Tag Archives: usa

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, USA, Wicked Weed Brewing, Wild Ale

Wicked Weed Brettaberry

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Brewery: Wicked Weed Brewing
Country: USA
ABV: 5.5%
Style: American Wild Ale
Other Notes: Tart Farmhouse Ale with berries & honey

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Brettaberry, a tart farmhouse ale whose inspiration is drawn from freshly baked berry pie, features a half-pound per gallon of strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries. The sweet acidity of the berries paired with the mild farmhouse funk of our house culture is rounded by the addition of full bodied, Haw Creek Honey.

Memory is not a fleeting picture grasped only in the mind’s eye. Memory is a guileless traveller, discovering avenues through the sights, aromas, and flavors of our daily experience. As brewers, our daily experiences orbit around creating beers that convey something more than flavor, we use the palate to express ideas and feelings. The bottle you hold contains more than a complex, balanced beverage. It holds the aromas that echo fresh cut blades of humid august grass, the fizzing noises of warm summer rain on a slate, and tart flavors of ripe berries that roll over us like floured pins over dough. This is our connection to beer – we hope it will be yours as well.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.21
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.1

Intro: A 500ml bottle, bottled on 20th November 2015. Poured into a Lost Abbey teku glass.
Appearance: A slightly hazy strawberry orange pink colour with an almost two finger white head that dissipates fairly quickly but left lots of clingy lacing.
Aroma: Tart mixed berries although it seems strawberry is most prominent, brett funkiness, barnyard, mustiness with hints of honey.
Taste: Tart, lightly sour, strawberry, raspberry and blackberry with mild funkiness and perhaps a touch of lemon and pepper.
Mouthfeel: Medium body with moderate carbonation and a dry-ish finish.
Overall: This was nice, refreshing and easy to drink. I’m not getting much of the honey as it just seems like berry sweetness, but I’m sure its mixed in with that and also guessing that the honey adds to the body.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project, USA, Wild Ale

Crooked Stave Raspberry Origins

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Brewery: Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project
Country: USA
ABV: 7.5%
Style: American Wild Ale

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Burgundy Sour Ale aged in oak barrels with raspberries.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.42
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.3

Intro: A 375ml bottle, bottled in December 2015. Poured into a Cantillon ballon glass.
Appearance: A dark burgundy ruby red colour with a just over one finger off pink with a dark orange hue head that dissipated fairly quickly to a thin cap with some nice lacing.
Aroma: Very nice sweet and tart raspberry jammy aromas with perhaps a hint of oak.
Taste: Sour and tart raspberries and lemon to begin, followed by some light sweet jammy raspberries and a hint of oak. It finishes sour again with lemon, some citric acidity and a touch of grapes.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate to light carbonation and a dry-ish finish.
Overall: The aromas were stunning and while the taste didn’t quite match up to the aroma, it was still very good.

4 - Good (buy), Almanac Beer Co., Beer Reviews, Farmhouse Saison, USA

Almanac Saison de Brettaville

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Brewery: Almanac Beer Co.
Country: USA
ABV: 7.2%
Style: Belgian Saison
Other Notes: Farm to barrel. Brettanomyces ale aged in white wine barrels

Brewer Description: (from bottle) We love brettanomyces! This wild yeast, better known as “brett,” brings out a wide range of flavors and aromas in beer, from exotic fruits to earthy funk. We added a dozen different brett strains to our dry-hopped Saison Dolores, then aged it in white wine barrels for many months. The result is an intricate farmhouse ale with the kind of nuance and depth that only brett can create.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.25
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.1

Intro: A 375ml bottle, bottled in September 2015. Poured into a Lost Abbey teku.
Appearance: A nice hazy golden colour with a two finger white head that had pretty good retention and nice lacing.
Aroma: Flowers and orange zest with hints of grapefruit, oak, pine and brett funk.
Taste: White wine with hints of oak, mango, candied pineapple, lemon and funk.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: This was nice and easy to drink. Only a little sour, but well balanced and still good after almost 19 months.

4 - Good (buy), Almanac Beer Co., Beer Reviews, USA, Wild Ale

Almanac Citra Sour

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Brewery: Almanac Beer Co.
Country: USA
ABV: 7%
Style: American Wild Ale
Other Notes: Farm to barrel. AKA Almanac Hoppy Sour: Citra

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Sour Blonde Ale aged in wine barrels & dry hopped with Citra.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.34
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.2

Intro: A 375ml bottle, bottled in July 2015. Poured into a Lost Abbey teku.
Appearance: A nice hazy golden orange colour with a two finger white head that dissipated fairly quickly while leaving some nice sticky lacing.
Aroma: Tropical fruit, mango and pineapple followed by citrusy mandarin, orange rind and grapefruit with hints of funkiness.
Taste: Similar to the aroma as its funky, tart, sour, tropical, mango, passionfruit and apricot, followed by citrusy mandarin and orange rind with light oak.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate to high carbonation.
Overall: Very nice and refreshing tropical and citrus aromas and flavours with matching funk. The barrel notes were a bit weak, but I’m perfectly fine with that in this case.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Russian River Brewing Company, USA, Wild Ale

Russian River Consecration

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Brewery: Russian River Brewing Company
Country: USA
ABV: 10%
Style: American Wild Ale
Other Notes: Sour ale barrel aged 4 to 8 months. Ale aged in Cabernet Sauvignon barrels with currants added

Brewer Description: (from bottle) con.se.cra.tion, n 1. The act of dedication to the service & worship of a deity. 2. The act of giving the sacramental character to the Eucharistic elements of bread and wine. When we made the Toronado’s 20th Anniversary Ale, we had no idea that it would turn out to be one of our favorite barrel aged beers we would ever make. With that said, we have always wanted to make a dark barrel aged beer using 100% Cabernet Sauvignon barrels, but, we never were inspired. That is, until we blended five different beers to make the Toronado beer, the tobacco character from the dark malts blended nicely with the fruit character that developed in blending. So, with Consecration we set out to make a barrel beer using all Cabernet Sauvignon barrels. Now, we are not saying this is a replica of the T-rooms anniversary beer, after all, a beer like that can never be duplicated, and, there was no fruit added to that beer as there is with this one. All we are saying is that it gave us great inspiration to brew Consecration. Consecration is refermented in this bottle to create its carbonation- a process commonly used to make fine Champagne and sparkling wine. Spent yeast forms a thin layer of sediment in the bottle, adding yet another layer of complexity and flavors. Pour slowly as to allow the natural yeast sediment to remain in the bottle.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.31
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.2

Intro: A 375ml corked and caged bottle, bottled on 4th April 2016, poured into a Cantillon ballon glass.
Appearance: A dark reddish brown colour with a two finger light tan head that dissipated quickly while leaving only slight lacing.
Aroma: Lots of oak, cherry, blackcurrant, grape and red wine.
Taste: Sweet-ish blackcurrant and cherries followed by sourness, oak, red wine, vinegar and light funk.
Mouthfeel: Light to medium bodied with moderate to high carbonation.
Overall: This was just like drinking red wine with carbonation. There was no sign of the 10% ABV, and although I thought the aroma was better than the taste, both were still good.