Skull & Bones Sour Wheat
Bristol Brewing Company

This American Wild Ale is Bristol's Beehive aged for several years in oak barrels. It was poured into a tulip glass at the brewery.

The color is a cloudy golden-brown and there is not much of a head. Quite a nice and complex nose. Tart citrus fruits up front followed by a sweet honey malt presence. There is also a nice amount of wood and oakiness that comes out as it warms. The flavor has famhouse funk and sour fruits. Some musky manure in there as well. A medium body with good carbonation is crisp and refreshing on the palate. A well balanced ale that I can enjoy all night long.

I'd been curious about Bristol's experiments using native microbes as secondary fermentation agents for some time. As good fortune would have it, I was able to procure this vintage bottle of 2003 Sour Wheat Ale from Bristol's on-staff microbiologist who propagated the yeast and bacterial slurry used to ferment the beer in oak barrels.

Sour Wheat is pale yellow gold with modest haze and a musty barnyard nose. The flavor has crossover elements between farmhouse funkiness and the lactic sourness of a Flanders red. After five years of bottle conditioning with a touch of honey to excite the secondary fermentation, the beer showed remarkably spry carbonation though no head or lace, suggesting that the heartier wheat elements may have broken down during its long dormancy.

Still, Sour Wheat has a clean, restrained flavor of tannic wheat dryness and is zesty-tart. 16 IBU.