Skull & Bones Special Strong Dark
Bristol Brewing Company

This is teh best sour form Bristol I have had to date. It pours a dark woody brown with a nice tan head. The nose has has nice tart fruits up front followed by sweet malts and just a bit of farmyard funk. The taste also has has the delicate sourness balanced by the big malt profile. As with the aroma, not much funk, but it is present as this reaches room temp. Crisp body is well carbonated. I could drink this all day long.

By sheer coincidence I drank two bottles of this experimental ale exactly five years to the day after it was bottled on July 2, 2003. One of the bottles showed a raised dimple in the cap suggesting a high measure of carbonation. The other cap was dimpled down.

The name of this beer is appropriately descriptive. But it makes no hint as to its unusual pedigree. This is a half-and-half blend of two Bristol beers; Trippel and Winter Warlock. The blended ale was then fed a slurry of native microbes cultivated from the fruits of raspberry plants growing wild near the brewery. A measure of honey was also added to stimulate a secondary fermentation in oak barrels.

My first bottle gave a spiced chocolate aroma with notes of nutmeg and sour cherry. It poured brackish brown with an enthusiastic surge of airy tan head - very rocky and volatile. A focused beam of light revealed deep plum-garnet colors. The taste was a bizarre interplay of black licorice, coffee, brine, and charred lemon seed, with a light chocolate finish. The perplexing blend of ingredients and processes makes the beer challenging to evaluate. But lactic sourness was evident and I might liken it to an oud bruin with intriguing spiced diversions.

On opening my second bottle - the out-dimpled one - a steady flow of brown froth erupted and proceeded to surge outwards with no undue encouragement. I wanted to measure how long it would flow out the bottle's neck but lost my patience after five or six minutes and poured it into a glass. The second bottle was perhaps a bit more sour and less spicy but still a rare treat and a pleasure to consume.

Poured a murky black with minimal brown tinged head. A touch of lacing & that's it

S: Slight Sourness

T: Tartness & oaky dryness up front. Some berry & tart vinegar notes. Finishes with some caramel notes, a bit of dark fruit, but mostly tartness & a touch of raspberry vinegar

Medium bodied, fairly dry & damn near zero carbonation

Drank really easy for the style, sour beer fans will enjoy this, 2 is about the maximum I'd do with this one. Get it while you can