Small Batch No. 11: Apricot Sour

Glad they seem to have gotten a handle on things because they made some terrible beer at times... I'll try and grab one of these before they disappear.

 

Obligatory bump. I tried this last night and, like many others, was very impressed. I'm going back to the store today to buy another for myself and another for a thank-you box. Great stuff.

 

Finally got around to trying it. It was a pleasant surprise.

 

I will be visiting San Antonio this coming weekend. Does anyone know if it's still easy to find these laying around in stores?

 

I still see it at the stores I go to. Specs off of Rector and Total Wine at 410 and San Pedro, if you're in that area.

 

For Specs I find that their website is usually pretty spot on Purple Rhine. I grabbed a 4 pack of this earlier in the week when I was out looking for B Bastard. I really enjoyed it.

 

Central Market on Broadway just north of downtown has plenty.

 

Thanks. It looks like I won't have trouble finding it on shelves.

 

Finally got around to trying small batch 11 and was really impressed. Apricot came through really nice and it had just the right tartness. Very well done, in my opinion

 

Had this and was very impressed. Very worthwhile. Not better than Aurelian though.

 

Not better than Aurelian, but the price point sure is...I don't mind spending 8 bucks on a good apricot sour versus 16 just because of the name on the label. Although, both are great beers and breweries! Cheers!

 

You do realize the bottles are different sizes though, too, right? Adjusting for size, the JK is about 50% more expensive, not 100% as you're kind of implying. I've had both and I really don't see how the quality of the RC compares to JK, but that's just me. This beer was pretty good, for sure, but for me, it's the anomaly in their lineup in that you could even have this conversation at all (comparing them to JK). If it's a sign that they're getting better at this, then that's great.

There are quite a lot of them sitting on shelves in north Austin, if anyone disagrees with me and needs to find another

 

Right, which is why I started off by first saying that it was not better than Aurelian and then I stated that the price is what gets it for me, especially since the beer is pretty good in my opinion and the bottles are almost the same size. That and I don't have to go to a specific release for it either. I do believe their getting better at RC, I know they've had some quality issues in the past, but it seems like they've been improving in that aspect.

 

To be fair, the QC issues were mainly centered on early Small Batch releases. For the most part, their core brands have always been consistently solid.

 

I think it is better than this last batch of Aurelian. It's juicier. And it is half the price out of pocket. And I can get as many bottles as I want.

 

Yeah my bad. QC was just for small batches. Their opa and their hefe are really good.

 

I got bottle of it last month, more funk than sour. It wasn't as fruity or as sour as I would have hoped, but it wasn't bad.

 

right after sb6 came out there were some really funky bottles of smoked mesquite porter out. i remember having one in corsi's beer appreciation class and it had some sour characteristics to it we determined came from the sour flanders they made with a date stamp not too far off from the porter.

it extended past small batch bottles for a while.

 

I wasn't a huge fan. It was one of their better beers I guess, but I thought it was too muddy. Didn't get any apricots really and it just had that typical soured ale taste. A bit acetic.

I also thought Purple Rhine was just okay. Very similar thing going on but with a bit of that prickly pear. Definitely had an acetic quality to it, though not overbearing. My wife loved it though.