Ibex Series: Local Oak
The Schlafly Tap Room

 

 

My current top beer. I’m in FL so I am stocking up on it from the loca total wine stores! Love the taste and smoothness but with the tart tongue and smooth sour oak finish. I’m a big woodsy taste lover in beers, wines and whiskey and this scratches that itch every time.

 

Full disclosure: I am admittedly not a sours-guy...

Given this, I am not a huge fan of these overly sour beers, such as this one. I have enjoyed a sour or two, but they've been on the milder side of being sour, unlike this offering which is full on pucker-power to the max. Though it looks good and it had a nice citrusy smell, the rest of it was a chore for me to get to the bottom of the pint glass. I'm sure there are many that are into this style and into this offering, but I think I will pass on to the next...

 

Pours a foggy copper-orange with a finger of white fizzy, foam. Head bubbles away quickly, with an audible pop and fizz. Aroma is tart and sharp, hitting notes of grapefruit, melon dew, grapes, oak, and cherries. Flavor profile is grapefruit, melon dew, cherries and grapes add lively fruit qualities that blend well with a slight tart sourness. An oak note at the start and finish adds dryness that beautifully opens and concludes the lightly tart and sour presentation. Mouth feel is fizzy and effervescent, but remains medium at the thickest and thin at the thinnest. In other words, the body and presence is light, and nears on crisp. Overall, fruity notes are nice and aren't focused in any particular direction, making for a delightful sour sipper.

Served in a 15.5oz Speigalau tulip from a 11.2oz bottle.

Exactly as advertised, a sour beer with wood tannin character. Bright and effervescent in feel with moderate oak souring. Taste and smell are exactly the same, no really exactly the same. Became a game to try to tell the difference. Lemon, flowers, oak sour, orange, pear, and pervasively through out, wood tannins. Not powerful or puckering, but pleasant and beautiful, good for late spring or late summer

Light gold. Thin head, light lacing. Barnyard funk smell. Tart. Light lemon, peach, faint kiwi or some other fruit ? Only a faint oak taste, but there's also a subtle smokiness that works very well. Strong carbonation.

Reviewed from notes. Poured from a 12 oz. bottle into a Firestone Walker tulip glass.

A: Pours a beautiful clear gold with lots of visible carbonation. Forms a thin white head that fades to a ring quickly. But this is pretty otherwise.

S: Lactic tart, light citric acid and sour lemon zest, and cracker malts. Notes of lime, pear, and stone fruits. A mild funk and milder oak dryness – but this doesn’t have the oak pull through like a WOJA or anything for sure. Decent, but not a huge nose.

T: Lactic sour up front. Lemon-lime citric zest tart and cracker malts. Mild Lactobacillus funk, and a touch of dry vinous stone fruits in the middle. At and after the swallow is the familiar vanilla-forward American oak. A lingering lactic dryness joins at the swallow as well.

M: A light body, with only a mild alcohol presence. The carbonation sensation is notably low – and low enough that it detracts a bit from this light-bodied beer.

O: Enjoyable, but the carbonation issue hurts this bottle a bit. But the tart and sour flavors plays nicely with the fruit, and while the oak stays relatively mild (more so than I expected), it’s present and enjoyable.

12oz bottle. Poured out a clear, golden orange color with a small, white head of foam. It smelled of tart lemons, oak and wood. Nice and tart with lemon and cherry. Slightly woody.

 

this is beautiful and bright and different, one of the cooler schlafly beers i have had in a long time, really distinct. it pours a popping lovely radiant yellow color, softly hazy and with a tall rising head, sunny and summery looking, as bright as i have seen a cloudy beer look. aroma is super wood forward, its hard to believe its barrels or tanks and not chips and staves, as the beer smells really fresh but also has so much wood to it, new oak, vanilla and honey notes to it, some tannins, insane wood saturation here, and it all comes through in the flavor too, this is about as new woody as it gets, and i really like it, perhaps it was first fill for some new foeders or something, its profoundly live woody, awesome! the sourness is a little ahead of the funk for me, the brett doesnt taste real mature, but it sure is dry, and there is a lot more than just a thin bacterial acidity here, even though the brett isnt super pronounced, its quite complex all together. notes of white peach and white wine, white tea, and white oak, its kind of dry hoppy too, with a fruity freshness to finish, but that could all be from this new wood. its a unique beer in that its not heavy and wet and dank and ancient, its so vibrant and new, yet the wood is so enormous. pretty memorable flavor profile here, and definitely real drinkable at this modest abv. really cool beer, id love to try it with a more developed brett profile after some cellar time...

edit: the draft of this recently at the bottleworks was good in taste, but the mouthfeel was brutal, still, overly acidic, and just lifeless to me, i wonder if this either has not aged as well as i thought it would, at least in keg format, or just somehow tired and fading and less exciting and fresh, like bland and muted now. when i had this, i didnt remember having it before, so i was almost shocked to see such a glowing review of what seemed average the second time around. ill leave the original scores as they are, but i had way higher hopes the second time and it let me down, at the source too, perhaps the bottles are where its at. widely variable in quality it seems...

This beer tastes like a Berliner Weisse, so why not call it a Berliner? I am a little disappointed in the misdirection and will not be trying any more Ibex Cellar Beer. This beer is definitely a sour, which I typically enjoy. Character wise there is limited lacing, good effervescence and easy drinker. The oak tanks do not really add much to the tastes in comparison to a stainless steel tank, so why the fuss. There are better Berliners for the same price range.

 

Pours a clear gold color. 1/4 inch head of a white color. Poor retention and poor lacing. Smells of bacterial funk, yeast, alcohol, slight wood, hint of hop, hint of pine, and slight sweet malt. Fits the style of an American Wild Ale. Mouth feel is sharp and crisp, with a high carbonation level. There is also a strong dryness. Tastes of bacterial funk, yeast, alcohol, slight wood, hint of hop, hint of pine, hint of liquor, and slight sweet malt. Overall, weak appearance and too carbonated, but good aroma and body.

Copper colored with no head and a murky complexion. The aroma is a very enticing blend of earthy to woodsy oak with a tart blackberry note. I'm tasting a very well balanced blend of the earthy to woodsy oak with flavors of green apple, pear, blackberries, and blueberries. The mouth is very dry and yet fairly smooth for a wild ale, both likely due to the oak aging. This is very underrated.