Brewery: Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project Country: USA ABV: 9% Style: American Wild Ale
Brewer Description: (from bottle) Belgian Style Dark Ale aged in oak barrels with raspberries.
My rating: 5 My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.71 My ratebeer.com rating: 4.5
Intro: A 375ml bottle, bottled in November 2015. Poured into a Lost Abbey teku glass. Appearance: A clear and extremely dark red colour with a two fingered tan-ish red head that had decent retention and left some nice lacing. Aroma: Intense freshly crushed raspberries and raspberry jam. Taste: Sour and tart with a combination of mixed berries; raspberry, blackberry and blueberry. It is also very jammy but the sweet only lightly shows through the tartness. Mouthfeel: Dry, medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Overall: This is amazing. I don’t get any of the 9% ABV which is great, but I’m also not getting much of the oak barrels that it was supposedly aged in, which while disappointing, actually meant that it was very raspberry jammy and tasty. Crooked Stave have done it again with Silly Cybies, which is a must buy for me.
Brewery: Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project Country: USA ABV: 7% Style: American IPA
Brewer Description: (from bottle) American brettanomyces India Pale Ale with Citra.
My rating: 2 My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.22 My ratebeer.com rating: 3.1
Intro: A 375ml bottle, bottled in May 2015. Poured into a Lost Abbey teku glass. Appearance: A clear golden yellow colour (as there’s still a lot left in the bottle) with a huge rather uncontrollable frothy white head that dissipates slowly while leaving a fair bit of soapy lacing. Aroma: Band-aid, barnyard, brett, citrus lemon and apricot plus hints of pineapple. Taste: Lots of brett, band-aid, leather, pepper spiciness, orange peel and apricot. Mouthfeel: Dry, medium to light bodied with moderate carbonation. Overall: There’s just a lot of funky brett with some light fruit sweetness towards the end. For me, it just seemed to be missing some tart and sour fruit to help balance out the flavours a bit.
Brewery: Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project Country: USA ABV: 7% Style: American Wild Ale
Brewer Description: (from bottle) Burgundy sour ale aged in oak barrels with Colorado Montmorency cherries.
My rating: 4 My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.17 My ratebeer.com rating: 4.2
Intro: A 375ml bottle, bottled in September 2015. Poured into a Lost Abbey teku glass. Appearance: A slightly cloudy dark reddish brown colour, with a just over one finger reddish beige head that dissipated slowly and left some sparse lacing. Aroma: Tart and sweet cherry, oak and perhaps a light funk. Taste: Sour, strong lemon juice with some cherry and oak creeping through here and there and hints of almond. Long acidic sour finish. Mouthfeel: Medium to light bodied with moderate carbonation. Overall: While there was some sweetness in the aroma, it was pretty much mostly sour with an acidic bite in the taste. I think you really have to like sour things to enjoy this beer and luckily I do like sour things. Would have preferred it, if more cherries came through though, since cherry pie is in the name, but that is not a deal breaker.
Brewery: Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project Country: USA ABV: 5.5% Style: American Wild Ale
Brewer Description: (from bottle) Mixed fermentation ale aged in oak with tropical fruits.
My rating: 4 My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.13 My ratebeer.com rating: 3.9
Intro: A 375ml bottle bottled in August 2015, poured into a Cantillon ballon glass. Appearance: It poured a hazy golden colour with a less than one finger white head that dissipated almost immediately and leaves only sparse to no lacing. Aroma: Funk, sour, tartness and oak. Tropical fruit, mostly guava, passionfruit and mango. Taste: Sour, tart and funky. Fruit is a bit light, but its there. Citrus lemon followed by some tropical guava and grapes. Lightly oaky on the finish. Mouthfeel: Light to medium bodied with moderate to high carbonation. Overall: Nice tart sourness but the fruit especially guava (since that is in the name) was on the light side.
Brewery: Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project Country: USA ABV: 6.5% Style: American Wild Ale Other Notes: Burgundy sour ale aged in oak barrels
Brewer Description: (from bottle) Our hommage to the history of barrel-aging and those who have influenced us along the way.
My rating: 4 My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.18 My ratebeer.com rating: 4.1
Intro: A 375ml bottle from batch #5, bottled in May 2015, and poured into a Cantillon ballon glass. Appearance: It poured a clear but dark burgundy reddish brown colour with a one finger beige head that had decent retention and left spotty lacing. Aroma: Fruity grape, red wine, blackberries and cherries. Lightly tart with hints of oak. Taste: Sour and tart, fruity grape, cherry and red wine with a touch of lemon, oak and vanilla. Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Overall: Nice, balanced and easy to drink.
words of another dreamy traveller 