1/22/21

My first beer from Sun Lab. It sounds like such an odd concept for a beer that ai just had to pick it up when I saw it. I love blackberry in beer, but I’m really wondering how well it’ll play with all the other adjuncts in this pastry-ish sour. Let’s just dive right into it

Pours an opaque purplish ruby with 2 fingers of pink tinted head that slowly fades to a cap and leaves minimal lacing

There’s really not too much to the nose, it reminds me of some of the goses that rely too heavily on coriander, likely due to the cinnamon in this. I’m picking up on aromas of earthy cinnamon, sweet blackberry, sweet honey, and a full doughy malt

The taste is a vast improvement, it’s quite good actually and brings a nice tart character that was absent in the nose. On the front end of the sip I’m tasting tart raspberry, juicy blackberry, lemon juice, and sweet honey graham crackers for balance. The swallow brings a quick flash of puckering lemon before settling into a nice sweetness with notes of rich almond, vanilla, blackberry ice cream, and bready malt

A medium body pairs with gentle carbonation, resulting in a borderline decadent beer that jumps between tart and sweet. Finishes a bit sticky, feeling like a dessert, but it works here

Well, despite the less than stellar aroma, this is still pretty good for what it is. I’m not sure I’d get it again but I’m happy I tried it