Arbor Brasserie Greff Brune

Brewed by Arbor Brewing Company Pub & Eatery
Style: Sour Ale/Wild Ale
Ann Arbor, Michigan USA

Serve in Snifter, Tulip, Tumbler

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(750ml bottle) Pours a cloudy glowing burnt orange body with a small off-white to somewhat pinkish head. Aroma of rhubarb, cinnamon, clove, barnyard, spruce, and toasted pie crust. Flavor of cinnamon, sour funkiness, nutmeg, and apple. Quite unique for a sour, but enjoyable.

Bottle at the brewpub. Dark brown pour with a bit of head. Aroma is quite "sour", lots of oud bruin aromas coming off: vinegar, brown sugar, cherries (lots of cherries), a bit of a hay aroma coming through there too. Taste is sweet, lots of cherries at first before finishing off very sour and dry. Palate is well carbonated and medium to full bodied. I really enjoyed this unknown.

750ml bottle, labeled as Brasserie Gregg Barrel-Aged Sour Brown Ale. Bottled in April 2009, and aged exactly 2 years in the bottle. The pour gives a hazy, dark, chestnut colored body with an amberish tint around the outer edges and thin spots. Na modest head of smooth, grayish-khaki foam settles to a thin but lasting blanket, leaving behind small, sheety, tissue-thin flares of lacing. The nose is decidedly chocolaty, suggesting of fermenting figs rolled in an aged cocoa powder dusting, hinting also at well attenuated caramel and raisinettes in the malt base. There’s a bit of a lactic feel to the cocoa, nodding at Milk Duds, while notes of wet oak funk provide a sharp, almost vinous tartness. Flavors are decidedly tannic, hinting that the barrel formerly held a red wine. Notes of dry, almost chalky chocolate touch every dark, fruity element within, from fig to plum and raisin (all heavily attenuated, mind you). Soured oak funk is buggy and damp, permeating all else, yet remaining fairly restrained. The palate is medium statured and well carbonated, providing a lively tingle from first sip to last, and showing sufficient dryness and fairly low residual sugar. Still, it is just a tad bit too sticky on the finish for my taste. Overall, I’ll call it a solid brew. It seems a little dirty and unrefined at points, but I’d not refuse another glass. Good stuff.

April 2009 Bottle Date; Sampled October 2010
The cork was a harder than hell to get out of this bottle, after futilely twisting for a while I had to pull out a cork screw. A solid pour into my large Tripel Karmeliet tulip produces a fluffy, three-finger thick, pale brown tinged, full tan colored head that leaves thick lacing on the sides of my glass. The beer is a nice, dark brown color. The aroma is quite nice with ample lactic notes backed by a base level earthy funkiness, a rich maltiness and a oak character that becomes more noticeable as the beer warms up. The malt character reminds me of a well browned, complexly whole grain, rustic bread crust. A touch of cherry-like fruitiness mixes with a buttery, ripe cheese note (that leans towards funky), perhaps a touch of sweaty, musky foot-like stench, notes of a rotting, earthy mushroom and maybe even a touch of acetone just barely noticeable at times in the finish. At times the fruitiness in this beer’s nose is quite nice and I really like the rich, darker malt character found in this beer. As the beer warms up it gets a bit fruitier and has a more balanced funkiness and a touch of spicy, nostril warming alcohol becomes noticeable as well.

Perhaps a little on the cold side for me (45*F or so), my first sip tastes lightly sweet up front, but much of this is accentuated by the acidity of this beer. The finish has a toasted brown bread crust character to this and a lingering lactic acidity. There is a berry like fruitiness up front that leans towards strawberry at times & makes me think that there is a touch of acetic acid that accentuates this character. The finish has a nice touch of malt to it as well with an almost roasted, definitely toasted, brown malt character to it. This is really nicely tart and, while not super aggressive, it has a solid acidity to it that I can even feel a bit in my pre-dinner belly. A musty earthiness and a touch of plastic like phenolics add some funkiness as does some earthy, woody mushroom notes; the malt and the phenolics combine to produce a hint of an ever so ephemeral smokiness. The body of this beer is quite nice, especially as it warms it has a nice, lush texture to it that is fairly creamy, but it has enough effervescent carbonation to it to keep ti fairly quaffable. A fair amount of oak character plays an important role in this beer; a definite spiciness to the finish, and accentuating woody note as well as a certain buttery-oak quality and perhaps a hint of vanillin are all perceptible here.

Really this is just a very nice beer; the combination of malt character with the acidity, softer fruitiness and funkiness makes for a delicious beer and the texture is just about perfect. This is the second time I have had a bottle of this batch (I still haven’t managed to get an intact label from the bottle though), and I wouldn’t mind having a whole lot more of this in my cellar as this is one fantastic experience of a beer.

A decent offering, well worth the money and i’d definitely get it again. Just didn’t knock my socks off. thin, bubbly, acedic, missing other components that are common in style.

750ml bottle. Pours a swampy brown with a small off white ring. Nice semi tart notes of oak, cherries, some candied sugar. Mild on the palate, only slightly tart, nice and crisp.

Arbor Greff Brune.. Thanks to Derek for all tho bottles tonight... Pours a dark opaque toffee brown with a thin to medium soapy white head... Light cinnamon and cherry brown nose with an underlying spice note underneath... Flavors of earthy mineral sour cherry with a oud bruin bent. Liked this arbor more so than the others outside of the overly acidic reserve. 8/4/7/3/14

thanks deyholla. pours hazed amber wh head, nose vinager, brown sugar , sulfa, fl brown sugar sulfa chems gross thin body.

UPDATED: JUN 6, 2010 750 ml bottle shared by deyholla. Thanks, Derek! Pours a darker brownish hue, lighter sunset dark red edges with a small offwhite head that bubbles, dies to a small head and laces ok. Aromas are a sweeter caramel and biscuit sweetness, a decent dose of sour cherry, brett, wet oak, good vanilla tannins. Initial is medium bodied, sweeter toffee and biscuit mixes with light sour cherries and lactic acid, light bretty funk, vanilla oaky tannins are prominent, a touch of acidity, decent funkiness. Light sweet and sour cherry, mellow sweetness, decent brett, light sourness. Finish is dusty and funky, light tartness, vanilla barrel tannins. Nice, mellow tart brown ale. Nothing overdone, a beer I could drink a lot of.

Bottle a post EBF tasting, thanks brad. Sour cherry, brett, lacto, and funky leather notes. Brune has some nutty caramel malts as well. Aroma is funky tart, thoroughly enjoyed that.

Bottle shared by Brad, thanks man. Pours an amber brune body with a white head. Sour cherries, bretty leather with some lacto acidity. Horse blanket, leather sour bruin with light nutty notes. A decent sour ale.