Captain Lawrence Xtreme Blend 2011

Formerly brewed at Captain Lawrence Brewing Company
Style: Sour Ale/Wild Ale
Elmsford, New York USA

Serve in Snifter, Tulip, Tumbler

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Pouring at the Night of the Barrels at EBF. Pours a mostly clear ruby color with a thin white head. Soft sourness, fruit and light wood. Sour, but a bit thin and empty. Fruity and more empty sourness. Kind of dull. Soft sour finish.

Reviewed from notes. Pours a moderate amber color, with a bit of a garnet hue. Off-white head with a touch of lacing on the side of the glass and a semi-collar around parts of the edges of the glass. The nose is slightly sour with some light funk. A bit of green apple thrown in there plus some white wine. Flavor has some funky fruits and apple skin plus moderate acidity. Dry finish off of a light body. Not too acidic, however. Smooth drinking; I’d like to see how this would develop. Serving type: on-tap Reviewed on: 05-16-2011

notb draft pour had a light sour, fruit, a bit of wood, some sweetness, and cherry. mouth feel is light and it is somewhat crisp. flavor has a sour cherry, more of a golden base, low side sour, and light acidity. I have written here golden delicious with cherry so not sure if that was the mix or my impressions.

In short: A lifeless and bland fruity dark sour ale. Meh.
How: Tap at Extreme Beer Fest 2011, Night Of The Barrels
The look: Cloudy dark red body with almost no head
In long: Nose Taste of fruits in vinegar. Taste is concentrate fruit juice, vinous notes, some acidity and some sourness. Lifeless body that was ruined by an almost complete lack of carbonation. This beer felt like you wake up the day after a great sour tasting and you mix together the flat beers remaining in the tasting glasses. I could imagine there was something of quality in there but overall it tasted like a failed mess. Way below average for an American Sour, but still drinkable. That Xtreme in the name makes the beer sound so cool. You can make any product sound totally badass by putting Xtreme in front of it, like Stayfree Xtreme Maxi-Pads.

Draft at NOTB 11. Pours a puncy ruby body with a light off white head. Faint prickly wood tones, ginger, and a tart sourness. Spicy with hints of grapefruit, light tart berry notes. A spicy pepper like note. Light body a bit thin, not even sure i’d call this a sour, but then again not really sure what i’d call it. Seems rushed.

Pours a rusty red raspberry color, with a fluffy pinkish white head. The aroma has some raspberry and cola notes. The palate is rather dry. The flavor has a slight hint of raspberry and is barely sour.

Captain Lawrence makes a lot of sours that are completely forgettable for the BA festivals. This is another one. Why am I even bothering to rate these? They all taste like a random brown ale or amber ale thrown into a barrel with some notional amount of fruit and the house yeast. And then blended with some more random stuff.

Sampled from the tap at NotB. Poured a near clear purplish amber with a near what head that dissipated to the edges. Aroma was full of tart red fruits with cherry and raspberry coming through with a bit of backing dry wine. Flavor was quite acidic with tart dark fruits and a dry wine finish. A bit of funk in the finish as well.